M 



The Florists' Review 



FlBBUABT 1, 1917. 



ample to maintain the higher tempera- 

 ture, boarded up so as to confine the 

 heat beneath the bench, but with part 

 of the boards hinged so that some of 

 the heat can be liberated in the house 

 upon occasion. 



Probably you understand the con- 

 struction of the bench, with facilities 

 for keeping the valley in the dark until 

 it comes time to color it up and harden 

 it off. F. K. 



LOUISVILLE, KY. 



The Market. 



Although we have had severe weather 

 during the last few weeks, January has 

 not by any means been a dull month, as 

 it usually is. The heavy funeral work 

 has made business better than it usually 

 is at this time. Carnations are just be- 

 ginning to show up on the profit side 

 of the ledger, having been in extremely 

 short crop until the last few weeks. 

 Although the cut at present is extra 

 heavy with most of the growers, the 

 demand is far in excess of the supply, 

 and large quantities of shipped-in flow- 

 ers are being used, which seems con- 

 trary to the statement that the carna- 

 tion is waning in popularity. From re- 

 ports of several growers, even more 

 glass will be devoted to carnations next 

 year. 



The demand for spring flowers has 

 come to life during the last two weeks, 

 large quantities of. freesias being 

 snapped up as soon as they are offered. 

 The same is true of sweet peas. Yar- 

 rawa, that wonderful Australian va- 

 riety, has been grown especially well by 

 some of the growers. Calendulas, an- 

 tirrhinums, stocks, mignonette and mar- 

 guerites arrive in moderate quantities. 



The roses offered in the stores are, 

 with few exceptions, from other cen- 

 ters, chiefly Chicago. Local greenhouses, 

 having furnished a good crop, are now 

 at low ebb, and every attention is be- 

 ing given the plants in order to supply 

 the ever-increasing demand at Easter. 



Various Notes. 



At the W. L. Korb greenhouses Mr. 

 Korb has two carnations of his own 

 production. These varieties have gained 

 considerable recognition locally. One is 

 described by a color expert as a Japa- 

 nese red. Besides being a novelty in 

 color, it is of large size and is said to 

 be a better keeper than any one of the 

 present varieties. The other origination 

 is a medium pink. Mr. Korb intends to 

 disseminate both varieties as soon as 

 adequate stock is produced, there being 

 only about 200 plants of each at present. 



The Victor Mathis greenhouses are 

 beginning to lose their barren appear- 

 ance, which was caused by the heavy 

 holiday trade. The plants for Valen- 

 tine's day and Easter now are getting 

 close attention, to bring them to their 

 highest development at the right time. 



Anders Rasmussen, the New Albany 

 grower, is making shipments of approxi- 

 mately 10,000 carnations per week to 

 the Philadelphia market, besides supply- 

 ing the needs of the Louisville flower 

 merchants. His roses at present are off 

 crop. 



Webb Frantz, who has been associated 

 with the Nanz & Neuner Co. for several 

 years, has accepted a position with F. 

 Walker & Co. at the Preston road estab- 

 lishment. Mr. Frantz, while with the 

 Nanz & Neuner Co., was manager of 

 the greenhouses at St. Matthews. 



John Doll, who for the last nine years 



has been head gardener on Judge 

 Humphrey's estate at Glenview, Ky., 

 now is with F. Walker & Co. This con- 

 cern can congratulate itself on securing 

 two men of such proven ability. 



An old landmark belonging to H. G. 

 Walker, president of F. Walker & Co., 

 was destroyed by fire last week. Snow 

 on the nearby buildings prevented the 

 flames from, spreading to the green- 

 houses. The family of Kingsley Walker 

 occupied the old dwelling. 



H. E. Humiston, of the Chicago Feed 

 & Fertilizer Co., was in town recently. 

 He expressed regret at being able to 

 visit only a few of the growing estab- 

 lishments. The weather at the time 

 was bad, -there being a foot of snow and 

 the temperature at zero. 



Local importers have received hard 

 knocks this season. Consignments of 

 Christmas stock have just been received. 

 Several cases of English hollies, Skim- 

 mia Japonica and bay trees, which 



came a short time ago, were in excel- 

 lent condition; in fact, it was some of 

 the best stock ever received from 

 Europe, but it will be absolutely useless 

 for the purpose intended. Two cases 

 of box evergreens for use last fall came 

 in heated, the entire lot a dead loss. 

 Several cases of dormant roses were re- 

 ceived in fairly good shape. Hero is 

 but another argument in favor of the 

 made-in-America idea. Bring on those 

 wonderful productions we see and hear 

 so much about out at Eureka, Cal.! 



G. G. W. 



Des Moines, la. — During the tearing 

 down of the old and construction of 

 the new building on the northeast cor- 

 ner of Seventh and Walnut streets, the 

 Alpha Floral Co., occupying the corner 

 room, will be .located temporarily at 809 

 Walnut street. A. J. Zwart and James 

 S. Wilson, Jr., are the owners of the 

 company. 



ODEN LCTTEl^y^ READEEi6 



DOWN WITH STREET PEDDLEES! 



In The Review for January 11 there 

 appeared an article in which a com- 

 mission dealer's views of the faker 

 problem were quoted. Now, I disagree 

 with the author on several of his opin- 

 ions. I maintain that the street ped- 

 dler does more harm than good. The 

 peddler's stock, being cheap, cannot be 

 fresh, and will last such a short time 

 that the buyer is made to consider 

 flowers a foolish, short-lived luxury. 

 The same money expended for a few 

 fresh flowers would have the opposite 

 result; such sales would tend to make 

 permanent customers. No matter what 

 the price, stale flowers universally hurt 

 the business in two ways: First, the 

 growers who retail their own stock are 

 forced to sacrifice it because of the 

 competition; second, numerous flower 

 buyers are lost. 



A more uniform price on flowers is 

 advocated; that is, if flowers are high 

 during the holiday season they should 

 not sell at one-fourth as much the 

 following week. When this is the case 

 the people think they have been held 

 up. Would it not be a better plan to 

 have the prices more normal during 

 the second week and to give fifteen or 

 sixteen flowers instead of a dozen, thus 

 making the customers feci that they 

 are receiving extra good measure? Or, 

 in another way, why not keep the prices 

 normal the whole time, and thereby not 

 lose after the holidays what was made 

 during the holidays! As for explain- 

 ing to customers about weather condi- 

 tions, etc., as suggested in this article, 

 one has neither the time nor patience 

 to tell every customer who telephones 

 or calls. Moreover, few customers 

 would understand how in one week car- 

 nation prices can drop from $1.50 to 35 

 cents, whereas they could understand 

 the change of prices of strawberries 

 from March to June — time enough to 

 grow and ripen a crop. 



The average commission dealer does 

 not give the storemen a chance at the 



bargains. He feels that the storemen 

 are the ones he must make his money 

 on, and he uses the venders simply to 

 work off his surpluses. He would rather 

 sell all the surplus at a big sacrifice 

 than sell part of the surplus for prac- 

 tically the same price. The latter way 

 surely is much fairer to both growers 

 and storemen. If at any time a sacri- 

 fice in prices is to be made, the com- 

 missionman should notify the storemen 

 — the ones who really keep him in busi- 

 ness — and not unload the stock on de- 

 partment stores, 5 and 10-cent stores 

 and street venders. 



Quoting from this article: "Mr. C'om- 

 missionman receives his flowers in the 

 morning and holds them all for what he 

 thinks a fair price, no matter what class 

 the buyer belongs to. Perhaps he does 

 not clean up that day and is compelled 

 to carry some flowers over until the 

 next day. If so, and the flowers are in 

 good condition, he tries to get the regu- 

 lar price, but if they finally have to be 

 sold at cheap prices to save dumping 

 them, it at least gives the grower some- 

 thing. ' ' The flowers usually have been 

 cut the day before the commission- 

 man receives them. They, therefore, 

 are three days old by the time the store- 

 man can buy and give them away as 

 advertisements. By that time they 

 would be too stale for good advertising, 

 and would lead the recipients to believe 

 that the advertiser's flowers did not 

 last long. Because the commissionmen 

 want to make a few cents more for one 

 or two growers, many others are harmed 

 and the business is hurt in general. 



Would it not be better for the com- 

 niissionman to notify the storemen on 

 the first day the surplus stock is on 

 hand and give them the benefit of the 

 oversupply? In this way the business 

 would still remain in the hands of the 

 florists, and the local growers as well 

 as the growers of the shipped-in stock 

 would have fair play, since cheap sales 

 hurt both of them. 



E. E. Temperley. 



