24 



The Florists^ Review 



Fbbuuaey 16, 1917. 



% 



Established, 1897, by G. L. GRANT. 



Published every Thursday by 

 The Florists' Publishing Co., 



620-560 Oaxtoa BalldlnK. 



808 South Dearborn St., Chicago, 



Tele., Wabash 8196. 



Reirlatered cable address, 



Florvlew, Chicago. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Dec. 3. 1897. at the post-oftlce at Chi- 

 cago. IIU under the Act of Mar > 

 3,1879. 



Snbscrtptlon prlcre, $1.50 a year. 

 To Canada, $2 50; to Europe. fe.'X). 



Advertising rate's quoted upon 

 request. Only strictly trade ad- 

 vertising accepted. 





NOTICE. 



It is inpoasible to guarantee 



the inaertion, discoatinuanc* or 



alteration ol any adrertiaement 



anleaa inatructiona are receiTod 



BY 4 P. M . TUESDAY. 



SOCIETY OF AKESIOAK FLOKISTS. 

 Incorporated by Act of Congress, March 4, 1001. 



Officers for 1917: President, Robert 0. Kerr, 

 Houston, Tex.; vice-president, A. L. Miller, Ja- 

 maica, N. T. ; secretary, John Young, 63 W. 28th 

 St., New York City; treasurer, J. J. Hesa, 

 Omaha, Xeb. 



Thirty-third annnal convention, New York, 

 N. Y.. August 21 to 24, 1017. 



Besults, bring advertising. 

 The Review brings results. 



There will be no trouble in moving 

 stock this spring; all that will be neces- 

 sary is that it be good quality and ready 

 in time. 



Carnation cuttings seldom have sold 

 better than is the case this season, espe- 

 cially with those who offer the up-to-date 

 varieties. 



Collections are reported slow in the 

 trade. Evidently those who sell to the 

 public are not getting their money in as 

 fast as they should. 



Greenhouses that were empty after 

 the Christmas rush are filling up again. 

 A late Easter always means congestion, 

 with two crops to be matured within a 

 few weeks of each other. 



Many growers who have had indiffer- 

 ent success with roses have turned to 

 carnations because they will bloom with 

 less care. And perhaps therein lies a 

 reason for a loss of popularity and de- 

 clining prices of carnations. 



Asparagus, the bunched plumosus 

 sprays, the supply of which recently h^s 

 come principally from Florida, but which 

 has been scarce this season, was still 

 further reduced by the severe cold of 

 early February, much of the stock being 

 severely frozen. 



If a grower is not making money this 

 season, in spite of increased expenses, he 

 should take a look around. The prob- 

 abilities are he will find his trouble in 

 one or more of three places: Either his 

 quality is not up to the requirements of 

 the market, the quantity produced is 

 below the capacity of the place, or the 

 income is dissipated by lack of conserva- 

 tive management. 



One hears of growers who say they will 

 plant no mums this year, or at least no 

 early or mid-season varieties, but it is a 

 safe wager the total planting of the au- 

 tumn queen exceeds even last year's 

 record. 



Last week the mails from the west 

 were delayed, some of them for days, 

 and now it is the east that is weather- 

 bound. Of The Review's eastern mail 

 due Monday some of it had not arrived 

 at closing hour Tuesday afternoon. 



Charles W. Johnson, secretary, has 

 sent out a tabular report of the work 

 of the committees to judge seedlings for 

 the Chrysanthemum Society of America, 

 showing that forty-three varieties, count- 

 ing all types, were passed on last sea- 

 eon. The scores were recorded in The 

 Review from week to week as made. 



OPEN AT THE BACK. 



The editor always has claimed that it 

 was his work, rather than that of the 

 circulation manager, which was respon- 

 sible for the necessity of printing 12,- 

 500 copies of each issue of The Re- 

 view. But they both got a jolt when 

 this letter came in: 



Enclosed please find check for $1.50 for an- 

 other year's subscription. The Review is the 

 only magazine of ail those I talce that I almost 

 always open from the back and work forwards so 

 as to see the advertisements first. — ,Tohn P. Nel- 

 list. Grand Rapids, Mich., February 5, 1917. 



The advertising manager asserts that 

 when you hear a man complain of the 

 cost of advertising you can be pretty 

 sure he spends a good bit of money else- 

 where than in The Review. 



A BUSY FOETNIGHT. 



Although there was not even one 

 trade exhibition of major importance in 

 the United States last autumn, what was 

 lacking then is to be made up for with 

 good measure next month, when the sec- 

 tion of the trade which participates in 

 such enterprises will be confronted with 

 the task resulting from three flower 

 shows of more than local importance 

 overlapping each other within the span 

 of nine days. It means the most active 

 spring show season the trade ever has 

 had. 



Perhaps first place should be given to 

 the Rose Festival to be held in Phila- 

 delphia, for the reason that it is the 

 undertaking of one of the national or- 

 ganizations, the American Rose Society. 

 It is the first time the Rose Society has 

 undertaken an exhibition indepen- 

 dently of any other organization. Plans 

 have been made on a most ambitious 

 scale, the First Regiment armory hav- 

 ing been engaged, and the affair with- 

 out doubt will be the largest exclusive 

 rose show ever held on this continent. 

 The dates are March 20 to 23. 



Longest in duration and most preten- 

 tious in title is the exhibition to be held 

 at the Grand Central Palace in New 

 York city, from March 15 to 22. This 

 is the joint undertaking of the New 

 York Florists' Club and the Horticul- 

 tural Society q,f New York and is called 

 the International Flower Show. Last 

 year's affair was highly successful, but 

 it is the expectation of the management 

 that this year's show in New York will 

 represent a larger cash taking than any 

 previous show in America. 



The exhibition season, however, will 

 open simultaneously at New York and 

 St. Louis, the date of the spring show 

 in the Missouri metropolis being March 

 15 to 18. Aa armory has been engaged. 



It is the first attempt at a spring show 

 in that city, calculated to stir up interest 

 there in the 1918 spring exhibition, 

 which will be the National Flower Show 

 of the S. A. F. This year 's premium list 

 is comprehensive and the management 

 counts on drawing a considerable meas- 

 ure of support from eastern exhibitors. 

 That there will be a large attendance of 

 those in the trade is assured by the fact 

 that there will be no other spring show 

 in the west. 



ASKS PUBLIC TO HEIiP. 



The public is being asked by the Of- 

 fice of Horticultural Investigations of 

 the U. S. Department of Agriculture to 

 contribute to the test gardens at Arling- 

 tin, Va., roses and peonies of varieties 

 not now represented in the test collec- 

 tions there. At the present time ap- 

 proximately 700 varieties of roses and 

 400 varieties of peonies are growing in 

 the Arlington gardens. These represent 

 about one-half the varieties of each of 

 these flowers believed to exist in the 

 United States. 



The Department of Agriculture is 

 creating the test gardens in cooperation 

 with the American Rose Society and the 

 American Peony Society. The rose gar- 

 den was begun in 1915. The peony col- 

 lection was started last fall. The ma- 

 jority of the plants have been contrib- 

 uted by nurserymen and florists, though 

 many have been given by amateurs. 



Persons who believe they have varie- 

 ties of roses or peonies not represented 

 in the Arlington gardens and who wish 

 to contribute to the collections should 

 first write to the Office of Horticultural 

 Investigations, Washington, D. C, of- 

 fering specific varieties or requesting a 

 list of the varieties desired. 



CHICAGO. 



The Market. 



The extremely cold weather last week 

 shortened the supply in practically all 

 lines. The end of the week found busi- 

 ness good, a steady demand keeping the 

 market well cleaned up, with prices hold- 

 ing well and in some cases advancing 

 above the quoted figures. 



The present week opened with stock 

 as scarce as ever and the demand the 

 heaviest ever known for St. Valentine's 

 day; indeed, some of the observers re- 

 marked that it was more like Christmas 

 than St. Valentine's. Shipping trade 

 was excellent and covered an unusually 

 wide radius. February 12, also a holi- 

 day, stock sold so rapidly that local 

 buyers who came a little later in the 

 day experienced some difficulty in find- 

 ing desirable material for the Lincoln's 

 birthday observances. Perhaps the only 

 exception to the general clean-up was 

 Freesia Purity, which, though of good 

 quality, was found somewhat difficult to 

 move. 



American Beauties are still scarce, al- 

 though some growers are beginning to 

 come in crop and this increase in the 

 supply is making for an easier market. 

 Demand is good and prices are holding 

 up well. Mrs. Russell is in short supply,, 

 but the quality on the average is good. 

 Other varieties of roses also are in short 

 supply and are selling well. Shorter 

 lengths clean out first, red, yellow and 

 pink varieties being given the prefer- 

 ence over white, but no difficulty is 

 found in moving the longer stock at ex- 

 cellent prices. The supply of carnations 



