40 



The Florists^ Review 



Jandabz 9, 1919. 



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Pacific Coast Department 





LOS AKGEI£S. 



The Maxket. 



The week following New Year's is 

 usually a quiet one and stock is often 

 plentiful, but this year was an exception, 

 flowers of all kinds being scarce. We 

 have had several severe frosts, more cold 

 nights, in fact, than in any year 'since 

 the winter of 1913, and this has kept 

 everything back, even such hardy stock 

 as cornflowers being affected. Outdoor 

 Chinese lilies are usually plentiful by 

 this season, but they are not in good sup- 

 ply yet. For some reason outdoor roses 

 have held up better than other flowers 

 and some excellent stock is seen. In- 

 door roses, owing to the bright days, are 

 still coming in fine shape and the sup- 

 ply is equal to the demand as a rule. 

 Violets are extremely scarce and the 

 few that arrive bring double the prices 

 of last year. Cecile Brunner roses and 

 sweet peas also are high in price. 

 Orchids are more plentiful and the de- 

 mand for them is better. 



As usual, there was some demand for 

 flowers for the Tournament of Eoses at 

 Pasadena, but it was confined for the 

 most part to the cheaper grades, carna- 

 tions being too high in price to be used. 

 Some of the contestants in the decorated 

 auto classes used helichrysum with good 

 effect. Over 10,000 blooms were used 

 on one car. 



Various Notes. 



H. N. Gage, of Montebello, reports an 

 unusually good crop of plumosus seed 

 this year. 



Mrs. Helmer, of the Haley Street 

 Nursery, Santa Barbara, made a flying 

 trip to Los Angeles last week, looking 

 up stock for New Year's. 



The death of Ellwood Cooper is re- 

 ported in another column. 



The congested condition of the mails 

 has made it impossible to fill orders sent 

 by mail to wholesalers of late, the letters 

 arriving often several days behind time. 



F. Lichtenberg reports a big demand 

 for orchids in pots at high figures. 



E. Overstreet, well known to the trade 

 in Los Angeles, has opened an attractive 

 store at 318 West Eighth street, under 

 the title of the Marcell Flower Shop. It 

 is in the new building put up by the 

 Marcell cafe and is located in a part of 

 the city which is developing rapidly into 

 a high-class business section. Mr. Over- 

 street, it will be recalled, was manager 

 for J. W. Wolters for two years and be- 

 fore that was for a year with the Free- 

 man Flower Shop and three years with 

 Darling's Flower Shop. He has always 

 been known for his artistic taste and 

 everyone who has had business relations 

 with him will wish him the best of luck 

 in his first venture in business on his 

 own account. The appearance of his 

 store shows his ability as a decorator 

 already. 



S. Murata returned from his trip to 

 Japan December 30, having arrived in 

 San Francisco December 26 and taken 

 the road home by easy stages. He has 

 been away since August and seems to be 

 in much better health as a result of the 

 change. His trip was saddened by the 

 death of his father during the time of 



his visit to his old home, but outside of 

 this he says he had an enjoyable time. 

 Mrs. Murata and the two children will 

 remain in Japan for a longer vacation. 



K. B. Van Woert, of the Santa Bar- 

 bara Seed Co., Santa Barbara, was in 

 town this week. 



C. Lewis, formerly of Freeman Lewis, 

 and later manager of the Hamburger 

 floral department, is now with the Ee- 

 dondo Floral Co. Every member of the 

 staff here was presented with a substan- 

 tial cash gift for New Year's. F. Bor- 

 den says the firm has had decidedly the 

 best business since 1912 and that the 

 loyalty of the staff had conduced largely 

 to this happy state of affairs. 



H. B. Eichards. 



SAN FRANCISCO. 



The Market. 



Florists of this city anticipated a big 

 holiday business and made preparations 

 accordingly, but they were not fully pre- 

 pared for the actual rush which ensued. 

 Even with all the extra help they could 

 get, some of the downtown firms were 

 forced to work all night Christmas eve 

 to get out their orders. Judging from 

 reports from various concerns, this was 

 the best December in the history of the 

 business here. Plenty of good flowering 

 plants saved the situation as far as 

 stock was concerned. Cut flowers were 

 scarce in comparison with the demand 

 and prices ruled higher than ever be- 

 fore. An urgent shipping demand 

 tended to accentuate the shortage. It 

 was estimated that all the flowers 

 shipped to outside points could have 

 been used locally, but the shippers did 

 not feel they could disappoint their dis- 

 tant customers entirely, after spending 

 so much time and effort in working up 

 this shipping business in California 

 flowers. On the whole, the flowering 

 plants left nothing to be desired either 

 in quality or quantity. It was noted 

 at many of the stores that people spent 

 liberally, the largest, finest and highest- 



priced cyclamens, poinsettias and other 

 plants cleaning up first. 



Cut flowers continue scarce and Christ- 

 mas prices still prevail. For instance, 

 roses which sold for $2 and $2.50 per 

 dozen before the holiday rush cannot 

 be had now for less than $5 and $6. In 

 the case of roses the cut is not below 

 normal for this season, but the scarcity 

 of other flowers and the extra shipping 

 demand makes the supply short of re- 

 quirements. All varieties grown ex- 

 tensively in this vicinity show excellent 

 quality, whether American Beauties, 

 Eussell, Ophelia, Columbia, Hadley or 

 what not. The continued cold weather, 

 without rain, has shortened up the vio- 

 let crop to such an extent that the offer- 

 ings fail to go around. Shippers report 

 difficulty in filling their orders. A good- 

 sized cut of indoor-grown freesias and 

 a large crop of outdoor Paper Whites 

 arriving constitute welcome additions to 

 the daily receipts. As would be ex- 

 pected under the circumstances, they 

 clean up easily. Carnations are notably 

 on the short side of the market; the 

 crop is late this season and heavy offer- 

 ings are expected by the middle of 

 January. Fine cut poinsettias arrived 

 from southern California for the holi- 

 day trade. They sold exceedingly well 

 for New Year's as well as Christmas. 

 Heather has been well taken also. Or- 

 chids and gardenias are equal to the 

 demand. With so many lines of stock 

 short, it is gratifying to the trade to 

 have plenty of greens. 



Various Notes. 



Checking up off Christmas business, 

 N. F. Baldocchi, of Podesta & Baldocchi, 

 was elated to find that all former rec- 

 ords had been broken by a sustantial 

 margin. His firm bought heavily to be- 

 gin with, but found its stock of flower- 

 ing plants practically cleaned up De- 

 cember 23. Getting in touch with nurs- 

 eries all around the bay, Mr. Baldocchi 

 succeeded in rounding up more stock, 

 enough, in fact, to keep men on the job 

 nearly all night December 23 and all 



Cyclamen Plants 



Fine plants, splendid foliage, well set with buds and flowers 



4-inch 25c to 35c 



5-inch 50c to 75c 



6-inch 75c to $1.00 



8-inch $1.25 to $1.50 



9-inch $2.00 to $2.50 



Packing at cost 



WALTER ARNACOST & CO., 221 E. 4th Street, Los Angeles, Cal. 



Mention The BgTlew when you write. 



-WHOLESALE EVERGREENS- 



Garland Roping. Hollyberry. English Holly, Cal. Pepper Boughs. Desert Holly, Smilax. 

 Asparagus plumosus. Huckleberry, Hard and Soft Brake, Maidenhair, Mexican Ivy and 

 all other classes of evergreens and similar stock. 



For best prices, write 

 TASSANO BROS., 422 South Wall Street, Los Angeles. Cal. 



