December 80, 1920 



The Florists^ Review 



27 



OBITUARY 



Joseph Meehan. 



The death of Joseph Meehan, of 

 Philadelphia, formerly a nurseryman 

 aid a prolific writer on horticultural and 

 landscape topics, occurred December 23 

 ai his home, 121 Pleasant avenue. Mount 

 Airy, Pa. He was 80 years of age. 



The deceased planned many of the 

 Ifiudscape effects on the large suburban 

 estates near Philadelphia. He was an 

 expert adviser in landscape problems 

 for Thomas Meehan & Sons, German- 

 town, Pa., now managed by S. Mendel- 

 son and P. Franklin Meehan, sons of his 

 brother, Thomas Meehan. 



Joseph Meehan was born at Eyde, Isle 

 of Wight, England, November 9, 1840. 

 He went to work in the Gardens of St. 

 Clare, Isle of Wight, where his father 

 was gardener for over fifty years. 



In April, 1859, he came to America 

 to take charge of the small greenhouses 

 of his brother, Thomas Meehan, who had 

 started a nursery at Germantown a few 

 years previously. After a connection of 

 fifty-two years with that enterprise, he 

 retired from nursery work; in that time 

 the nursery had grown from the original 

 three acres to about seventy acres, being 

 since conducted under the name of 

 Thomas Meehan & Sons. 



He was well known as a nurseryman, 

 but even more widely known as a writer 

 on horticultural subjects, being one of 

 the best authorities on shrubs in 

 America. 



August 13, 1862, he enlisted in the 

 One Hundred and Eighteenth Corn Ex- 

 change regiment, was wounded at Shep- 

 herdstown, W. Va., September 20, and 

 was discharged the following winter. 



In June, 1863, he enlisted in Landis' 

 Battery of Light Artillery; he was 

 taken prisoner and paroled after the 

 Battle of Gettysburg. 



He was sadly afflicted in the last few 

 years in being deprived of his sight; 

 this, in addition to the loss of his hear- 

 ing, which was never good, left him in a 

 particularly sad condition. 



He is survived by two sons, Charles 

 E. Meehan, wholosalo florist of Philadel- 

 phia, and A. Eothwell Moehan, and one 

 daughter, Mrs. George W. Williams. 



Funeral services were hold at the late 

 residence of Mr. Meehan, iL'l Pleasant 

 avenue, December "27. 



Augustus P. Calder, Sr. 



In the passing, December 23, of 

 Augustus P. Calder, Sr., after a brief 

 illness, the oldest of Boston florists was 

 removed, one who was well, widely and 

 favorably known and who, throughout 

 his long and active life, made and re- 

 tained a large circle of friends. Born 

 on the old Calder estate in Roxbury, in 

 1837, at that time a large farm, the de- 

 ceased had seen more of the growth 

 and development of Boston's florists' 

 ndustry than any other man. He mar- 

 ried Miss Etta A. Upton, the wedding 

 being of a military character on ac- 

 count of Mr. Calder 's prominence in 

 the Roxbury Horse Guards, of which he 

 was captain. Six children were born, 

 of whom five survive. A. P. Calder, Jr., 

 is connected with the Newtonville Con- 

 servatories. Mrs. Calder passed away 

 seven years ago. 



For many years Mr. Calder conducted 

 a large retail store on Boylston street, 



where the Hotel Touraine now stands, 

 and later in the Hotel Pelham, now re- 

 placed by the Little building. Of late 

 years, though not conducting a store, 

 he handled many floral orders, particu- 

 larly for various lodges with which he 

 was prominently identified, and the 

 week of his' death he visited the whole- 

 sale markets to make purchases, appar- 

 ently in his usual good health. 



Mr. Calder was one of the oldest/' 

 members of ^the Massachusetts Horti-* 

 cultural Society, joining it as long ago 

 as 1870. He was a charter member of 

 the Gardeners' and Florists' Club of 

 Boston, serving • as vice-president in 

 1887 and 1888, as president in 1890, the 

 year the S. A. F. held its convention in 

 Boston, and as a member of the execu- 

 tive committee in 1889 and 1891. He 

 was extremely active in the work con- 

 nected with the 1890 convention and 

 had been an S. A. F. member for a long 

 period. 



The deceased was particularly elo- 

 quent and on that account was often in 

 demand as a post-dinner orator and 

 toastmaster at various functions. He 

 performed the installation ceremonies 

 for officers of the Gardeners' and Flo- 

 rists' Club in a manner which always 

 delighted the members, and this body 

 will particularly miss his genial presence. 



Mr. Calder was a veteran of the Civil 

 war and was at Gettysburg with the 

 Roxbury Guards, although he did not 

 take active part in that great battle. 

 The late Jackson Dawson was a private 

 in his company. Only a few days ago 

 he was elected president of the Roxbury 

 Historical Military Association and at 

 a recent meeting in the Commonwealth 

 armory, held for tlit' piirnoso of form- 

 ing a reorganization of the Horse 

 Guards and allied bodies, he was the 

 only person who was able to give neces- 

 sary data. 



He was prominent in Masonic circles 

 and was associate prelate of Joseph 

 Warren Commandery K. T., and a mem- 

 ber of Washington Lodge A. F. and 

 A. M., of the Red Men and other bodies. 



Funeral services were held December 

 26 at the Universalist church, Buena 

 Vista street, Roxbury, and were largely 

 attended. Many of his old confreres in 

 florists'. Masonic and other circles 

 were present and there was a veritable 

 wealth of floral tributes. W. N. C. 



Ferdinand H. Teute. 



The death of Ferdinand H. Teute 

 occurred at his rosidencc, 12 Hoeltzer 

 street, Rochester, N. Y., Monday, Decem- 

 ber 27, at the age of 82 years. He is 

 survived by his wife and four children. 

 Three years ago he underwent an opera- 

 tion and had been ill most of the time 

 since. 



He was born in Saxony, Germanv, and 

 after several years' experience in the 

 florists' business he started in a small 

 way for himself at Nidda, Obei-hessen. 

 Germany, at the age of 34 years. He 

 continued in a successful way for 

 eighteen years; then he decided to come 

 to America with his family. In 1890 

 he went to Rochester, N. Y. and was 

 employed by Bausch & Lomb for a pe- 

 riod of two years. He then started in 

 the florists' business in that city and 

 had continued until the time of his 

 death. 



He married Miss Margaret Reitz 

 forty-nine years ago. There are four 

 children living, two of whom, Hugo and 

 Richard, are florists in Rochester, each 

 having his separate business. 



Mr. Teute was one of the best known- 

 old-time residents in Rochester. He was 

 in liis earlier days connected with sev- 

 eral German societies and was a char- 

 ter member of the Rochester Florists' 

 Association. 



The funeral was held December 30 at 

 3 p. m. Interment was at Mount Hoi)e 

 cemetery. H. J. H. 



CHICAGO. 



The Market. 



There is more than the normal varia- 

 tion in the Christmas trade reports this 

 year. Some wholesale houses ruefully 

 confess that they are a considerable dis- 

 stance behind the record of 1919, while 

 others report increases that range all 

 the way from slight to as much as fif- 

 teen per cent. A sincere effort to ar- 

 rive at a fair estimate of the Christmas 

 business in this market this year leads 

 to the belief that on the whole the re- 

 sult for wholesalers was practically the 

 same as in 1919, while the retail end of 

 the business suffered some decrease. 



The wholesalers seem more than satis- 

 fied; the results achieved apparently 

 are better than they had expected. On 

 the other hand, the retailers are less 

 well pleased, their business having been 

 attended by great uncertainty, by a last- 

 minute rush that overtaxed their facil- 

 ities and by a sudden fall in tempera- 

 ture which made delivery slow and ex- 

 pensive. They would not be pleased 

 with the outcome except that nearly all 

 of them seem to have enjoyed a better 

 Christmas trade than did their neigh- 

 bors in other lines of business. Most of 

 the retailers came somewhere near 

 equaling last year's record total and 

 apparently few of them had hopes of 

 doing so much. There were few pot 

 plants and they bought cautiously on 

 cut flowers. 



It is the unanimous report of the 

 wholesalers that shipping demand was 

 stronger than the city demand. Nearly 

 all the wholesalers say they had a larger 

 number of orders than ever before, Isut 

 that the orders did not average so large 

 as last year. They all saw the disposi- 

 tion on the part of the buyers to order 

 only limited quantities of the higher- 

 priced flowers, though quality was de- 

 manded everywhere. 



The Christmas business was done 

 principally with roses. No other flower 

 was in normal Christmas supply. It is 

 probable there were more roses than 

 this market ever before had for Christ- 

 mas. But there was only a fraction of 

 the usual number of carnations, and vio- 

 lets were in nothing like the supply fre- 

 quently available. In a general way 

 there was a clean-up. Many houses 

 could have used more stock, even of 

 roses, while the shipping was going on, 

 but these same houses nearly all liad 

 roses left when they closed about noon 

 on Christmas; it was the close-cut stock 

 received Christmas eve and Christmas 

 morning. A few houses had more long 

 roses than they could dispose of, but 

 most of the unsold stock was seconds. 

 This year there was a larger percentage 

 of fancy long roses than ever before, 

 but many growers were just a little 

 early with their crops and cut an un- 

 usual proportion of seconds, which buy- 

 ers did not care to handle even at mate- 

 rial price concessions. There were so 

 few Beauties that they sold clean, prac- 

 tically every good flower bringing $1.50. 

 The rose growers whose stock was in 



