Mabcb 10. 1921. 



The Florists^ Review 



45 



CHIOAOO. 



The Market. 



There is a greatly improved tone iii 

 the market this week. It is said the 

 chairge came shortly after noon last 

 Friday, but those who make ttiis report 

 are suspected of facetiousness. How- 

 ever, it is undeniable that March 4 was 

 the best shipping day the market has 

 seen in a fortnight or more and that tlie 

 market closed March 5 in a more 

 thoroughly cleaned out condition than 

 at any time since St. Valentine's day. 

 There are those who aver that the 

 change was more due to decreased sup- 

 plies than to increased demand, but the 

 effect added greatly to the cheerfulness 

 of growers and wholesalers; retailers 

 were not so enthusiastic. 



The present week has brought a con- 

 tinuation of the improvement. Demand 

 is nothing wonderful, but supplies have 

 decreased to the point where something 

 like a balance has been established. 

 There is plenty of stock, so the prices 

 are not high, but nearly everyone^ 

 wants can be met. Some of the whcJe- 

 salers find they still have a problem in 

 the large proportion of long roses IJumr 

 growers are cutting. The demand il 

 not especially strong when it comes to 

 roses of the extra special length and 

 there are times when it is easier to find 

 500 Columbia with 3-foot to 4-foot 

 stems than it is to find 500 with 12-inch 

 to 18-inch stems. Under such condi- 

 tions it is diflficult to make the long 

 roses produce the money they should. 

 Ophelia has fallen from favor and those 

 who have it in any quantity find it not 

 easy to sell at the price of other varie- 

 ties. Columbia predominates, with Pre- 

 mier second and Eussell in third place. 

 If there is any department in which 

 supplies have increased it is in the car 

 nations. There are plenty of these, hjfl; 

 too many are of indifferent quality. 

 Within the last few days first-alass 

 stock has sold up to 6 cents, but tpere 

 have been other carnations that oould 

 not be sold at all except to someond^who 

 was making cheap funeral work, ^he 

 average quality of carnations is not\so 

 good as at this date last year, a condi- 

 tion for which the growers blame tne 

 warm, dark weather which lias jire- 

 vailed. 



Bulbous stock is in supply adequate 

 to the needs of the market and the 

 quality is the best of the season. There 

 is a good volume of business in this de- 

 partment, though prices are not so high 

 as they should be in view of the cost 

 of the bulbs and the percentage of loss, 

 which latter many of the growers are 

 finding unusually heavy this season. 



The sweet pea is the popular corsage 

 flower. The supply is not so large as 

 it will be after a few davs of bright 

 weather, but the quality is improving 

 steadily. There is plenty of valley and 

 there are more than enough violets to 

 meet the demand, though the quality 

 of the doubles is nothing to brag about. 

 Orchids are more abundant than at any 

 time this season. The supply of miscel- 

 laneous flowers is not large, nor is it 

 steady. There is not much in the mar- 

 ket at present except the staple items 

 of stock. 



Easter Prospects. 



It does not look as though there 

 would be an ovcrsupply of flowers at 

 Easter. Indeed, if the demand de- 

 velops to anything like the expected 

 proportions, there probably will be a 

 shortage of good stock, though no one 



sees iiR the situation justification for 

 uaiiig)i5rices to more than a slight ex- 

 tent. In a general way, prices will 

 average lower than last year; at least 

 the advance orders will be taken some- 

 what below what was asked of the early 

 buyers last Easter. 



The supply of lilies will be much less 

 than in a normal year. To begin with, 

 growers did not buy as many bulbs as 

 usual, because of the cost. It turns out, 

 also, that the average number of flow- 

 ers per plant is not nearly so great as 

 last year. Of course last year the flo- 

 riferousness of the bulbs was one of 

 the factors which upset calculations, 

 but this year the other extreme seems 

 to dominate. It is said many growers 

 will not average two flowers per plant, 

 many plants having only one flower and 

 some being blind. Where 35 cents was 

 asked for lilies before Easter last year, 

 orders are now being taken at 25 cents 

 for the best. 



Some of the rose growers report thej* 

 are going off crop before Easter and 

 some of them say they will not be on 

 crop until a week or two after the big 

 day, so it appears the supply of roses 

 cannot be unusually large. But in 

 view of general conditions most of the 

 advance price lists show a reduction of 

 5 to 10 cents in the price of the best 

 grades of long roses, though many have 

 made no change in the price of shorts. 



Nor is it figured that there will bo 

 an unusual supply of carnations. The 

 crops arc on the increase, but the bench 

 space given to carnations this year was 

 much less than last season. It is in the 

 carnation dopartmoiit that the whole- 

 salers believe prices will most nearly 

 approximate those of last season. 



The prospect for bulbous stock is con- 



sidered better than in years when 

 Kaster has been later. It is thought 

 there will be a larger demand than ever 

 before for corsage flowers, as many 

 early orders ^re running specially heavy 

 in this direction. 



There will be an extremely small 

 supply of Easter pot plants, the variety 

 being decidedly limited, and this is ex- 

 pected to have a stimulating effect on 

 the cut flower market. 



Hail Visits the Western Suburbs. 



Once again scores of growers on the 

 outer edge of the city have stood for a 

 brief moment on the verge of extinc- 

 tion and escaped with comparatively 

 little loss. It was just at dusk on the 

 evening of March 7 that hail poured 

 out of a leaden sky, a torrent of icy 

 pellets so numerous as to whiten the 

 ground and pile up in little drifts under 

 the eaves of houses. Xo previous hail 

 in the Chicago district has covered so 

 great an area. Scores of growers got 

 the shock of their lives, but only a few 

 were hurt. Otto H. Amling, secretary 

 of the Growers' Association, after a 

 telephone canvass of the trade, stated 

 that it was his opinion Maywood, Elm- 

 hurst and the more northerly growers 

 escaped with insignificant loss only be- 

 cause there was no wind. Most of the 

 damage was done west and south, in 

 the district where the growers are less 

 numerous. Tliere the liailstonos were 

 propelled by a gusty wind. 



Bassett & Washburn were the 

 heaviest losers. At their i)lace at Greggs 

 Station 100,000 feet of glass was 

 broken, forty per ce-nt of it in the 600- 

 foot iiouses, the balance scattered 

 through the range. The hail hit so 

 [Ciinllnnrd (in paeo .Ml.') 



