108 



The Florists^ Review 



March 17. 192L 



Pacific Coast Department | 



lis I 



Sacramento, CaL — About 200,000 gla 

 dioli are being grown by L. E. Ward this 

 year. 



Lsmden, Wash. — Mrs. Anna Gaskill is 

 starting in the florists' business with a 

 greenhouse 12x32. 



Hollywood, Cal. — A former member of 

 the trade at Rochester, N. Y., Frank 

 H. Walrath, recently moved here and is 

 contemplating reentering the florists' 

 business. 



LOS ANGELES, CAL. 



The Market. 



Last week was a buyers' week and 

 plenty of stock of all kinds was on 

 hand. Orchids and valley were, perhaps, 

 the scarcest items. Daffodils were of 

 varied quality. Many growers showed 

 some excellent blooms, while others 

 have apparently forgotten the word 

 progress. Freesias, both colored and 

 white, were plentiful and there was a 

 sufficiency of nearly every kind of 

 stock. Easter lilies are not likely to 

 be overplentiful. Retailers generally 

 are complaining, or at least say business 

 is not particularly good, but they do 

 not expect much in the latter part of 

 Lent anyway, and this is probably no 

 worse than an average year, although 

 sales are less in volume than at this 

 time last year. 



Various Notes. 



Despite the destruction of a large 

 portion of his stock of freesias by fire 

 last July, R. Fischer, of Arcadia, Cal., 

 has a magnificent showing of his novel- 

 ties in this line and the greenhouses 

 on the occasion of a recent visit were 

 a mass of bloom. It may be said that 

 Mr. Fischer has done as much for the 

 freesia industry as anyone else. The 

 original raiser of Purity, he has now 

 several varieties in white that are so 

 far ahead of Purity that he has entirely 

 discarded the latter variety. Fischerii 

 has much larger flowers than Purity. 

 They are absolutely pure and white 

 and many flowers are open at one time 

 on a stem. But even this seemingly 

 perfect type has been improved upon 

 by another new seedling, not yet named. 

 While the difference in single flowers 

 is not easily recognized by the ordinary 

 observer, it becomes at once apparent 

 when looking at a bed of the new 

 variety growing alongside of any other 

 white. It is undoubtedly the finest 

 white freeaia in existence. The Fischer 

 colored types are no less remarkable 

 for size of individual flowers, length 

 of stem and number of blooms. It 

 would be useless trying to convey an 

 idea of the wonderful coloring. The 

 lavender types alone would seem to be 

 sufficient, but the selected types of 

 bronze, yellow, pink, red and all the 

 intermediate shades are bewildering in 

 their variety and most charmint;. '^ 

 rigorous roguing, or weeding out, is 

 constantly going on. Mrs. Fischer 

 takes a hand in this and nothing 

 escapes her eye or is allowed to remain 

 that is not up to her standard of per- 

 fection. It may be noted as bearing 

 on this point that many varieties have 



been grown for five or six years and 

 then if they show some fault or are 

 beaten in the race by later seedlings, 

 out they go. It is a wonderful collec- 

 tion and well worth a long journey to 

 see. But incidentally it may be noted 

 that the well known wholesalers, W. 

 Armacost & Co., handle the entire cut 

 and ship the flowers to all parts. Of 

 course, the latest novelties are not cut 

 for the market, as th« bulbs are too 

 precious to take any chance with, but 

 practically all the fine types are in- 

 cluded in the cuts that leave this place 

 daily and they form an education in 

 freesias. 



J. T. Allen, well known in the trade 

 here and at Santa Barbara, is now in 

 business as the Glendale Florist, at 120 

 South Brand boulevard, Glendale, Cal. 

 Mr. Allen has purchased the florists' 

 end of the business that has been run 

 for some years by J. Kelly, who is re- 

 taining the nursery interests. 



A look . through the conservatories 

 and growing houses at Lincoln park is 



well repaid at any time and the display 

 is excellent now, under the able man- 

 agement of J. MacGillivray. A feature 

 of this park for many years has been 

 hyacinths growing in hanging baskets, 

 or orchid pans, and they are particu- 

 larly fine this year. An excellent batch 

 of cinerarias was also noted. 



Gebhard Prechtl is working on a new 

 yellow freesia, the deepest golden yel- 

 low so far seen. It has appeared among 

 his Sunset types and is quite distinct. 

 A feature that will recommend it is 

 that the color does not fade out or burn, 

 even in the hot sunshine of southern 

 California, as so many of the colored 

 freesias do. 



Every week sees better conditions at 

 the American Florists' Exchange; more 

 stock, more buyers and a generally im- 

 proved and businesslike aspect. 



Practically the whole staff of S. 

 •Murata & Co. have been more or less 

 sick, the only exception being Mrs. 

 Shewbrook, who is responsible for the 

 bookkeeping. Mrs. Shewbrook looks 



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