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ACODST 4, 1921 



The Florists^ Review 



29 



Anton Felke, of Wilmette, 111., suf- 

 fered a paralytic stroke while at work 

 in his greenhouses July 27 and died in 

 the early hours of July 30. Mr. Felke 

 was just past 50 years of age and was a 

 steady worker. July 26 he completed 

 the laborious task of installing and set- 

 ting a new boiler, doing all the work 

 himself, in the high heat of this hottest 

 of recorded summers. The next day he 

 was at the potting bench, when he was 

 overcome. He retained consciousness 

 for several hours after he was assisted 

 into his adjoining home, but that night 

 he suffered a second stroke and was un- 

 conscious for two days, until the end. 



Mr. Felke was born in Chicago, the 

 son of two of the oldest florists in the 

 north side district. His mother, Mrs. 

 Mary Felke, known to many as Flower 

 Mary, now 80 years of age, survives, al- 

 though too feeble to attend her son's 

 funeral. A brother, Frank, now located 

 at Elkhart, Ind., was in the business at 

 Wilmette for many years. There are 

 four sisters, one of whom is the wife of 

 Anton Then and herself the mother 

 of a family of florists. The widow and 

 eight children are left and will carry 

 on the business, which is highly pros- 

 perous, as Mr. Felke grew first-class pot 

 stock and enjoyed a fine trade, espe- 

 cially in bedding plants, along Chi 

 '■ago's north shore. 



The funeral was held in the morning 

 of August 2, at St. Joseph's church at 

 Wilmette, with interment in the parish 

 i;emetery. There was a large attend- 

 ance, including many florists, and the 

 Qumerous floral arrangements testified 

 to the esteem in which the deceased and 

 his fa,mily are held in the community. 



PITTSBURGH, PA. 



The Market. 



Business was brisk last week. The 

 demand has been heavier than usual 

 for the last of July, which can be ac- 

 counted for by the return of the bodies 

 of the soldiers who died in Europe dur- 

 ing the war. 



Roses are in short supply, with qual- 

 ity nothing to brag about, and it is 

 hard to get enough good ones to fill ad- 

 vance orders, let alone the orders that 

 "ome in late. 



Lilies are in demand and the quality 

 is of the best, while the price has ad- 

 vanced. 



Gladioli are now at their best, but 

 there do not seem to be as many as 

 usual on the market at this season, 

 which has caused the price to remain 

 firm. Asters are now a factor and some 

 i?ood stock is to be seen; so far, they 

 have sold on sight. Carnations are 

 mostly a thing of the past, and what 

 few are coming in are poor. 



Taking everything into consideration, 

 'he cut flower business is more than 

 satisfactory, and few complaints are to 

 ^p hear^. 



Various Notes. 



Mr. and Mrs. A. W. Smith had a red- 

 'etter day of their own Wednesday, July 

 -0, when they celebrated their golden 

 wedding anniversary. 



W. J. Smith, of the Altimo Culture 

 Co., of Canfield, O., was a recent visitor. 

 Mr. Smith reports a severe hail storm, 

 which did much damage to his glass. 



John Keil, of East Liverpool, O., was 

 another out-of-town visitor last week. 



George C. McCallum and Thomas 

 Kelleher, of the McCallum Co., are en- 

 joying their vacaUons at Conneaut lake, 

 Pa. • ^ 



A big party from here will attend the 

 convention at Washington, P. C, this 

 month. 



Harry Langhans, of McGrath & Lang- 

 hans, has just returned from a three 

 weeks' automobile trip through New 

 York state and Canada. 



Charles Ulmer, of the E. A. Williams 

 Co., has just returned from spending his 

 vacation with relatives at Stoughton, 

 Wis. He went by rail to Chicago and 

 motored to Stoughton by the way of 

 Milwaukee. He reports the roads in 

 that part of the country in elegant con- 

 dition. 



Harvey Sheaf, president of the E. A. 

 Williams Co., left this week for his va- 

 cation at Cape Cod, Mass. 



W. A. Clarke, president of the Pitts- 

 burgh Cut Flower Co., left Saturday, 

 July 30, to spend his vacation at his 

 summer home at Lake Chautauqua. 



Ben Elliott, owner of the John Bader 

 Co., left with his family for a trip 

 through the west. H. J. H. 



CHICAGO. 



The Market. 



The final week of July produced re- 

 ports which varied with the special con- 

 ditions of the reporters' business. It 

 was noted that some wholesale houses 

 had a dull week, but it seems to have 

 been because they had only a limited 

 supply of stock, as others say their sales 

 were up to or even a little ahead of 

 the same week in 1920. Reports from 

 the retailers vary in accordance with 

 the character of trade catered to. 

 Those whose specialty is flowers for the 

 sad events have been notably busy, 

 while those who cater to other classes 

 of trade have found little demand, few 

 good flowers, stiff prices for them and a 

 narrower margin of profit than last sum- 

 mer. The story of the last week of 

 July is practically the story of the 

 month. The wholesalers are, in gen- 

 eral, better satisfied than the retailers. 



Business apparently would be much 

 better all around if there were more and 

 better stock. The Chicago district now 

 has had ten weeks of continuously hot 

 weather. The temperature has been, 

 almost continuously, 10 degrees above 

 normal and there has been scarcely any 

 rain. It is no wonder stock has been, 

 is and, worst of all, probably will con- 

 tinue to be scarce and poor. 



The variety of stock is limited. 

 Roses, gladioli and asters constitute al- 

 most the entire supply. Of roses it can 

 be said that both quantity and quality 

 are on the up grade. Stems still are 

 short, but they lengthen day by day 

 and it is apparent that this crop has 

 turned the corner; given a little cool 

 weather, roses should improve rapidly 

 and give the trade the chance to charge 

 more money. There is a call for red 

 roses, perhaps more apparent than real, 

 as the supply is extremely small. Red 

 ordinarily is not in request during the 

 heated term. 



Gladioli have not vet accumulated. 



The supply of other flowers has been so 

 small that gladioli have been kept well 

 cleaned up; the only difficulty has been 

 with shipments which were not of qual- 

 ity good enough to meet the needs even 

 of funeral work. Because of the cleaner 

 sales than usual, it seems that this 

 must, thus far, have been an unusually 

 good season for the growers. 



Asters are in larger supply than here 

 tofore and the price of average grades 

 has fallen. Really good asters are ex- 

 tremely scarce, because of the hot, dry 

 weather. The small flowers are used 

 mostly for work and, while the growers 

 call it a bad season, the retailers will 

 tell you it costs a plenty to fill in a 

 design. 



Giganteum lilies are in such small 

 supply that the price has advanced, 

 while, on the other hand, valley is in 

 such light demand the price has eased 

 off. Other flowers are in such small 

 supply they need not be "considered at 

 this time. 



July Weather. 



July, 1921, goes on record as the hot- 

 test month in fifty-one years, or in the 

 entire time official records have 

 been kept. The mean temperature was 

 81.2 degrees. Normal is 72.4 degrees. 

 The percentage of possible sunshine was 

 eighty-eight, against seventy-two per 

 cent as normal. Rainfall was only 1.87 

 inches, against 3.64 inches as normal. 



The long drought was broken by a 

 general rain which began August 1 and 

 lasted two days. It was more than wel- 

 come, but did not come until the grow- 

 ers of outdoor stock had sustained 

 large losses. There are differences of 

 opinion as to the effect on the crop of 

 gladiolus bulbs, some believing the rain 

 did not come soon enough, while others 

 think that good bulbs will yet be made 

 if we have normal weather in August 

 and September. Carnation plants have 

 made little growth in the field; some 

 growers have housed undersized plants, 

 while others are waiting. The ten 

 weeks of heat and drought have been 

 severe on rose plants under glass, the 

 customary summer growth not having 

 been made, and plantsmen have lost 

 considerable stock under glass, espe- 

 cially cyclamens, which have succumbed 

 in large numbers during the last fort- 

 night. 



Peter Beinberg, Inc. 



Plans which have been in process of 

 formation for two months were consum- 

 mated last week when the state issued 

 a certificate of incorporation to Peter 

 Reinberg, Inc., authorized capital $30, 

 000, organized to take over the whole- 

 sale store of the late Mr. Reinberg. 

 Mrs. Reinberg is one of the stockhold- 

 ers and the others are, with one excep- 

 tion, employees at the store. 



At a meeting for organization, July 

 30, the following officers were elected: 



President and treasurer, Henry Zen- 

 der. 



Vice-president, Herbert Hanson. 



Secretary, William Maloney. 



Manager, Louis Hoechner. 



The corporation took over the busi 

 ness August 1. About September 1 

 Fred Price, for some time with the J. A. 

 Budlong Co., will join the new company 

 .'ind have the title of assistant manager. 



Mum Show in November. 



The Chrysanthemum Society of Amer- 

 ica will hold its annual meeting in Chi 

 [Continued on paKc 34.] 



