September 1, 1921 



The Florists^ Review 



29 



BOSTOK. 



The Market. 



Last week opened ^/^i^ poor business 

 and it gradually grew worse as the days 

 sped on and closed with the worst con- 

 gestion of the present season, values 

 on about all lines taking a toboggan. 

 August 29 did not open especially en- 

 couragingly. Somehow, the bottom has 

 dropped out of the market, tempo- 

 rarily at least. This would have been 

 less surprising had there been hot, un- 

 comfortable weather, but, as a matter 

 of fact, August has been remarkably 

 clear, cool and comfortable, and flowers; 

 both outdoors and under glass, are of 

 excellent size and substance for this 

 season. We hope in a few days to see 

 a change for the better; it will be par- 

 ticularly welcome to everyone. 



Gladioli may be becoming fewer in 

 number, but as yet there are few signs 

 of it. They are of good quality, but 

 sell at low prices. Asters, we have 

 been told, are in bad shape this year, 

 plants diseased, dying, and so forth, but 

 the stands are overloaded with grand 

 flowers on long stems and it is a pity 

 that they have to be cleared out at such 

 low prices. 



The best selling roses are Columbia, 

 Double White Killarney and Francis 

 Scott Key. Greater numbers of Ophelia 

 appear than of any other variety, but 

 the quality is not good now. August 27 

 large numbers of roses were sold at 50 

 cents per hundred downward; in fact, 

 no prices were asked: "How much will 

 you give for the lot?" was a common 

 query, and no decent offer was refused. 



A few short-stemmed, new-crop carna- 

 tions have appeared, but sweet peas are 

 still nil. Lilies of all kinds drag badly, 

 even speciosums hanging fire. Cosmos, 

 dahlias, bachelor's buttons, nemesias, 

 salpiglossis, annual chrysanthemums, 

 etc., are all a slow and uncertain trade. 



There is a little valley, but the qual- 

 ity is inferior. No gardenias are forth- 

 coming and few cattleyas. Some short- 

 stemmed bouvardia is about the only 

 other choice flower seen. For shower 

 bouquets retailers are using Clematis 

 paniculata and Euphorbia corollata. At 

 the stores crotons, dracronas and ferns 

 are in a little better demand. There are 

 practically no flowering plants to be 

 seen. 



Association Outing. 



So well did the members of the Boston 

 Florists' Association enjoy their picnic 

 outing at Nantasket that another was 

 arranged for and held August 25. In 

 point of attendance it went ahead of the 

 earlier celebration, about seventy ladies 

 and gentlemen enjoying a splendid din- 

 ner at the Palm Garden. In addition 

 to the regular menu, there were extras 

 which seemed to put some of the usually 

 sedate members in a hilarious mood. 

 Eobcrt Harris distinguished himself as 

 an entertainer and had the courage to 

 go on the stage and dance with some of 

 the sweet lady performers. J. K. Chand- 

 ler made a short address and relieved 

 his mind on the prohibition question. 

 He considered a dry law bad for the cut 

 flower trade and propounded the theory 

 that under the old law many men felt 

 happy and bought flowers freely, regard- 

 less of cost, and now under the dry re- 

 gime they are more canny. Therefore, 

 prohibition must be bad for the cut 

 flower trade. Mr. Chandler seemed to 

 have some sympathetic listeners. 



The dinner was fine, the entertain- 

 ment grand and everyone had a royal 

 good time and got home in the "wee 

 sma' hoors. " 



Garden Exhibition. 



The annual exhibition of children 's 

 garden products at Horticultural hall, 

 August 27 and 28, filled the main hall, 

 the small hall and part of the lecture 

 hall. Exhibits came from about 500 

 children and the competition was so 

 strong that three sets of judges occu- 

 pied several hours in making awards. 

 There were no fewer than ninety entries 

 for twenty-five string beans and nearly 

 as many for beets, tomatoes, potatoes 

 and corn. Collections were numerous 

 and in greater variety than in former 

 years. 



In connection with the exhibition, the 

 children gave two pageants in the lec- 

 ture hall August 27, and Miss M. R. 

 Case lectured on school gardening each 

 day before large and attentive audi- 

 ences. There also was a well-attended 

 meeting of supervisors and school gar- 

 den teachers the first day. It is en- 

 couraging to see a maintenance of in- 

 terest in gardening in and around Bos- 

 ton, well up to the war-time standard, 

 and the crowds of interested visitors 

 show how popular these shows are. 



Various Notes. 



Alexander P. Dewar, manager of the 

 seed store of R. & J. Farquhar Co., re- 

 turned from Europe August 22. Some 

 of his observations on European condi- 

 tions are given on another page of this 

 issue. 



Thomas Roland is marketing some ex- 

 cellent crotons, Dracaena Massangeana 

 and ferns in variety. He has a number 

 of houses of cyclamen in grand condi- 

 tion, which he will start to market 

 toward the end of September. Begonias 

 are also unusually fine. A house of 

 Golden Glow chrysanthemums will be 

 ready to cut from in a few weeks at 

 Nahant. At Revere roses promise well 

 and are in rather light crop now, while 

 prices are low. 



A. R. Hutson, head salesman for W. 

 H. Elliott, is spending a month with 

 his wife and family at his summer cot- 

 tage at Marion, Mass. Henry Hass acts 

 as salesman in his absence. 



William H. Carr, the well-known flow- 

 er salesman at the Flower Exchange, 

 went into farming on a large scale at 

 North Pembroke, Mass., a little over a 

 year ago. At the Marshfield fair, Au- 

 gust 23 to 25, he captured seven pre- 

 miums, including the corn championship, 

 and naturally he feels duly elated. His 

 fields of squash, corn and other crops 

 are as fine as can be seen in this sec- 

 tion. 



Donald Carmichael is back from a 

 month's vacation, spent at his old home 

 in Scotland after a long absence. He 

 found conditions different from what 

 they were when he left years ago. The 

 war has changed things tremendously. 

 Farmers now have their automobiles 

 instead of a horse and carriage and 

 tractors are numerous. He brought back 

 a few "wee" samples of real "moun- 

 tain dew" for his special friends' de- 

 lectation. 



The Mann Co. has a fine variety of 

 annuals on sale at the stand in the 

 wholesale flower market. The following 

 were noted August 27: Gypsophila 

 elegans, gomphrenas, helichrysums, an- 

 nual chrysanthemums, statice, Arctotis 



grandis, nemesias, snapdragons, salpi- 

 glossis, gaillardias, coreopsis, cosmos, 

 bachelor's buttons and single asters. 



Thomas Capers, of Wellesley Hills, 

 has his carnations, some 10,000 in num- 

 ber, planted and well established. He 

 is growing Benora, Beacon, Ward and 

 Matchless. Outdoors he has Delphinium 

 chinense in quantity and finds it profit- 

 able. 



At Penn's Duncan Robertson and 

 others were busy making up bridal and 

 other bouquets. The windows and store 

 contain a grand assortment of gladioli, 

 with helichrysums and larkspur also 

 in favor. Bouquets of pale blue lark- 

 spur and Ophelia roses are in great de- 

 mand at present. 



Henry M. Robinson & Co. have re- 

 ceived large importations of baskets 

 from Germany and expect more at an 

 early date. They are, as usual, opti- 

 mistic as to the fall trade. 



Don't forget the club's field day at 

 Framingham September 3. Those not 

 going in automobiles are advised to 

 take the Boston & Worcester limited, 

 which runs express to Framingham 

 Junction, and get off there, where they 

 will be met. 



Coming shows at Boston include the 

 great dahlia, fruit and vegetable show 

 September 10 and 11, and the great ex- 

 hibition of tropical ferns, orchids, 

 stove and greenhouse plants, cacti, etc., 

 coming two weeks later. 



Albert C. Burrage is planning to make 

 a notable orchid display at the Cleve- 

 land show next spring. W, N, C, 



CmCAQO, 



The Market. 



During the last ten days of August the 

 number of tickets written has not been 

 unsatisfactory to any wholesaler of mod- 

 erate expectations, nor has there been 

 cause for complaint concerning the left- 

 hand column of figures on those fairly 

 numerous tickets, the quantity of stock 

 moved being well above the average for 

 the time of year; but there has been 

 lamentation and foreboding over the 

 right-hand column of figures, prices be- 

 ing low and totals only about the same 

 as a year ago in spite of the greater 

 volume of business. Considering that 

 nobody's cost of production is less than 

 last year in any material degree, the de- 

 crease in average prices opens interest- 

 ing avenues of thought. Demand seems 

 to be all right; it is the supply of roses 

 which now is above usual levels, and it 

 may be that prices will advance when 

 this early crop goes off. Otherwise the 

 growers won't buy many Pierce- Arrows 

 next spring. 



The unwieldy supply is due principally 

 to a big rose crop coming just at the 

 time the gladiolus is at flood tide. Both 

 roses and glarlioli have been received in 

 larger quantities than the market could 

 consume. There has been waste, to pull 

 down an already low average price. The 

 quality of roses seldom has been better 

 at this time of year; he would be a most 

 particular buyer who could not be satis- 

 fied out of such stock as now is available 

 in quantity. There is only one difficulty 

 with the rose supply insofar as the buy- 

 ers are concerned; this is the preponder- 

 ance of pink, or to say it another way, 

 the absence of white, red and yellow. 

 There are pink roses of all seasonable 

 lengths in flve or six varieties, Columbia 

 [Continued on page 34.] 



