ApbiL 14, 1921 



The Florists' Review 



33 



Walter W. Haxnden. 



Walter W. Harnden, 62 years old, 

 head of the Harnden Seed Co., former 

 judge of the county court, city alder- 

 man and active worker in Eepublican 

 circles, died at St. Joseph's hospital, 

 Kansas City, Mo., April 5. 



*Mr. Harnden, who was president of 

 the Harnden Seed Co., 505 Walnut 

 •Street, was actively engaged in his 

 business until a week before his death. 

 He underwent an operation March 31. 

 The operation was made necessary by 

 an attack of pneumonia. 



He was born in Flat Eock, Mich., in 

 1859. He was associated with D. 

 M. Ferry & Co., Detroit, until 1886 

 when he went to Kansas City and or- 

 ganized the Harnden Seed Co. He was 

 an upper house alderman for four years 

 and served as judge of the county 

 court for two years. During Mayor 

 Edwards' administration, Mr. Harnden 

 was president of the fire and water 

 board, and served as chairman of the 

 Eepublican city committee during 

 Mayor Brown's administration. 



Mr. Harnden also was president of 

 the Triangle Club and was responsible 

 for the club's adopting or caring for a 

 number of orphans. Besides his widow, 

 Mrs. Euth Harnden, he leaves a daugh- 

 ter. Miss Euth C. Harnden; two sons, 

 Glenn C. Harnden and William W. 

 Harnden, and a sister, Mrs. George 

 Weeks, Ann Arbor, Mich. Funeral 

 services were held April 7, at the home, 

 3005 McGee street, Kansas City. 



Willis E. Hanulton. 



Willis E. Hamilton, pioneer florist of 

 Waldo county. Me., died at his home in 

 Belfast, Me., March 9. Never in robust 

 health, his last sickness began with a 

 severe cold last October. He was born 

 in Swansville, Me., March 22, 1857, and 

 had lived in Belfast forty years, con- 

 ducting the only florists' business in 

 that city for thirty-eight years, ably 

 assisted by his wife. 



Mr. Hamilton was the originator of 

 the Belfast chrysanthemum, probably 

 the latest-flowering variety extant. 

 Loved by all, Willis E. Hamilton was 

 a kindly, courteous, Christian gentle- 

 man, whose honorable business methods 

 and sterling integrity will long be re- 

 membered by all who knew him. 



January 30, 1882, he married Mary 

 "Ella Hoag, of Belfast, who survives 

 him, as do a daughter, Mrs. Clara See- 

 kins, and a son, Everett L. Hamilton, 

 who will carry on the business under 

 the old firm name. 



Cliarles Nedved. 



Charles Nedved, who had operated a 

 greenhouse at St. Paul, Minn., for four- 

 teenyears,ever sincehe emigrated to this 

 country from Bohemia, was instantly 

 killed April 4, as the result of a shot 

 from his own gun. He had previously 

 shot his wife. He was 55 years of age. 

 Three children survive, Mary, Emil and 

 John. 



CLEVELAND. 



Although the week's business dragged 

 slightly, it was a little better than its 

 forerunner. A heavy supply of flowers 

 of nearly all varieties, especially bulb- 

 ous stock, with only a small demand, 

 tended to make business dull. This 

 condition of the market forced prices 

 steadily downward. Bulbous stock, 

 which arrived in large quantities, w^as 

 poor in quality, due, probably, to the 

 exceedingly warm weather conditions. 

 Daffodils and narcissi were played out, 

 but tulips were still strong. Eoses and 

 carnations were plentiful and some 

 found their way to the rubbish box. 



Easter lilies came in plentifullj' and 

 in good quality; so did callas. Sweet 

 peas came in more plentifully, but the 

 price dropped considerably. Violets 

 showed the effects of the warm weather 

 and were hardly salable. Snapdragons 

 made their appearance, but moved 

 slowly, as did mignonette, miniature 

 roses, myosotis and calendulas. 



Various Notes. 



Frank E. Bauers, of Brooklyn, C, 

 has bought a 71-acre farm at the cor- 

 ner of Detroit road and Stony Eidge. 

 He is going to plant it in fruit and 

 beautify the grounds with some fancy 

 landscape work. 



The firm, Felton's for Flowers, has 

 purchased the store formerly run by 

 Carl Bauer, on Superior avenue. Mr. 

 Bauer is going into the landscape busi- 

 ness. 



Steven Berthold, of the Cleveland 

 Plant & Flower Co., has purchased a 

 now Ford touring car. W. A. E. 



The Market. 



The second week after Easter was 

 not a great improvement over the first. 



CHICAGO. 



The Market. 



Last week's market was even worse 

 than the one before, judged by any or- 

 dinary trade standards. The only re- 

 deeming feature of it was that the more 

 severe a glut is, the quicker it is over, 

 usually. The weather for several days 

 was like summer and it rushed the rose 

 crop after a fashion seldom seen at this 

 time of year. Of course the production 

 of all other flowers also was accelerated 

 and the market was crowded with stock 

 it was impossible to move by the ordi- 

 nary means. Eetail flower selling is not 

 conducted on lines which make it possi- 

 ble suddenly to quadruple the volume 

 of transactions. There were low-priced 

 flowers for anyone who would take n 

 quantity, but few regular flower stores 

 oared to increase greatly the bulk of 

 their daily purchases. The result was 

 extremely low average prices for the 

 growers, but nevertheless most of them 

 received checks carrying rather good 

 figures, because of the large quantity 

 of stock shipped in. 



It is worth noting that the quality of 

 the stock which has reached the market 

 during the two weeks of oversupply has 

 been exceptionally fine. Buyers seldom 

 have obtained as good flowers and good 

 stock has been so plentiful that the 

 grower who shipped poor stock simply 

 has been out of luck. It often has been 

 noted that when flowers are poor, mar- 

 ket conditions make prices high. Ee- 

 cently we have seen the corollary, qual- 

 ity being high and prices low. 



It was the general report that the 

 rose crop was "shot" April 9 and that 

 night winter started a short return en- 

 gagement. The result was a sharp re- 

 duction in supplies at the opening of 

 the present week and the return of the 



market to more stable and normal con- 

 ditions. There seems no probability of 

 shortage or high prices, except, per- 

 haps, for the approaching special flower 

 days, during the remainder of the sea- 

 son. Eetailcrg may prosecute the sell- 

 ing with the assurance that they will 

 be able to procure in the Chicago mar- 

 ket all the seasonable flo*vers they will 

 need, no piatter what volume of busi- 

 ness results from their efforts. 



Do It Early. 



0. W. Frese says that every morning 

 the telegraph company sends around a 

 bunch of orders that should have been 

 shipped the night before. Mr. Frese 

 comments that in the whole course of 

 last summer some florists never found 

 out that Chicago time was an hour later 

 than in communities that were not sav- 

 ing daylight, while this year a whole lot 

 of buyers seem not yet to have noted 

 the change in time made here. 



"Tell the folks it is 5 o'clock and 

 closing time in Chicago while it is only 

 4 o'clock most other places. Tell them 

 to order early and avoid disappoint- 

 ment," says Mr. Frese. 



The Recent Rose Crop. 



One of the wholesalers was writing 

 to an out-of-town customer last week, 

 urging him to order more roses. "We 

 have a tremendous crop," he dictated. 



"But 'tremendous,' " interjected 

 the meticulous stenog., "moans fitted 

 to excite trembling, fear or terror; its 

 synonyms are terrible, dreadful, fright- 

 ful, terrific, horrible, awful." 



"Oh, well! " said the wholesaler, who 

 hasn't yet taken up the new fad of 

 reading the die, "I used it in the sense 

 of uncommonly large, but you can let it 

 ride — the crop is most of those other 

 things too." 



The Saturday Rose Sale. 



At least once a year the watchful 

 folk who run department stores find the 

 flower market in the right condition to 

 serve their purpose — a Saturday sale at 

 ridiculous prices. These stores take de- 

 light in such a stunt pulled off with 

 merchandise noi regularly carried by 

 them; they like to take the other fel- 

 low's line, advertise it at prices as near 

 nothing as they can get and use the 

 sale as a means ol drawing the bargain- 

 htmters in. The saving grace is that 

 thf woman who goes into a cheap-class 

 fiepartment store in quest of a dozen 

 rosos for 11 cents is not likely ever to 

 have been a patron of the regular flower 

 store. 



It has been nearly a year since there 

 have been any department store flower 

 sales, but their chance came again last 

 week. The rose crop was so large there 

 was no possibility of moving it through 

 the regular channels. So the depart- 

 ment store buyers came into the mar- 

 ket. They took all the roses offered at 

 prices between $10 and $15 per thou- 

 sand. It is estimated that two depart- 

 ment stores and a drug concern turned 

 into the market between $3,000 and 

 $4,000 for the roses they sold April 9. 

 Most of them were retailed at 15 cents 

 per dozen, though many cost them more 

 than that. The flowers were of all 

 lengths and ages, up to 10 days old. 

 There are, of course, various opinions 

 .as to the expedience and effect of such 

 sales, but it is certain most of the stock 

 used would otherwise have been a com- 

 plete loss. Also, cleaning out the ac- 



rconlinued on paee 38,1 



