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JUNB 1, 1922 



The Florists^ Review 



29 



NEW YORK. 



The Maxket. 



The market last week was well sup- 

 plied with flowers of all kinds. The 

 supply was subject to a demand not 

 sufficient to consume it; consequently 

 the heyday of the street man again oc- 

 curred, numbers of peddlers being in 

 evidence on the business streets. An 

 avalanche of peonies from southern 

 points upset the market balance and 

 sent prices of several staples down a 

 point or two. The peony arrivals were 

 moved at any prices obtainable for 

 them, from $2 to $5 per hundred, and 

 much stock in a condition to warrant 

 it was tucked away in cold storage for 

 Memorial day. Peonies from Pennsyl- 

 vania are pouring in and are better in 

 quality than the southern stock. Lo- 

 cally grown peonies, liybrids, are com- 

 ing in also, so there is a clash which 

 makes the survival of the fittest rather 

 hard on the survivors. It was expected 

 in this neighborhood that peonies would 

 be late, but they are really ahead of 

 time, the only late ones being of the 

 ofiicinalis type, flowers from which are 

 coming in with the better kinds and 

 bring practically nothing. 



Eoses have taken on their summer 

 condition, both as regards quality and 

 quantity, and prices quoted last week 

 are barely maintained, as concessions 

 are frequent to effect clearances. Amer- 

 ican Beauty continues to arrive in fair 

 quantity and to move within the price 

 range of $15 to $40 per hundred. In 

 hybrid teas the price range is about 

 $1.50 to $10 per hundred, the grading 

 not exceeding the fancy. The best 

 blooms of Premier bring a trifle more, 

 as do those of Hadley and Crusader. 

 Scott Key comes in the Beauty range. 



Carnations show little signs of fall- 

 ing off, and fluctuate in value almost 

 daily. The quality has been affected by 

 somewhat warmer weather, and evident 

 inattention on the part of some grow- 

 ers. Not all arrivals are taken through 

 legitimate channels, the street men car- 

 rying off much of the held-over stock. 

 The price range is $2 to $4 per hundred 

 for the best grades. 



Cattleyas are not in abundant supply, 

 but their movement is slow at $35 to 

 $100. Stray shipments of spray orchids 

 arrive, but not in sufficient quantity to 

 establish particular prices. Gardenias 

 are not overplentiful, but more than 

 enough for the demand at prices not 

 exceeding $2 per dozen. 



The supply of white lilies has short- 

 ened considerably, and prices last 

 quoted are pretty well maintained un- 

 der present market conditions. Lilies 

 of the valley are in oversupply and sales 

 drag materially. 



Sweet peas continue in great abund- 

 ance,^ moving slowly. Snapdragon is 

 also in heavy supply, with a sluggish 

 movement. A little northern-grown 

 lilac arrives, but has now to meet heavy 

 shipments of the wild spiraea. Other 

 flowers of a miscellaneous character 

 available are white and yellow daisies, 

 Spanish and German irises, mignonette, 

 cornflowers, Centaurea imperialis, lu- 

 pines, pyrethrum, feverfew, gladioli, 

 delphiniums, pansies, schizanthus, pop- 

 pies, calendulas, myosotis, ranunculi, 

 stocks and columbines. 



T'jj^^T- Various Notes. 



The white earnaticm appears to have 

 been selected as an emblem fot unother 



organization of national renown. At a 

 funeral in Eutherford, N. J., some 

 twenty-five members of the Ku Klux 

 Klan appeared in full regalia and each 

 threw a white carnation into the grave. 



It was arranged by the Horticultural 

 Society of New York to hold an exhibi- 

 tion of peonies, orchids, roses, shrubs 

 and herbaceous plants in connection 

 with the exhibition of the American Iris 

 Society, May 27, in the Museum build- 

 ing. New York Botanical Garden, but 

 since no entries were received, the show 

 was abandoned. 



W. E. Marshall & Co., 166 West 

 Twenty-third street, last week had an 

 excellent display of cut iris blooms on 

 view at their store. Previously they 

 had staged a fine exhibition of lilac. 



Eobert S. Eennison, of We.stbury, is 

 laying out and planting the extension 

 grounds of the new million-dollar high 

 school at Hempstead. 



Major P. J. O'Keefe, of Boston, was 

 in the city May 23, returning from Syra- 

 cuse, where he had been to deliver an 

 address on publicity before the vege- 

 table growers and florists. 



I. S. Hendrickson, manager of the 

 Flowerfield establishment of John Lewis 

 Childs, Inc., staged several groups of 

 iris last Friday at the exhibition of the 

 American Iris Society. 



The many friends of Patrick "Welch, 

 of Boston, were grieved to learn of his 

 death Thursday, May 25, after a long 

 illness. The deceased was always a wel- 

 come visitor to the New York flower 

 markets. 



The number of those sending in their 

 names to the chairman of the New York 

 Florists' Club's transportation commit- 

 tee as anxious to take the de-luxe trip 

 to the Kansas City convention is now 

 over thirty. The committee has issued 

 a splendid booklet descriptive of the 

 trip out and return by way of the Great 

 Lakes, the cost of which, including 

 everything, is $220 for the round"trlp. 



Prof. A. C. Beal, of Cornell Univer- 

 sity, was a visitor last week. 



J. H. P. 



CHICAGO. 



The Market. 



Perhaps in an effort to square himself 

 for what he did to us at Mothers' day, 

 the weather-man has been kind to the 

 Chicago market for Memorial day. 

 Outside of having provided an unusual 

 quantity of blooms in private gardens, 

 weather conditions were ideal in this 

 territory this Memorial day. Cool, 

 bright days for a week preceding the 

 big flower day produced large quanti- 

 ties of stock and made the quality all 

 that could be expected at this time of 

 year. It is the general opinion that 

 the Chicago market never has sold 

 more flowers for Memorial day than it 

 did this year and that the average 

 quality of the greenhouse stock never 

 has been better. Whereas Mothers' day 

 brought complaints without parallel in 

 the recent history of this market, it is 

 figured that the Memorial day stock 

 will give general satisfaction. 



The volume of business for Memorial 

 day has been enormous, but the de- 

 mand was spread over almost a week 

 and at no time was the market more 

 than momentarily short of any item. 

 It was a condition which led to a big 

 volume, but low prices. It was evident 

 that the observance of Memorial day 

 would begin on Sunday, because ship- 



ping orders called for large quantities 

 of stock to go out Thursday. There 

 was a steady increase in the volume of 

 shipments until Sunday, which was one 

 of the biggest days this market ever 

 has known. The exjiress company gave 

 delivery and pick-up service all day, 

 up to 5 p. ni., at which time all but a 

 few scattering shipments were ready. 

 Earely has the express company taken 

 off this market a larger quantity of 

 stock than was boxed and ready for 

 the last trucks to the stations on Sun- 

 day. As a matter of fact the quantity 

 exceeded the expectations of the ex- 

 press company and it was necessary 

 to make extra overtime trips to get the 

 mountains of boxes hauled away. Even 

 after this big day's shipping, many 

 of the iceboxes were full, though most 

 of it was the kind of stock not in re- 

 quest for the shipping trade. 



Probably the peony played the part 

 of first importance in the Memorial 

 day business. Cool weather retarded 

 the local crop, so that the supply was 

 not so large as it has been in some 

 other years. Because of the conditions 

 under which southern peonies were cut 

 and shipped, there was considerable dif- 

 ference in the quality of the stock from 

 various sources. Nearly everyone was 

 afraid of festiva maxima because it has 

 been behaving badly this season. The 

 stock cut early and put in storage dur- 

 ing the heat wave has come out in poor 

 shape; nearly every bunch was a 

 "shaker." On the other hand, some 

 festiva maxima cut farther north un- 

 der cooler weather conditions has held 

 up beautifully. The trouble has been 

 that no one could tell from the looks 

 of it how any lot of this variety would 

 behave. It was noted, too, that the 

 buyers wanted pink peonies instead of 

 white. Practically all the good peonies 

 were out of storage May 28, except 

 small quantities reserved for city cus- 

 tomers. The quantity remaining was 

 of the kind that delights the man who 

 takes his stand in a wagon at the ceme- 

 tery gate. There was an abundance of 

 peonies for him this year. The average 

 price of the peonies handled up to Dec- 

 oration day this year has been lower 

 than was expected. While any price 

 was a good price for a considerable 

 part of the cut, the abundance of the 

 low grade stock served to depress the 

 price of the better grades. Also, from 

 some sections cancellations came be- 

 cause their local peonies had made the 

 date. 



Carnations occupied second place. 

 Having suffered severe losses on car- 

 nations at Mothers' day, there was less 

 than the usual disposition to hold them 

 back for Memorial day. Also, the 

 weather, which was highly unfavorable 

 to the keeping quality of carnations at 

 Mothers' day, was ideal at Memorial 

 day. No doubt the disappointment 

 many retailers experienced on orders of 

 carnations at Mothers' day had some- 

 thing to do with the cutting down of 

 orders for Memorial day. At any rate 

 the orders were not so large as many 

 shippers had expected them to be. 

 There were enough carnations to go 

 around, and some to spare, with the 

 result that average prices will be low. 



There are varying reports as to roses. 

 Some houses say their rose orders took 

 everything good, even that it was nec- 

 essary to cut some of the orders for the 

 better grades of stock. On the other 

 hand, some houses say their orders ran 



(Continued on page 84.) 





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