18 



The Florists' Review 



FXBBUABY 18, 1915. 



and flowers useful for the local retail 

 trade. 



John A. N«lson. 



Two houses, 35x354 and 24x365, are 

 planted with carnations at Mr. Nel- 

 son's, about 40,000 plants being used. 

 Fewer varieties are grown here than 

 on many places, but the plants are all 

 in superb condition and worthy of a 

 long journey to see. Mr. Nelson never 

 showed any flowers previous to the Buf- 

 falo convention, but I venture the opin- 

 ion that his carnations will be no 

 strangers to the exhibitions in the fu- 

 ture. It would indeed be a misfortune 

 if such splendid flowers as are grown 

 here could not be set up at the exhibi- 

 tions. 



Pink Delight here was wonderfully 

 fine. "White Perfection, White Enchant- 

 ress and White Wonder fairly made one 

 gasp. The White Enchantress, as 

 grown here, was equal to the finest 

 Matchless I have yet seen. Champion 

 is grown, but hardly equaled Beacon. 

 Winsor and Enchantress are both splen- 

 did, but will probably be dropped an- 

 other season. Mr. Nelson does not 

 know what to replace Winsor with. I 

 never before saw the old Harry Fenn 

 bloom as it does here. A batch of 2,000 

 plants was a sea of crimson, and in- 

 dividual pickings of 1,600 and 1,750 have 

 been made from it. The daily pick here 

 is from 1,800 to 2,500, and no finer 

 flowers go to the Boston market. Three 

 small houses are devoted to single vio- 

 lets. Some Nelrose and Phelps' White 

 snapdragons are grown, and sweet peas 

 prove a profitable crop, tied to the 

 greenhouse posts. 



J. T. Butterworth. 



While orchids are the great specialty 

 at Mr. Butterworth 's, carnations are 

 grown in two houses. The varieties are 

 Yellov Prince, Beacon, White Wonder, 

 Pink Delight, Rosette, Mrs. Cheney and 

 Winsor. Dutch bulbous flowers are 

 also forced in large numbers here. 



Cattleya labiata was making a fine 

 display at the time of my visit. The 

 cattleyas and, in fact, all the orchids 

 here show surprising vigor. Mr. But- 



terworth is not constantly depending 

 on new importations. He has the knack 

 of carrying his plants along for many 

 years, increases them and makes sickly 

 specimens, which many would throw 

 away in sheer despair, take on luxuriant 

 health. 



I noticed a splendid batch of 350 Mil- 

 tonia vexillaria and an equal number 

 of Odontoglossum crispum in grand 

 health. The latter were reveling in a 

 wide lean-to house built in 1848! All 

 the yellow forms of Cypripedium in- 

 signe were growing like weeds. Of the 

 beautiful Cymbidium insigne I counted 

 over fifty fine plants. Dendrobium 

 Jamesianum was producijig grand 

 growths and D. nobile and Wardianum 

 would soon be in full crop. The orchid 

 houses here are not new, but the plants 

 evidently relish their surroundings and 

 their treatment. Nowhere in New Eng- 

 land are finer specimen cattleyas to be 

 found than here. W. N. Craig. 



CHICAGO CONCERNS BURNED OUT. 



Randall and Amling Iiosers. 



Fire that originated from unknown 

 causes destroyed the building at 68 and 

 70 East Randolph street, Chicago, to- 

 gether with practically all its contents, 

 early in the morning of February 14. 

 It was a structure of five stories and 

 basement, 40x160. The street floor was 

 occupied by the wholesale cut flower 

 commisaon house of the E. C. Amling 

 Co., the second floor by the wholesale 

 cut flower commission department of 

 .the A. L. Randall Co., and the base- 

 ment and three upper floors by that 

 concern's stock of florists' supplies. 

 The fire was one of the most spectacu- 

 lar the downtown Chicago district has 

 seen in years. The building was com- 

 pletely gutted, the roof and four upper 

 floors falling in, and the loss totidH 

 something like $165,000. The individ- 

 ual losses are estimated as follows: 



W. p. Stewart, building | 75,000 



A. L. Randall Co., store and fixtures 85,000 



E. C. Amling Co., fixtures 3,000 



W. R. Eagle, cigar stand stock 2,000 



Total 1165,000 



The Randall concern, of which Emil 

 Buettner is president and A. L. Ran- 

 dall treasurer, is well covered by in- 

 surance. There was $79,000 on the 

 stock in the burned building, with 

 $10,000 on stock stored on the fifth 

 floor of the next building east. Here 

 the loss was light, being caused by 

 smoke and water. The inventory taken 

 January 1 showed stock on hand in 

 the main building and in storage as 

 $lu8,000. It is thought the stock had 

 been reduced somewhat since then. 

 A. L. Randall said February 15 that, 

 while it would be impossible to state 

 the loss with accuracy until the books 

 were available, he estimated it as about 

 $85,000 and felt that the insurance 

 would nearly cover. 



The loss of the E. C. Amling Co., on 

 the street floor, was principally on its 

 iceboxes. The fire started on one of 

 the upper floors, which fell in, and 

 water in torrents ran over the boxes 

 for hours. The inconvenience of seek- 

 ing a new location at a moment's no- 

 tice constitutes the principal loss. 



The building to the east, the top 

 floor of which is used by Randall's for 

 storage, is the city home of Poehlmann 

 Bros. Co., the cut flower department 

 being on the second floor and the flo- 

 rists' supplies department on the fourth 

 floor. The Poehlmann concern sus- 

 tained no loss whatever. 



Business Kept Going. 



The fire was still burning fiercely 

 when the Amling and Randall cut flower 

 forces arrived for the Sunday morning 

 business. The Amling concern at once 

 obtained the vacant Rowe space at 160 

 Wabash avenue to receive the day's 

 consignments and was able to write its 

 first sales ticket for the day at 7:10, 

 only ten minutes later than usual. Next 

 day, adequate temporary quarters were 

 secured at 166 North Michigan avenue, 

 the entire ground floor of the new Fed- 

 eral Life building, where business was 

 transacted February 16 almost as 

 though nothing had happened. 



Long before the fire was extinguished 

 the Randall Co. had obtained a large 



View of the Chicago Wholesale Florists' Burned Building Looking Toward the Point From Which the Other Photograph was Taken. 



(The A. L. Randall Co. and the E. C, Amling Co. occupied the building in the center; Poehlmann Bros. Co. occupies the second and fourth floors and the A. L. 

 Randall Co. the fifth floor of the undamaged building at the left; the building at the right is occupied by the Dennison Mfg. Co.) 



