The Florists' Revie«(^ 



May 13. 1915. 



BALTIMORE. 



The Market. 



The demand <or flowers for Mothers' 

 day, while not assuming any extraor- 

 dinary proportions, was a welcome 

 break in the overstocked condition of 

 the market which has prevailed for 

 some time. White carnations, of course, 

 were in the best demand, with pink as 

 next choice. Koses, lilies and carna- 

 tions formed the bulk of the available 

 supply. White carnations were bought 

 up entirely at $5 per hundred; colored 

 ones sold at $2 and $3 per hundred. 

 Boses did not bring any fancy prices, 

 although the wholesale stores were able 

 to clean out at fair prices. In the early 

 part of the week business was flat, but 

 is picked up on Friday and Saturday. 



Mothers' day was advertised by the 

 florists as a body. Small cards announc- 

 ing the day were used on all plants and 

 cat flowers^sent out during the previous 

 week. Larger display cards were used 

 in all the stores, in addition to an ad 

 in every newspaper published in this 

 city, starting Thursday evening and 

 ending on Saturday morning. A num- 

 ber of stores devoted their show win- 

 dows to appropriate decorations, call- 

 ing the public's attention to the day. 



Club Meeting. 



The regular meeting of the Garden- 

 ers' and Florists' Club was held May 

 10. The attendance was good and 

 President Hamilton occupied the chair. 

 The committee on resolutions on the 

 death of the son of Treasurer F. G. 

 Burger submitted a report, which was 

 ordered put on the minutes. Charles 

 Klutch was present and is desirous of 

 forming a bowling team among the club 

 members to enter a tournament to be 

 held May 17 to June 4. An;jone wish- 

 ing to join can secure full information 

 by applying to Mr. Klutch. 



Th^ question of ' ' How was Mothers ' 

 day business compared with last year's 

 business t" was responded to by many 

 and it was the consensus of opinion 

 that business was ahead of last year by 

 a wide margin. Many reported a good 

 demand for flowers other than white 

 carnations, showing the results of ad- 

 vertising and trying to push flowers in 

 general. 



Many of those present did not under- 

 stand why it was necessary to call two 

 assessments at one time. For the bene- 

 fit of those who were absent, the fol- 

 lowing is the reason: The benefit fund 

 was up to the required amount for one 

 death benefit payment, but the follow- 

 ing members having died recently 

 makes it necessary to call two assess- 

 ments at one time: John Gearv, Jas. 

 Shortt, W. W. Burger. 



Various Notes. 



Chas. H. Cook, of Catonsville, has 

 converted his touring car into an auto 

 truck for use between his greenhouses 

 and the markets. 



L. Kreuder, of Pierce & Co., paid a 

 flying visit to Philadelphia in the early 

 part of last week. 



Samuel Feast & Sons had a most at- 

 tractive Mothers' day window all 

 through the week. 



E. A. Seidewitz, Halliday Bros., Sam- 

 uel Feast & Sons, J. J. Cummings and 

 James Hamilton united in getting up a 

 most attractive Mothers' day ad and 

 published it in one of the daily papers, 

 in addition to the ads the club was run- 

 ning at the same time. 



L. L. Lancaster, formerly of this city 

 but more recently of Edgely, Pa., was a 

 visitor here last week. W. F. E. 



FITTSBUBGH. 



MILWAUKEE. 



The Market. 



Mothers' day certainly demonstrated 

 that there is almost no limit to the 

 fluctuation in prices. In the course of 

 a week prices advanced beyond all ex- 

 pectations, and from a glut there came 

 a change to a real shortage. The de- 

 mand for stock for Mothers' day seems 

 to be increasing every year and it will 

 not be long until this day will have 

 to be reckoned with just as much as 

 any holiday. White carnations are in 

 greatest demand, but more and more 

 of other flowers and plants are sold 

 each year, as the public comes to real- 

 ize that it is the color and not the 

 variety which contains the appropriate 

 sentiment. There is no doubt that col- 

 lective advertising pays, because a few 

 well placed ads, keeping the holiday 

 before the ultimate consumer, greatly 

 increases the desire to have flowers for 

 the occasion. 



The weather has been a great deal 

 colder and the sun has been conspicuous 

 by its absence. This decreased the sup- 

 ply of stock and thus caused what ap- 

 peared to the public to be a real hard- 

 ship, as they had been buying flowers 

 for next to nothing. Roses were in fine 

 shape and the supply was fairly large, 

 although many orders were cut to some 

 extent. The prices were quite reason- 

 able, considering the lessening of the 

 supply and the excellent quality of the 

 stock. Carnations were - scarce. A 

 week previously they were offered as 

 low as $7.50 per thousand and were 

 hard to move at that price. Conditions 

 changed quickly, so that white carna- 

 tions brought as high as $8 per hun- 

 dred, and all of this stock was cleaned 

 up as soon as brought into the market« 

 Stock will not be as plentiful again as 

 it has been this spring, if present in- 

 dications ar^ any criterion as to the 

 future supply. 



Sweet peas are not nearly so plenti- 

 ful as they have been and their season 

 will be over before they have another 

 chance to be overplentiful. They have 

 been fine this year and the butterfly 

 sorts are still in excellent shape. 

 Peonies have made their appearance on 

 the market and they look well. The 

 bright, warm spell brought them in con- 

 siderably ahead of time, but if the 

 weather does not get extremely hot, 

 they should be in fine shape for Me- 

 morial day. Valley is good and is mov- 

 ing readily. Lilies are also being sold 

 to good advantage. 



Various Notes. 



William Lublincr, who opened a store 

 in Chicago some little time ago, was 

 in Milwaukee Sundav and Monday, 

 May 2 and 3. 



^Jlarry Balsley, of the Detroit Flower 

 Ptjx Co., visited this city May 7 and 8. 

 He has been ill for some time, but is 

 his own cheery self again, and although 

 a little pale, he seems to have entirely 

 recovered. 



J. J. Karins, of Henry A. Dreer, Inc., 

 was in town last week and his happy 

 smile was right on tap. His many 

 friends are always glad to welcome him, 

 orders or no orders. 



F. Rhodes, of Hartford, Wis., was a 

 visitor last week. IT. J. S. 



' The Market. 

 ' Pittsburgh has had much cooler 

 weather, part of it dark, which short- 

 ened up stock considerably; then came 

 Mothers' day, with its demand for 

 carnations and cheaper roses, with the 

 natural result that there was not 

 nearly enough stock to go around. 

 Mothers' day is certainly developing 

 into a real flower day. It gets better 

 each year. There are no large sales 

 among the retailers, but the number 

 of small sales is wonderful, showing 

 what developments are brought about 

 by advertising. One of our retailei-s 

 sent out 10,000 Mothers' day circulars 

 and he says he got the results. The 

 newspapers also helped somewhat and 

 Mothers' day used up all the cheaper 

 flowers that were in the market. The 

 street boys were selling the small arti- 

 ficial carnations on the street at 5 

 cents each. Some of the "florists made 

 up windows full of small tumbler bas- 

 kets of flowers, selling them at $2 and 

 up. All in all, Mothers' day is a great 

 day. 



Outdoor lilacs are done and snow- 

 balls are almost white. The early Jap- 

 anese peonies are in bloom and the 

 early tulips are nearly done. If we 

 had a little more rain this would be 

 an ideal May. 



Various Notes. 



The Florists' Club had a splendid 

 meeting last week. The lecture and 

 pictures were fine and a few good 

 specimen plants, among them pink 

 hydrangeas from D. T, Watson's gar- 

 dens and a Cattleya Mossise with an 

 immense lot of blooms from the Pitts- 

 burgh Cut Flower Co., attracted -much 

 attention. The S. S. Pennock-Meehan 

 Co. sent fine cut blooms of the Mrs. 

 Shawyer rose. 



W. C. Beckert, the seedsman, has a 

 busy place just now, for it seems that 

 our greatest population is in the sub- 

 urbs and all are making gardens. 



The plantsmen are busy getting out 

 porch boxes, which seem to grow more 

 in favor each year, and people are 

 crowding them with orders to make de- 

 liveries at once. Clarke. 



The writer received a telephone call 

 last Sunday, May 9, after sundown, 

 from Brother Frishkorn. We aU know 

 August, but few of us know of his 

 beautiful home at Ben Avon, located 

 in the foothills just above the Alle- 

 gheny river, about six miles west of 

 Pittsburgh. Not knowing the nature 

 of the call, I thought best to take with 

 me an escort, my wife. As we have 

 just taken up a home in that suburb 

 not far from our host, we were soon 

 there. A block away, I saw a splash 

 of color such as mine eyes had never 

 gazed upon; it was not difficult to sin- 

 gle out August's home, for only a 

 florist, seedsman or professional gar- 

 dener could attempt such a lavish dis- 

 play of one kind of flowers, Darwin 

 tulips, in such a mass that, it really is 

 beyond description. Here Mr. Frish- 

 korn spends his leisure time fondling 

 these pets and keeping tab on the pro- 

 duction. One hundred and thirty dis- 

 tinct varieties were here in bloom, a 

 wonderful sight indeed. 



T. P. Langhans. 



Montgomery on Grafted Roses, sent 

 by The Review for 25 cents. 



