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12 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



Mav.26, 1904. 



decoration and shipments to out-of-town 

 florists are increasing wonderfully every 

 year. 



John Scott has been visiting Boston, 

 Newport and other New England cities, 

 exhibiting a specimen of his fern. Its 

 character and rapidity of growth all aj)- 

 peal to the commercial growers and lie- 

 reports a great demand for it. 



Alfred L^ngjahr, of the Brooklyn Hor- 

 ticultural Society, reported a special 

 meeting Monday evening, when a final 

 disposition of the surplus was made and 

 arrangements for a farewell banquet of 

 the members consummated. 



Hicks & Crawbuck, the wholesalers of 

 Brooklyn, lost a valuable wagon last 

 week in a collision with a trolley, tlio 

 horse and driver escaping injury. 



June 8 and 9 the American Peony So- 

 ciety will make an exhibit at the Bronx 

 Botanic Grarden, by invitation of th. 

 New York Horticultural Society. 



J. Austin Shaw. 



CHICAGO. 



The Market. 



The men of the market have been be- 

 tween the devil and the deep sea this weeK. 

 The change to hot, close, damp weather 

 when the plants were full of buds hold- 

 ing for Memorial day, resulted in a great 

 rush of stock of such inferior grade that 

 the wholesaler dares not ship it out to 

 his customer for fear of losing his trade 

 and at the same time the grower thinks 

 he is entitled to returns in keeping with 

 the shipping quotations. The avalanche 

 of undesirable material has completely 

 inundated the market for the first few- 

 days of this week. The local retailers 

 will not accept this inferior stuff any 

 more than will the out-of-town customer, 

 and the Greeks refuse to handle "bum" 

 roses and sleepy carnations when there- 

 is such a wealth of seasonable outdoor 

 flowers with which they can do business. 

 Consequently the waste is high. 



Of all the roses, American Beauty is 

 holding its quality the best. There are 

 still large supplies of long stock and an 

 unlimit^ quantity of shorts. - Color is 

 lacking to a certain degree, but compares 

 favorably with that of Bridesmaid, or any 

 other colored rose except Liberty and 

 Meteor. The Bride is quite eclipsed by 

 Kaigerin, although the supply of -the lat- 

 ter is small. AU roses are small in bud. 

 open and soft in texture, in fact in manv 

 of them the petals seem almost to have 

 rotted as a result of hot, damp weather. 

 Much of the foliage is unsightly because 

 of mildew. 



There are large supplies of carnations 

 at hand, but they will not stand a long 

 journey; in fact those which are re- 

 ceived fresh in the morning, if not moy«<l 

 out, are asleep by the following morning 

 and wholly unsalable. If they go to sleep 

 in the wholesaler's ice box it is not to be 

 wondered at that they go to sleep in the 

 shipping boxes, and neither is it to be 

 wondered at that the customer objects to 

 the grade of stock he is getting, but it 

 is wholly beyond the control of the 

 wholesaler 



This does <not speak for the satisfac- 

 tion which should attend the very heavy 

 business which will be done the latter 

 part of the week for Memorial day. The 

 only saving clause is that Memorial day 

 is pre-eminently an occasion where low 

 prices are more necessary than quality. 

 There will be an abundance of the ' ' our 

 selection ' ' grades, but prices on the very 

 few good roses are likely to advance. 



The retailer who is not satisfied with 

 the quality of roses and carnations can 

 fall back on the peony. The receipts in 

 the last three days have been phenome- 

 nal, far ahead of anticipations and there 

 are now literally thousands of dozens in 

 the cold storage houses waiting for the 

 rush at the last of the week. It is stock 

 from Missouri and southern Illinois, the 

 sources from which the best of the early 

 cuts have come in previous years, and the 

 receipts have been literally by the car- 

 load. Quality is excellent and the varie- 

 ties of the best, there being a consider- 

 able proportion of Festiva maxima, and 

 a few of the fine red, Kichardson 's rubra 

 superba. 



There is pretty sure to be a slaughter 

 in the cape jasmines, for there are hun- 

 dreds of cases in cold storage, early re- 

 ceipts which could not be moved and 

 which are held on the chance of a mar- 

 ket between now and next Monday. The 

 best stock seen so far is that from C. W. 

 Benson, at Alvin, Texas. As an example 

 of the way it goes, a Dr. J. D. Ward, 

 of Dickinson, Tex., on Monday shipped 

 25,000 capes consigned to the American 

 Express Company instead of to a whole- 

 sale florist. Doubtless he thought the 

 express company would be able to find a 

 better market than the florist would, but 

 the express company turned them overto 

 the commission men, dividing the ship- 

 ment into two or three lots. It was not 

 good stuff, and the consignee will be 

 lucky if he gets any return. 



The local lilac is at its height, but as 

 the weather is very warm it is likely to 

 be pretty well off by the end of the 

 week; a great deal of it shakes badly 

 already. Emil Buettner is sending in 

 some remarkably fine outdoor white lilac. 

 The Kennicotts, at The Grove, are send- 

 ing in a big crop of outdoor tulips which 

 are of good quality, but not active sale, 

 as the supply now exceeds the demand- 

 There are also considerable receipts of 

 parrot tulips. Outdoor valley is in and 

 there are still violets in the market. The 

 lily situation does not improve and there 

 are untold thousands of sweet peas to be 

 had without notice. If there is any 

 scarcity in anything it is not on record. 



Various Notes. 



The E. F. Winterson Co. has just re- 

 ceived a good-sized shipment of Belgian 

 palms in the larger sizes, for which there 

 is an active demand. 



John Poehlmann is suffering with a 

 carbuncle on his neck. They are just 

 now getting in a large crop of Beauties. 



Wietor Bros, are cutting from their 

 house of Kaiserin roses and the stock 

 is of very fine quality. 



The Kennicott Bros. Co. has arrange- 

 ments which bring them each year the 

 big cut of peonies in the vicinity of Sar- 

 KJOxie, Mo. A week ago Mr. Pieser said 

 that he counted on a big cut for Decora- 

 tion day, and now he says it is three 

 times what he anticipated. But as the 

 (^ality is all that could be asked, a 

 good market is looked for. The whites 

 were selling at $1 a dozen early in the 

 week. There is, however, likely to be a 

 bad break in prices when the local crop 

 comes on. 



George Beinberg has his big plantation 

 of carnations all in the field. It was a 

 big task because he is largely extending 

 his glass this year and because he does 

 a big business in the fall in field-grown 

 carnation plants. 



John Sinner says that his firm is stead- 

 ily extending its shipping trade and that 



he expects another year to do a big busi- 

 ness in this line. 



E. C. Amling is getting some splendit! 

 gladioli from the same grower who is 

 so successful with his lilies. 



Only one bowler brought his goott 



eye Tuesday evening and even he fell 



down in the fourth game. The score: 



Player. ' 1st. 2d. 3d. 4th. Bth. 



BaUufl 161 136 136 156 158 



Huebner 163 134 162 145 110 



Asmus 168 162 172 139 141 



F. Stollery.... 170 200 204 148 224 



Scott 180 148 139 168 162 



Stevens 160 118 132 127 116 



Uegnaii. 143 164 154 143 163 



Winterson .... 120 140 146 187 113 



Ed. Hauswlrtb. 136 146 142 147 



ST. LOUIS. 



The Market. 



The past week cut flower business was 

 more active than for some time and the 

 florists about town report some large or- 

 ders for funerals, wedding receptions, 

 dinners and "World's Fair work, where a 

 great deal of entertaining is going on 

 and the commissioners of the different 

 state buildings seem liberal in regard to 

 floral decorations. This used up the large 

 surplus of stock at the wholesale houses. 

 Transient trade among the down-town re- 

 tailers is keeping up pretty well. Sat- 

 urday and today, Monday, receipts are 

 lighter in all lines except outdoor stuff, 

 which is very plentiful. First-class stock 

 of all kinds is being cleaned up pretty 

 well and the glut seems over for a while 

 at least, and prices, too, are somewhat 

 higher on best grades. Orders for Memo- 

 rial day are coming in now and the pros- 

 pects are for good trade on that day. 

 Work for school commencements early 

 next month will help keep us busy up to 

 June 15, after which the summer stillness 

 will be on, unless the World's Fair 

 changes matters for this summer, and a 

 great many of our florists are looking 

 f(rward to good business right along. 



Boses and carnations, which have been 

 abundant, have slacked up somewhat, no 

 job lots are offered and the fakirs have 

 to content themselves with cape jasmines 

 for their street sales. American Beau- 

 ties are in fair demand, with top prices 

 ai $2.50 per dozen. In smaller roses all 

 varieties are in good demand, at prices 

 from $4 to $8 per 100. Carnations are 

 still in fine condition and the demand 

 uses up about all that come in. Fancies 

 are again up to $3, and $2 for firsts. 

 Commons run from $1 to $1.50 per 100. 

 Sweet peas are coming in by the thou- 

 sands and sell fairly well, at 50 and 75 

 cents per 100. Pink, white and lavender 

 are the choice sellers. Peonies are sell- 

 ing clean at $5 per 100. Cape jasmines 

 are 50 and 75 cents per 100 and $5 per 

 1,000. Outdoor stock, lilac, snowballs 

 and valley, are selling slowly. Smilax in 

 long strings brings 25 cents, shorts l") 

 cents. Other greens are in good supply. 



Among the plantsmen trade in all 

 kinds of plants is booming and some have 

 already completely sold out. Geraniums 

 are in great demand, in fact anything in > 

 the plant line is in big demand. The 

 greenhouse men will surely reap a har- 

 vest this year. The weather, too, has 

 been favorable to planting out the last 

 two weeks. 



Various Notes. 



George M. Kellogg was in town last 

 week attending the good roads conven- 

 tion, which was in session all of last 

 week in the Exposition building. N. B. 

 Cook, late with A. Miller, at Pawtucket, 



