14 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



May 26. 1904. 



PACIFIC COAST. 



Elmhurst, Cal.— Paul W. Grallert, 

 who has been located in the nursery 

 business at Colma, is building the larg- 

 est greenhouses in the state at his prop- 

 erty on the Yoakum tract. There are 

 now twelve nurseries located at Elm- 

 hurst within the radius of a mile. 



The California deciduous fruit season 

 opened April 30, with the shipment of 

 a box of Sacramento valley cherries. The 

 first box was sold in Chicago for $25 

 or $3.12 a pound. The second sale was 

 made in New York and the figure was 

 $21. The third sale, made in Philadel- 

 phia, at auction, was a record breaker, 

 eight pounds of cherries bringing the 

 remarkable price of $70. 



Feesno, Cal. — S. W. Marshall, the 

 well-known pioneer nurseryman, has just 

 reorganized his business and has incor 

 porated several new departments. The 

 business, established fifteen years ago, 

 has up to the present time been con- 

 ducted along the lines of a general nurs- 

 ery. But the local demand for high 

 class ornamental trees and plants has in- 

 creased so within the last five years that 

 it has been found necessary to expand. 

 Hereafter the company will be prepared 

 to supply all classes of nursery stock, 

 both fruit and ornamental. They are 

 also planning a new range of greenhouses 

 for growing cut flowers for the local 

 trade. As CaJifomia is fast becoming 

 * ' the land of beautiful homes, ' ' they v^lJ 

 also be prepared to execute landscape 

 work of every description, based upon a 

 thorough knowledge of soil and climatic 

 conditions. 



. SAN FRANCISCO. 



The Spring Flower Show. 



The third annual spring exhibition of 

 the Pacific Coast Horticultural Society 

 opened May 12. This is not only the 

 finest show ever given by this society 

 from the quantity of exhibits but from 

 a standpoint of quality also. Great 

 credit is due to H. Plath and the board 

 of directors, for certainly there has 

 never been anything like it in San Fran- 

 cisco. The section of the nave of the ferry 

 building in which the exhibits have been 

 placed resembles a beautiful garden and 

 the stands against the walls were piled 

 high with enormous bunches of roses 

 and carnations and everything else in 

 season. The exhibits were in four 

 classes, comprising cut flowers, plants, 

 floral designs and amateur exhibits. The 

 committee to whom credit is due for 

 the excellent arrangement consisted of 

 John McLaren, S. Clack and Geo. Wal- 

 ters. A very fine lot of roses and car- 

 nations from John Young, of Berkeley, 

 and pxhibitetl by F. Pelicano, was miuti 

 admired but they were not entered for 

 competition. 



The finest vase of roses in Ihe exhibit 

 was a bunch of Beauties with six-foot 

 stems and flowers to match shown by 

 Ferrari Bros., and the finest single 

 bunch of carnations was a huge vase of 

 Hannah ftlobart, from Sievers & Co. 

 This firnr'-also received first prizes for 

 their exhibit of about 100 varieties of 

 pelargoniums and for the best collection 

 of decorative plants staged for effect. 

 P. C. Meyer, of Burlingame, although 



, young in the business, made some of 

 the older growers stare. He captured 

 the first prize for the largest collection 

 of roses grown under glass and also 

 for the largest assortment of carnations. 

 Mr. Meyer and his foreman, Mr. Breen, 

 deserve great credit for their exhibit, 

 which was one of the finest in the show. 

 Ferrari Bros, have a very good assort- 

 ment of roses grown under glass and 

 their exhibit of irises in about twelve 

 varieties received first prize. Of out- 

 door grown roses F. Ludemann had the 

 finest collection, consisting of over 200 

 varieties. Mr. Ludemann also showed 

 a large assortment of palms, ferns and 

 decorative plants. The finest single fern 

 was a magnificent specimen of Adiantumf 

 cuncatuni with a three-foot crown 

 shown by H. Plath, who also received first 

 prize for his collection of pansies and 

 his exhibit of ferns. The California 

 Nursery Co., of Niles, had a large and 

 comprehensive showing of hardy out- 

 door flowers. They received first prize 

 for their exhibit of clematis, consisting 

 of about a dozen varieties, also first 

 prize for peonies and second prizes for 

 their exhibits of shrubbery and field- 

 grown roses. 



One of the largest and finest exhibits 

 in the show was that of about 100 va- 

 rieties of sweet peas grown by C. C. 

 Morse & Co., of Santa Clara. Wm. Ket- 

 tlewell, gardener to Geo. A. Pope, ol' 

 Burlingame, captured first prize for larg- 

 est collection of garden flowers as well 

 as prizes for pansies and pelargoniums. 

 J. W. Bagge exhibited the best collec- 

 tion of coleus and a splendid specimen 

 of staghorn fern. Fick & Faber, the 

 Redwood City Carnation Co. and Henr^ 

 L. Goertzhain also had good collections' 

 of carnations and the Vawter Carnation 

 Co. had the only exhibit of outdoor 

 grown flowers. Thos. Thompson exhibit- 

 ed several blooms of the yellow calla and 

 the Leedham Bulb Co., also of Santa 

 Cruz, had a good showing of late flower- 

 ing bulbs. W. A. Crocker had a large 

 collection of flowering shrubs and the 

 Golden Gate park exhibited two giant 

 bowls of hardy nymphaeas and a fine 

 assortment of ferns, calceolarias, azaleas 

 and stove plants. 



The Market. 



Flowers at last are a glut. Carna- 

 tions can be had at any price. I saw 

 forty dozen Flora Hill sold today for 

 $'Z and they were good stock. There is 

 a fair price for fancy sorts but for the 

 usual list it is useless to quote any fig- 

 ures. I do not hear many growers com- 

 plaining about not being able to sell 

 their roses. Most of this stock is good 

 and will continue so until we have a spell 

 of warm weather. Sweet peas are an- 

 other drug at present; one almost has to 

 pay the florists for taking them. Coreop- 

 sis, gaillardias and bachelor's buttons 

 are handled in large quantities and can 

 be had at any price. Japanese irises are 

 being brought in by a few growers and 

 they are good sellers. They keep well 

 and are splendid for decorative purposes. 

 They cost the florists from $3 to $5 per 

 hundred. 



The glut will be over in a couple of 

 weeks, however, and then things will in a 

 measure right themselves again. There 

 has been considerable work for school 

 commencements during the past week, 

 and more to follow, but outside of this 

 there is very little doing. Funeral work 

 has been scarce all around and the onlv 



thing we have to console us is that Deco- 

 ration day is near at hand. 



Various Notes. 



At the monthly meeting of the Cali- 

 fornia State Floral Society, Rudolph 

 Ljchtenberg read an interesting paper on 

 the oils and essences to be found in per- 

 fume flowers. He said that in the city 

 of Grasse in France, where the largest 

 perfume factories are to be found, over 

 3,000,000 pounds of rose leaves yearly 

 are consumed in the making of the vari- 

 ous perfumes for the trade, the annual 

 sale from these extracts being over $1,- 

 000,000. He further explained that there 

 are jiinety-seven factories for the produc- 

 tion of the essential oils in the United 

 States, only one of which is situated in 

 California which he considered the one 

 land of all others that should lead in 

 this production. 



S. W. Marshall, of Fresno, one of the 

 pioneer nurserymen of the coast, is in 

 town. 



The Board of Public Works of Oak- 

 land has adopted a resolution whereby 

 all the city gardeners will receive a two 

 weeks' vacation each year without any 

 less of wages. G. 



PORTLAND, ORE. 



The Market. 



There is not much doing in the retail 

 line to enthuse over, in fact it may be 

 said that trade generally is not as active 

 as it was a year ago. Excessive rain in 

 the early season retarded the progress of 

 outdoor work and threw so many out of 

 employment that currency appears to be 

 troubled with poor circulation. Cut flow- 

 ers of the better grades are still bringing 

 good prices and anything new offered 

 meets with a favorable reception. With 

 stock so plentiful we could easily handle 

 some good decorations, which at this 

 writing are as scarce as Russian naval 

 victories. Pretty Miss Pond Lily has 

 made her debut and as grown here, only 

 in limited quantities, will be deservedly 

 popular for the next six weeks. They 

 retail at $1.50 per dozen. It was only 

 a few years ago that the first plants 

 were brought to the northwest. While 

 flowers are abundant, smilax and aspar- 

 agus are decidedly scarce, but then we 

 have recourse to the tall timber where 

 is found the beautiful Oregon grape and 

 huckleberry, much used by the florists 

 here in making up large bunches and 

 funeral work. These are preferred by 

 our customers to the common wood fern. 



From many inquiries and orders al- 

 ready booked we have reason to expect 

 a big Decoration day trade. From east- 

 ern Oregon and Idaho, where the season 

 is late, comes the heaviest demand. 



Various Notes. 



The plantsmen are through with their 

 rush and satisfied with results. Gera- 

 niums and other bedding plants are not 

 so extensively used here as they are in 

 the eastern cities. Everybody has a 

 mania for roses and little protection is 

 needed in our climate. The earlier va- 

 rieties are already blooming and the 

 middle of June will see them all out in 

 profusion, when our Rose Society expects 

 to give its annual show. 



Since Congress has given an appro- 

 priation of $500,000 for the Lewis and 

 Clark fair, greater activity is noticed at 

 the fair grounds. Work in every depart- 



