/> • 



312 



The Weekly Florists^ Review^ 



Dkcehbeb 29, 1904. 



HaPPY NEW YEAR ! 



And may it be a prosperous one to you. True, we are a day early; we are always a little ahead of the times. That is the reason 

 we are successful Follow us, you can't go wrong, by using our latest ideas in FLORISTS' SUPPLIES. We have dainty little 

 Fern Dishes, Rainbow effects both in Baskets and in Pot Covers, French Baskets galore, useful folding Screens, Bamboo Pedestals, SiSk 

 Fibre Ribbons in a variety of colors, Wreaths of Cycas, Beech, Magnolia and Laurel, in every style, natural, prepared and ornamented; 

 some of them are novelties, some are standard, all are of merit. In STANDARD SUPPLIES we have Fresh Cape Flowers, all 

 colors; Wheat Sheaves, Waterjjroof Crepe Paper, Flat and Long Handled Baskets in variety and many, many other things. 



H. BAYERSDORFER & CO. 



PHILADELPHIA. 



I 

 I 



nrHE Florists' Supply House of America. 

 ^ 50, 52, 54 and 56 North Fourth Street, 



Mpntlon The ReTlew when yon write. 



DETROIT. 



The Christmas Trade. 



If a sleepy, tired and worn-out look 

 is aioy indication of a good Christmas 

 trade, then the florists of Detroit cer- 

 tainly had good business, for they all 

 had that appearance by Sunday morning. 

 My first call was at Breitmeyers ', where 

 they had eleven hacks out besides their 

 own wagons, delivering goods before 

 seven o'clock Christmas morning. They 

 report sales about evenly divided be- 

 tween cut flowers and plants, everything 

 in plants selling well except the white 

 sport of Lorraine. All hands worked 

 all night on Saturday, filling orders. Sul- 

 livan says it was a plant Christmas, with 

 poinsettias in S-inch pots in the lead 

 and not enough to go around. He said 

 the price of cut flowers ran too high, 

 but he wa8 buying carnations on Sunday 

 morning,' so they must have sold, too. 

 Schroeter did a splendid trade with 

 plants in the lead. With Taepke every- 

 thing sold and he had plants to suit the 

 purses of all classes, from 25-cent prim- 

 roses to baskets at $15. The Detroit 

 Horal Co. say the cut flower trade won 

 out in that locality, anything in red sell- 

 ing well. In plants poinsettias and 

 Boston ferns took the lead. 



A visit to the Michigan Cut Flower 

 Exchange found everything cleaned up 

 except some late mums and white carna- 

 tions. All report a very good trade in 

 green goods, especially holly, which was, 

 however, of very poor quality. During 

 the week before Christmas tne retailers 

 all were very pessimistic as to trade and 

 many were afraid to stock up, for not 

 many advance orders came in, the result 

 being that when the rush began they 

 had no stock to show their customers, so 

 lost some business which went where the 

 goods were to be seen. 



Various Notes. 



At the last meeting of the club it was 

 decided to try and secure the appoint- 

 ment of Robert Flowerday as park com- 

 missioner and a committee was named 

 to wait upon the mayor-elect to that 

 effect. The florists sJl feel that- the 

 appointment would be a most excellent 

 one, but politics may interfere, or, more 

 properly speaking, politicians. 



It looks as if about twenty will attend 

 the A. C. S. meeting in Chicago. 



Eao. 



TJniontown, Pa. — The Barton Floral 

 Co. is getting a very nice line of dec- 

 orative work. 



CHICAGO. 



The Market. 



Because of differences in dates of cuts 

 and the shiftings of growers, reports 

 vary as to how the total of Christmas 

 sales compares with last year, but where 

 a few may have, for these reasons, done 

 no more than a year ago, or even a little 

 less, others did considerably better than 

 ever before, so that in the aggregate this 

 market made another high water mark. 

 As forecasted in this column for the 

 past two weeks, the supply turned out to 

 be much heavier than was thought pos- 

 sible when the wholesalers first began 

 to figure on Christmas price lists, but 

 the demand kept pace with the supply, 

 so that prices, with a few exceptions, 

 were well maintained and all good stock 

 cleaned up. A noteworthy feature was 

 that the out-of-town business did not 

 show* an increase in proportion to the 

 increase in city business and up to Fri- 

 day things were quiet. 



Had it not been for the great numbers 

 of long Beauties used by some of the 

 first-class city stores there would have 

 been a serious over-supply on this item, 

 for the receipts were very great, and as 

 it was, when a customer called for 24- 

 inch stems, sometimes the wholesaler 

 would take a dozen long-stemmed flow- 

 ers back of the icebox and bring out the 

 required length. The holiday call for 

 Beauties was never more fully satisfied 

 in this market. 



The Christmas call is always for first- 

 class stock and a good many more Maids 

 and some more Brides of the highest 

 quality could have been used to ad- 

 vantage. The shortage of this grade 

 made a fair market for the seconds and 

 the "crap" also profited, but there 

 were very few times during the week 

 when plenty of this could not be found. 

 In the end, however, the roses all cleaned 

 up at prices in keeping with the quality. 

 Of course Liberty and Meteor were far 

 short of the demand, as is always the 

 case at Christmas. 



Carnations held up to quoted rates, 

 with red and fancy Enchantress bringing 

 top-notch prices, but white had to be 

 forced on the buyers or sold below the 

 price of colored stock, and some were 

 carried over. Violets, next in impor- 

 tance, were very weak, the only item 

 which did not do as well as might be 

 asked. Never before did so many east- 

 em violets reach this market. They 

 came literally by wagon loads and the 



market went to pieces. The buyer made 

 the price and Tuesday still saw some of 

 Saturday's receipts unsold. The singles 

 did fairly well, considering, but there 

 was little chance for Campbell. Poin- 

 settias, good mignonette, etc., cleaned up 

 well. Paper "V^tes and Romans hung 

 but valley sold well. 



Taking it all in all, quality was as 

 good as can be expected when so much 

 storing must inevitably be done, and 

 prices on good stock held unusually well. 

 There was a little weakening on Friday, 

 but as soon as the city trade started 

 the market for good stuff stiffened again. 

 At least one wholesale house was deliv- 

 ering goods all night Saturday. Sunday 

 saw good business, taking all stock in 

 sight, and Monday, with light receipts, 

 the demand kept up. Tuesday there was 

 not much doing and not much to do with, 

 so that the market continues steady, car- 

 nations stiff and long Beauties the weak- 

 est item on the list. 



The Retail Trade. 



The retailers are a unit in declaring 

 this the best Christmas to date. They 

 had all prepared for good business, but 

 few had counted on a record-breaker, 

 and the way they "hollered" for sup- 

 plies Saturday night and Sunday morn- 

 ing was a pleasure to the, at that time 

 somewhat disappointed, wholesalers. They 

 used immense quantities of cut stock of 

 all sorts and, after the market stiffened 

 from its single slight weakness, did not 

 question price if they were so fortunate 

 as to find the goods they wanted of the 

 desired quality. Many of them worked 

 all night Saturday. Thousands of 

 Christmas bells, wreaths, etc., were sold 

 and many used up their stocks of hamp- 

 ers, baskets, pot covers, etc., before all 

 their orders were out. Every Christmas 

 plant was sold. Indeed, had there been 

 more plants the sales on cut flowers 

 would have been less, for some of the 

 leading stores reported that many cus- 

 tomers chose plants in preference to cut 

 stock so long as the supply lasted. 

 Azaleas were very well flowered and the 

 principal item in blooming plants, but 

 poinsettias in pans, also cyclamens, sold 

 well and primroses were popular in bas- 

 kets and hampers. Aucubas, ardisias 

 and solanums were fairly abundant and 

 took well. Very little ribbon but many 

 pot covers were used. 



Various Notes. 



George Beinberg had a phenomenal 

 cut of Beauties for the holiday and sold 



