f.i 



ir 



356 



The Weekly Florists^ Review/ 



JANUABX 5, 1905. 



A STORE AND A NOVELTY. 



The illustration on page 355 shows 

 the store of Seeking & LeBorious, at 

 Duluth, as it appeared at Christmas. 

 They did a fine business and increased 

 their sales about fifty-five per cent as 

 compared with the previous year. Red 

 of course had the call. Poinsettias sold 

 well. Eed carnations were very scarce 

 but red roses about met the demand. 

 The way plants sold made one think of 

 Easter. 



One curious order they had was to 

 ma^e a "bouquet" of twenty-five one- 

 dollar bills for a customer for delivery 

 Christmas morning. It was certainly a 

 novelty and they placed the "bouquet" 

 among the flowers in one of their win- 

 dows, where it attracted much attention, 

 getting them a good write-up in one of 

 the daily papers. 



THE GOOD OLD YEAR. 



"Th^ king is dead; long live the 

 king." The good old year is gone and 

 our thoughts are directed toward the 

 young year just at hand, but it is worth 

 while to pause to review the work of 

 1904 and gather from it such lessons as 

 we may for application to the tasks 

 which lie before us. 



For those of the cut flower trade, par- 

 ticularly in the greart cities, 1904 was 

 ushered in with no fair augury. In 

 New York the stock market, that barom- 

 eter of prosperity for the leading retail 

 florists and hence for the wholesalers and 

 producers, was flat on its back with a 



which the shipping demand was the sole 

 salvation of an over-loaded market. Dur- 

 ing the first few months of the year the 

 flower business throughout the country 

 felt the lassitude of the business depres- 

 sion general in other lines but the smaller 

 the town and the farther west one went 

 the less apparent was the check to re- 

 tail demand. 



The summer is always quiet as to cut 

 flowers and in the autumn trade was 

 slow in awakening but sudden frosts 

 brought prosperity to the man with the 

 house of early mums. Then came a 

 quiet period up to the fall flower shows, 

 since which the retail cut flower trade 

 has struck its old gait. The quadren- 

 nial national election had less deterrent 

 effect than usual this time. 



The demand for cut flowers has shown 

 a constantly widening market for high 

 grade stock and a constantly narrowing 

 market for the low grades, with grow- 

 ers in all the large centers keeping pace 

 with the trend here indicated. 



As to the holidays, Easter saw a very 

 large business in practically all parts of 

 the country, exceeding previous records 

 and in the big cities affording a wel- 

 come oasis in a somewhat dry season. 

 The lilies brought fair prices and all 

 other cut flowers made good money, with 

 good crops general. The call for flow- 

 ering plants was large but there was no 

 shortage. Decoration day was more im- 

 portant in a florist's view point than 

 heretofore and it may be noted that this 

 is a repetition of the experience of re- 

 cent years. For memorial purposes quan- 



Christmas Plants at Alex. McG>nnell's, New York. 



severe attack of indigestion. The symp- 

 toms pointed to the necessity for a 

 major surgical operation but this, hap- 

 pily for the patient and the many sor- 

 rowing friends, was averted and by 

 autumn the ' * spenders ' ' were flush again. 

 In Chicago the Iroquois theater disaster 

 had put a quietus on all social activity 

 just as 1903 went out and the effects of 

 the blew- tieahr the Tetairflo we r" "business 

 were apparent for many months, during 



tity is more important than quality but 

 the aggregate of sales is very large. 

 Just after Decoration day came a tre- 

 mendous crop of peonies, which sold 

 cheaply. Thanksgiving is not a day 

 which looms large on the florists' cal- 

 endar but it marked the real awakening 

 of the fall business and was generally 

 agtisfaftory, Christmaa itL 4«e— fresh-fn 

 mind to need much comment. The ag- 

 gregate of sales was never greater but 



seldom were holiday demands more fully 

 met. There was a weak market for 

 white. Plants sold out clean if well 

 grown. The tendency was to use little 

 ribbon but many pot covers. Baskets 

 and hampers of growing plants were 

 great sellers. Azaleas did splendidly. 

 This is a day for select stock and it 

 brought fine prices. 



With the general plantsmen the spring 

 was a good one. The call for geraniums 

 was never greater and everything in flow- 

 er by the end of May was sold. In 

 some places bedding stock sold up to 

 the end of June. Vincas, ivies and 

 echeveria were in short supply. Bedding 

 roses never sold better and stocks of 

 leading varieties were cleaned up early. 

 Cannas started in pots did not go around. 

 More pansy plants were wanted. Many 

 peonies were planted in the spring and 

 a great many more in the fall. 



The rooted cutting specialists found 

 a big sale for carnations but no great 

 call for roses, nor did young rose plants 

 in pots sell as in 1903, possibly due to 

 the growing tendency toward carrying 

 stock two or more years. Chrysanthe- 

 mum cuttings never sold better. Field- 

 grown carnation plants did not clean 

 up; in the middle west many thousands 

 were left to freeze up. 



The dealers in novelties had a good 

 year. In new roses the offerings were 

 limited and sales not phenomenal but 

 an even larger number of new carnations 

 than usual was offered and all have 

 found buyers in such quantities as to 

 hold out incentive for continued activ- 

 ity on the part of the growers. The grow- 

 ing popularity of the carnation affords 

 every incentive to grow the improved 

 sorts. 



Greehouse builders have some interest- 

 ing comparisons to make between the 

 construction of new glass in 1904 and 

 in 1903. Almost without exception they 

 ♦report a small falling off, but a further 

 examination shows that the decrease 

 from the usual amount of building 

 in the big cut flower centers, par- 

 ticularly in Cook county, Illinois, was 

 considerably more than the aggr^rate 

 falling off in the whole country, so that, 

 while the big cut flower growers did less 

 building than usual, the general florists 

 throughout the country built more than 

 usual. 



A notable and perhaps the most impor- 

 tant feature of the year was the great 

 awakening of public interest in things 

 floricultural. The fall flower shows 

 were unusually successful and the general 

 publications of all classes are giving 

 more space than ever before to the af- 

 fairs of our craft and to gardening 

 topics. This should receive every en- 

 couragement at our hands and we should 

 see to it that whenever possible the press 

 is supplied with sane matter pertaining 

 to our trade and our wares, for the pow- 

 er of the press as a developer of any 

 industry can scarce be over estimated. 



MUM MISS WINNIE TERRY. 



The notes last week regarding Miss 

 Winnie Terry were a little bit mislead- 

 ing in speaking of this as one of the 

 Wells set for 1904. While Mr. Wells 

 helped distribute the stock, the vari- 

 ety was raised in England by Wm. Bry- 

 ant and should not be confused with the 

 Australian-raised Wells-Packett set 

 which have be en uniformly— good — ver 

 lheir~Behavior in this country. 



It is undoubtedly climatic conditions 

 that are responsible for the fact that 



