Apbil 27, 1905. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



J 379 



Qneraria SteQata. 



a florist. The free offering of the in- 

 dividuals was the thing and so it has 

 dwindled to nothing and we have no 

 reason to regret it. The business is 

 greater than ever, but in another di- 

 rection. 



I regret to say that during Mr. Kas- 

 ting 's busy week his good wife was taken 

 down seriously sick. There is now every 

 hope of her recovery, and we all sincerely 

 trust it may be so. Excuse me, Mr. 

 Editor, I used the word "sick," not 

 "ill." Sick is correct, for we have the 

 Bible as an authority. "Ill" is a late 

 importation of modern English. W. S. 



ELMIRA, N. Y. 



The Easter trade this year has been 

 very satisfactory, both in respect to de- 

 mand and prices. The demand was such 

 that growers were turning away orders 

 early in the week. This was partly owing 

 to thei extra demand and partly to the 

 protracted spell of dark and inclement 

 weather just previous to Easter week, 

 which considerably shortened the cut. 



Boses were good and not over plentiful 

 and ranged in price from $4 to $8 per 

 hundred for teas. Meteors were $4 to 

 $10. Beauties were plentiful and in 

 good demand at from $3 to $10 per 

 dozen, according to length of stem. 



Carnations were very scarce, not nearly 

 enough to go around, which helped to keep 

 prices up. They sold readily at $3 for 

 common, $4 to $5 for select and $6 to 

 $7 for special, but even at higher of- 

 fers they could not be purchased toward 

 the end of the week. There was a fair 

 supply of nice lilies which easily brought 

 12% cents per bud. Lily of the valley 

 was scarce but not in great demand, the 

 best quality realizing $3.50 per hundred. 



Owing to the warm spell of two weeks 

 ago and the lateness of the season, vio- 

 lets were scarce and of poor quality. 

 There was an abundance of greens, such 

 as smilax, asparagus, etc., and a fair 



demand for it. Bulbous stock was plen- 

 tiful but the demand was slow and, in- 

 deed, it is a question if there is any 

 profit in this class of stock, and many of 

 the growers have almost given up hand- 

 ling it for Easter trade and the pros- 

 pects for our Holland friends are poor 

 so far as this city is concerned. 



There was a good trade in flowering 

 and decorative plants, the retailers 



claiming this as one of their best sea- 

 sons on these lines, the various stores 

 showing handsome specimens of azaleas, 

 lilies, palms, etc., and I noticed that by 

 Saturday they were well cleaned up» — 



TJ15, United. States Cut Flower Co., 

 which is exclusively wholesale, had an 

 exeeptionally fine cut of roses, particu- 

 larly Beauties. They also had an im- 

 mense stock of Easter lilies, which were 

 of a high grade and sold well. 



I regret to have to announce the sud- 

 den demise of Hulbert Gibbs. He was 

 with The United States Cut Flower Co. 

 from the start and had by his genial 

 manner won the respect and friendship 

 of all. Mr. Gibbs was thirty-two years 

 of age and unmarried. R. 



BLUE HYDRANGEAS. 



"On a recent visit to Messrs. J. Veitch 

 & Sons," says a writer in the Horticul- 

 tural Trade Journal, "I noted a fine lot 

 of plants, most of them having from 

 five to seven heads of bloom, and those 

 fully developed were of a clear deep 

 blue, certainly the most distinct shade 

 of blue we have seen. It is the variety 

 known as Hortensia rosea, and the color 

 is obtained by potting in soil that con- 

 tains a certain amount of iron, and alum 

 is dissolved in the water used for water- 

 ing. Although an artificial means of 

 obtaining the color, the deep blue heads 

 of bloom are very pretty and form a 

 striking contrast to the deep pink of the 

 normal form of Hortensia rosea, which 

 is the brightest rosy pink variety growB, 

 The individual flowers and the heads of 

 bloom are not so large! as the ordinary 

 Hortensia, but it is very free and should 

 be worth taking in hand by market 

 growers. This variety is grown exten- 

 sively by Messrs. Truffaut & Sons, of 

 Versailles, and in conversation with Mr. 

 Truflfaut I learned that they bring them 

 on to flower at Christmas and New 

 Year, when they are much in demand 



A Seedling of Cineraria Stellata G-ossed with C Hybrida. 



