1384 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



Apbil 27, 1905. 



in the Growers ' Market having been add- 

 ed to the facilities of Vaughan & Sper- 

 ry, wlio will continue to handle much of 

 the cut of the Grand Rapids growers. 

 The extra space was needed, as their 

 business is steadily growing. 



Kennicott Bros. Co. has received sam- 

 ples of the high growing southern huckle- 

 berry from Caldwell the Woodsman 

 Co., Evergreen, Ala. It is a fine thing 

 and said to keep well. It is practically 

 the only decorative grceu used in San 

 Francisco and will come in handy here 

 nq\y that wild sinihtx is orrtr " — 



■Ther? are likely to be j)lenty of lilies 

 from now until iJecoration day, as sev- 

 eral good sized lots were late for Easter. 

 Sam Pearce is reported to have quite a 

 batch that did not make it and so have 

 Bassett & Washourn and Emil Buettner. 



The first ord?r for 1,000 cuttings of 

 the Rudd-Hill new carnation. Lady Mar- 

 garet, come from J. E. .Tensen, of Jen- 

 sen & Dekema. 



A. G. Princ;', formerly in the green- 

 house business at Hint^dale, and in the 

 wholesal" business on \\ abash avenue, is 

 preparing to put up greenhouses at Iowa 

 City, la. 



P. M. Broadbeck, at Evanston, is send- 

 ing Kennicott Bros. Co. some wonderful 

 Sprengeri. Every spray is four fed 

 long or over. 



Bassett & Washburn report that the 

 call for grafted roses has exceeded their 

 anticipations and the supplj'. 



John Poehlmann says that he looks for 

 a continued shortage of smilax and rec- 

 ord prices for really good strings. 

 Much of the stock now coming in is so 

 poor the retailers will not use it. 



George Scott is back at Winterson 's 

 after seven weeks spent in the country. 



NEW YORK. 



The Easter Market. 



Easter is once more a memory and to 

 many the pleasantest memory of all tjie 

 years. Never was the general prosperity 

 in the retail trade so universal. No more 

 perfect weather was ever made for the 

 occasion. Not a cloud marred Saturday 

 and Easter Sunday itself was unexcelled 

 for warmth, clear skies and every requi- 

 site in weather. 



But the wholesale market was up 

 against too many obstacles to materialize 

 the prices or amount of purchasing nec- 

 essary to make the Easter satisfactory. 

 The street was flooded with everything 

 but violets. Considerable pickling was 

 in evidence. The holdovers of Thurs- 

 day and Friday, which would have sold 

 well on these days, came in so heavily on 

 Saturday that no possible outlet for 

 them could be found. American Beau- 

 ties, the best, actually could be had on 

 Saturday evening at $15 per hundred. 

 Some of the roses were grand, substance, 

 color and stem never better, but 12 cents 

 was top all day for the best Maids and 

 Brides and this rate fell to 10 and 8 

 cents as the night wore on. There were 

 too many red roses. To this fact the 

 downfall of Beauty may be attributed. 



As to the pickled stuff, the less said 

 the better. We thought we had seen the 

 last of it. This year the picklers will 

 about get what is coming to them. If 

 there are any returns at all for this 

 pickled stock, I am much mistaken. There 

 can only be one practical way of stopping 

 this imposition and that is refusing to 

 accept the stuff and returning it to the 

 sender at his expense. This plan might 



lose the wholesaler a grower now and 

 then, but such growers are a menace to 

 the business. 



Violets are done. They ended the sea- 

 son very creditably. I suppose fifty 

 more new houses will go up now, as the 

 prices were quite encouraging. Fine 

 specimens actually touched $1.50. Most 

 of the stock went at $1, although much 

 of the receipts were not worth over 50 

 cents. But as always, good quality 

 meant good prices and hundreds of thou- 

 sands commanded $1 without difficulty. 

 Some of the big retail houses handled 

 from 50,000 to 100,000. 



The preparatory days for Easter for 

 nearly two weeks were cool, clear, per- 

 fect, just what were required both for 

 the cut flower growers and the plants- 

 men. The late Easter did not develop 

 the discouraging results which might 

 naturally have been expected. The late 

 spring was made to order for the florists. 

 But plants rather than cut flowers may 

 be relied upon for all time to constitute 

 the bulk of the Easter trade. Up to 

 Saturday evening there was no call for 

 anything but blooming plants and 

 hardly a plant remains unsold anywhere 



Enclosed is a P. O. order for $1.00 

 for which please send 



for another year. I find it a great 

 help in buying^ and selling. 



I think it is the Greatest Florists' 

 Paper out and I would not do with- 

 out it. 



WM. H. CATANESE. 

 Norristown, Pa. 



April 17, 1905. 



in the city. The greenhouses are empty, 

 the stores are depleted, even the side- 

 walk merchants sold out clean. It 

 would seem as if every house in New 

 York and Brooklyn had its flowering me- 

 mento of the day. The plant markets, 

 too, were sharers in the great prosperity. 

 Everywhere that plants bloomed there 

 were eager buyers. Even telephone or- 

 ders were sent to the plantsmen on 

 Saturday afternoon to renew the supplv 

 so that advance orders might be filled, 

 everything on hand having been sold. 



Lilies were in great demand. They 

 sold at retail at from 20 to 35 cents a 

 flower. The latter price became general 

 toward the end. M any plants were left 

 at all they were daisies and genistas, 

 big ones, too large for homes, but good 

 enough for the coming weddings of the 

 week, and there are a lot of them, so 

 nothing was lost. 



The lesson seems to be that the New 

 York market can absorb all that is good 

 of all the growers in and around the 

 city and still have room for more. The 

 voice of the future, the great advance in 

 population and wealth, the growing love 



for nature's offerings in plant and 

 flower, all speak with, no uncertain 

 sound, "He who runs may read." 



At wholesale the best lilies in pots 

 maintained their price, 12 cents. This 

 was the top and good stock brought the 

 figure readily. Many who cut the rate 

 to 10 cents did so unnecessarily, but on 

 the other hand, many who sold at 10 

 cents got all that their stock was worth. 

 Some poor ones went to the department 

 stores at 8 cents and less, but that was 

 ^ where they belonged. 

 '^- Big sales of. flowering plants were* 

 made at the auction rooms for Easter. 

 The tent is up again at Canal street for 

 the plant market :.nd "open at all 

 hours" may honestly be painted on the 

 canvas. It is well worth sitting up all 

 night to see the busy throng long be- 

 fore "sun-up" in the morning. Here 

 is where the veteran Scot, John Birnie, 

 reigns. 



This week finds the wholesale cut 

 flower market still overstocked and 

 prices on the downward grade. On Tues- 

 day roses sold at $10 per thousand. 

 There are immense shipments of both 

 roses and carnations. 



The Retail Displays. 



The retail stores of New York are 

 unequaled in the world. It would take 

 a volume to describe them all. Lessons 

 in decoration and the benefit of expert 

 choosing of salable stock for the next 

 Easter may be drawn from a brief ref- 

 erence to some of the best known and 

 most progressive of them. 



David Clarke 's Sons have some of the 

 finest windows for decoration purposes. 

 Nearly forty feet of glass on the boule- 

 vard is available. One of their novel- 

 ties is a window devoted to aquariums. 

 The best of_ the Japanese piscatorial 

 novelties are seen here and singing birds 

 add to the attractiveness of the big 

 store. From their own greenhouses came 

 some mammoth genistas, spiraea. Ram- 

 blers and lilies. Every plant that went 

 out was supplied with a waterproof cover 

 and every cover with its ribbons was 

 prepared in advance. They had sev- 

 eral hundred tubs of lilies filled by them- 

 selves. With ribbons these were made 

 to average from $5 to $10 each. They 

 sold fast. Their report may be taken as 

 the universal one. Everybody bought 

 earlier than other years and had deliv- 

 eries made earlier and up to Thursday 

 night business had aggregated more than 

 for the whole week other years and Fri- 

 day, Saturday and Sunday were "vel- 

 vet." Golf vases and the ducklings 

 with their chariots were prominent in 

 their windows, and in almost every 

 window. 



Warendorff, at the Ansonia and on 

 Broadway and Madison and Seventh ave- 

 nue, had beautiful windows, their spe- 

 cialty everywhere being mirror effects and 

 great neatness and taste always in evi- 

 dence every day as well as holidays, 

 just as should be the system every- 

 where. There is never an excuse for 

 a neglected window and never a prosper- 

 ous florist who has one. At the Ansonia 

 Mrs. Warendorff makes her headquar- 

 ters, the mother of florists and still hale 

 and hearty at 66 years. Twenty-five 

 years ago, on Fourteenth street, she 

 began the business which has grown to 

 such proportions and will soon be in- 

 corporated. Five of her sons are asso- 

 ciated with her. Edward has just re- 

 turned from Chicago and will have his 

 own store in the fall. Mrs. Warendorff 





