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1448 



ThcWcddy Florists' Review* 



IClZ 4. 1906. 



April 23. The deceased was 34 years of 

 age and a native of Dorsetshire, Eng- 

 land, having been in the vicinity of Bos- 

 ton about fifteen years. He leaves a 

 widow and baby for whom great sym- 

 pathy is felt. This is taking a practical 

 nature, as a subscription among the gar- 

 deners and florists on their behalf testi- 

 fies. For some" time the deceased has 

 been suffering from melancholy and his 

 friends fear that in a state of temporarj- 

 insanity he may have committed suicide. 



Alexander McKay will grow chrysan- 

 themums and carnations in his new house 

 now being erected, dimensions of which 

 are 31x300. He will later grow roses. 



Colonel Charles Pfaff, a well known ex- 

 hibitor at the Boston shows, through his 

 gardener, George Melvin, has just sold 

 his fine estate in South Framingham to 

 a syndicate and has purchased Mrs. A. 

 W. Spencer's estate, where Alex. McKay 

 has been in charge. 



J. T. Butterworth is shipping some 

 fine seasonable orchids to Carbone's and 

 other high cifss stores. 



Foresib fires, which havC been numer- 

 ous this spring, owing to the dryness of 

 the season, have threatened several 

 greenhouse* plants. That of the H. A. 

 Stevens Co. had a narrow escape very 

 recently and considerable damage to theii* 

 stock was caused by smoke. The fire 

 was caused by sparks on the N. Y. N. 

 H. & H. E. E. and that company seems 

 disposed to settle for damage done. 



W. N. Craig. 



PHILADELPHIA. 



The Market 



The volume of business in the fash- 

 ionable retail stores is steadily declin- 

 ing. The quality of cut flowers is excel- 

 lent for May, with prices fairly well 

 maintained. There is always at" this 

 season a large quantity of stodc that 

 brings small return, reducing the aver- 

 age price considerably. Quality tells 

 heavily even now, the good stock averag- 

 ing well, when cost of production is con- 

 sidered. The feature of the rose market 

 is the arrival of the first new crop 

 Beauties, exceptionally fine flowers on 

 short stems, sent by Carl Jurgens, of 

 Newport, E. I., to the Leo Niessen Co. 

 This company is also receiving Miniature 

 gladiolus and is very strong on valley. 



Albert Woltemate, of Germantown, is 

 sending well finished fancy blooms of 

 white snapdragon to S. S. Pennock. 

 Sweet peas are exo(?ptionally fine, al- 

 though a little too plentiful. Easter 

 lilies and callas are numerous and not 

 in demand. This week smilax continues 

 scarce. Orchids are a little more plenti- 

 ful. 



The New Decorative Green. 



I had the pleasure of seeing some sam- 

 ple cases of southern huckleberry 

 branches at the Leo Niessen Co.'s this 

 week. It bears a pretty, rather delicate 

 green leaf, with tiny white blossoms, 

 and should prove a good substitute for 

 wild smilax, which disappeared with the 

 advent of Easter. There is good reason 

 to believe that the huckleberrry will stand 

 well. Used in conjunction with spring 

 blossoms, it should be a great aid to the 

 decorators. 



Easter Echoes. 

 A good deal of interest has been ex- 

 pressed in the sales of Easter plants by 



the department stores. The general 

 feeling appears to be that these sales are 

 detrimental to the business. One of our 

 most prominent florists, however, be- 

 lieves that this view is a mistaken one. 

 He cites lilies as an example. The mar- 

 ket price for lilies in pots was 10 to 12 

 cents for each bud and bloom. The de- 

 partment stores as a rule paid 9 cents. 

 They ' bought in quantity, taking the 

 plants as they came and counting all the 

 buds. They sold them at 12 cents, con- 

 sidering the plants more in the light of 

 an advertisement than as a money mak- 

 ing investment. The result of these 

 department store displays was a big 

 advertisement of Easter plants. Many 

 persons seeing them went at once to 

 their regular florist and ordered what 

 they had most fancied. It was instanced 

 that the sale of azaleas fell off consid- 

 erably in some of the large retail florists' 

 stores as a result of the azaleas not 

 being on sale in the department Stores. 



I am inclined to think there is much 

 truth in this view of the- case. A very 

 large percentage of flower buyers buy 

 plants because they want them, not be- 

 cause they are cheap. When quality 

 is good and price fair they prefer buy- 

 ing from a reputable florist. 



A leading wholesaler comments unfa- 

 vorably on the Easter quotation for 

 American Beauties in this column of 

 $5 to $6 a dozen, He says it should 

 be $5 to $7.50 a dozen. That is true; 

 a few hundred of the best Beauties were 

 sold at $7.50 a dozen, but it has never 

 been the practice of this column to 

 quote prices beyond the average. By some 

 error the price of daffodils last week 

 was marked too low. 



Qub Meeting. 



Tuesday's meeting of the Florists' 

 Club made up in interest what it lacked 

 in attendance. Burbanlc's achievements 

 as a hybridizer was the subject of a 

 paper read by Edwin Lonsdale. There 

 was a general discussion afterward. 

 Both paper and comments were full of 

 interest. Conard & Jones Co., of West 

 Grove, exhibited some nice plants of Baby 

 Eambler from small pots. Antoine 

 Wintzer, who grew them, described their 

 characteristics and those of some other 

 new varieties, closing with a spirited ap- 

 peal for home roses. He was warmly 

 applauded. 



Vartooi Notes. 



James M. Thoirs, of Camden, had a 

 most satisfactory Easter. He was 

 obliged to secure a fresh stock of Easter 

 lilies, both cut and in pots. 



The Philadelphia Carnation Co. has 

 about planted all their young stock out 

 in the field. Harry Crawford says they 

 are a very promising lot of about 40,000. 



E. G. Palmer is once more in the city, 

 selling flowers to his old customers. 



Eobert Scott & Son have repaired the 

 damage to their new house caused by 

 the cyclone. They fully expect to have 

 it finished next month. 



Julius Wolff, Jr., has had a large 

 number of decorations and weddings, 

 following an excellent Easter. 



Eobert Jameson will leave F. & H. 

 Mergenthaler and return to Joseph Hea- 

 cock. 



Frank Miles Day will give an illus- 

 trated lecture on "An Italian Garden" 

 before the Germantown Horticultural 

 Society next Monday evening at Asso- 

 ciation Hall. Better come. 



I regret to chronicle that the senior 

 member of thet firm of Hoskins & Giles, 

 of Heading, died last week. He was bur- 

 ied on Monday. 



M. Bice & Co. report that they are ex- 

 ceptionally busy on orders for bridal 

 baskets, wedding gates, church ropes, etc. 

 Their April business was a record- 

 breaker. Phiu 



TORONTO. 



The Easter Trade. 



Now that Easter is over and we have 

 had ample time to get full reports as to 

 the business done, we are able to say that 

 it was a greater Easter than ever. Satur- 

 day was an ideal day for business, though 

 it might be added that Friday was a 

 grand combination between snow, rain 

 and hail, and the retail men report Good 

 Friday's sales as being low. 



Those who believed that there would 

 be more Easter lilies on the market than 

 would be used were doomed to disap- 

 pointment. In fact, many of the growers 

 were filling orders at the last with lilies 

 that were without even one developed 

 flower. In roses and carnations the sup- 

 ply was not nearly equal to the demand. 

 In bulbous stock there was an oversup- 

 ply in some lines, but everything was 

 cleaned out fairly well. Violets were 

 short. We might also mention that smi- 

 lax was practically out of the market 

 and something else had to be used for 

 church decorations. 



Varioos Notes. 



J. S. Simmons has just finished decorat- 

 ing and remodeling his store, and has a 

 place that is a credit to Toronto and, I 

 might add, would be a credit to any city. 



Dunlop had a large Easter display of 

 flowering plants decorated in a most ar- 

 tistic manner with fancy Porto Bican 

 mats and new tinted ribbons. His Amer- 

 ican Beauties were very fine and he re- 

 ports good business in all lines. 



S. Tidy & Son report having done a 

 larger business in baskets, baskets of 

 flowers and plants than at any previous 

 Easter. Their stock in this line, was 

 new and very tasty. Mr. Tidy visited 

 several American points just before Eas- 

 ter, purchasing these goods. 



W. Jay & Son had a fine display of 

 plants from their own greenhouses. 



E. Meams, Parkdale, reports that he 

 had to duplicate his orders many times 

 in order to supply the demand, especially 

 for good flowering plants. 



Miller & Son, of Bracondale, as usual 

 had an immense stock of Easter lilies. 

 This was considerably cut down by heavy 

 orders received from Buffalo, Chicago 

 and other points. On Saturday they were 

 out of all salable plants. 



Grobba & Wandrey, of Mimico, had 

 without exception the best bulb stock sent 

 to the Toronto market. Their supply of 

 Easter lilies was exhausted a week before 

 Easter, as they had been coming along 

 steadily since early in March, but they 

 expect to have a continuous supply for 

 the summer months. 



The Toronto Floral Co. and W. J. 

 Lawrence sent in their usual supply of 

 good roses and carnations. 



Easter business has been followed up 

 by considerable stir in society, with a visit 

 from His Excellency, Earl Grey, the gov- 

 ernor-general, and Countess Grey, and a 

 number of notable social functions were 

 held in their honor, together with state 

 dinners, etc. D. J. 



