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AUGVST 3, 1903. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



5451 



Roller Chair Decorated by J. J. Habermehl's Sons for Atlantic Gty Parade. 



(Pink sweet peas were used, the canopy of La France roses.) 



varieties. The correspondent does not 

 say whether he refers to exhibition or 

 market plants, bur in either case do not 

 pinch any more and stake up the shoots 

 •in good season to prevent their being 

 broken. C. 11. T. 



DECORATED CHAIRS. 



The roller chair parade is an annual 

 event at Atlantic City. Lavish decora- 

 tion is practiced by the many firms 

 which are represented in the parade. 

 The accompanying illustrations show the 

 work of J. J. Habermehl's Sons, of the 

 Bellevue-Stratford, Philadelphia. 



CAPE FLOWERS. 



The gathering, . drying and packing 

 for export cape flowers (Helichrysum 

 grandiflorum) constitutes a-- very in»- 

 portant industry in Hermanns, Stanford, 

 and one or two other villages and ham- 

 lets in the division of Caledon, on the 

 southwest coast of the Cape Colony in 

 South Africa. The area over which 

 these flowers grow is limited to this cor- 

 ner of the colony, and- the whole industry 

 is monopolized by two or three- men, 

 who partly own and further lease the 



right of gathering, a,ndwhQ have erected 

 extensive buildings for drying and packr 

 ing the flowers. These are locally kno.wn 

 as "flower-houses," and their strange 

 gaol-like appearance, with large sheets 

 of perforated iron substituted for : or: 

 dinary windows, to insure a constant 

 draught, greatly puzzles the uninitiated 

 as to their origin and use. 



During the season such enormous quan-: 

 titles of these everlastings daily come 

 in from the veld — borne not only on the 

 heads of women and children, but in- 

 bullock wagon loads at a time — that, 

 especially in such an exceptionally- good 

 season as we had in 1903, these flower-; 

 houses prove quite too small for the 

 purpose for which they were erected, 

 so that in order to obtain the necessary 

 drying space every available loft in the 

 place is hired, the price paid varying 

 from 5s to £1 per month per loft. 



Having only within the last six months 

 taken up my abode at the lovely and pop- 

 ular seaside resort of Hermanns, and 

 knowing nothing previously of this curi- 

 ous industry, 1 was not a little surprised 

 when abruptly asked by an agent of 

 the monopolizer of the industry in these 

 parts, whether I would mind letting my 

 loft for fifteen or twenty days. Not 

 caring to have my privacy invaded, I at 

 first strongly objected, and only con- 

 sented after having ascertained that al- 

 most every loft in the town — containing 

 about 120 houses — ^was hired, and most 

 of them already full of these flowers. 



On the following morning at break of 

 day I had already cause to regret my bar- 

 gain, as, roused from my slumbers by 

 men noisily emptying sackfuls of the 

 flowers over my drowsy head, I tried to 

 imagine the feelings of one buried alive, 

 with wreaths of these same immortelles 

 rattling on his or her coffin ! It was a 

 gruesome thonght, but which I found a 

 -difficulty in dismissing. So that literally 

 as well as metaphorically I had a sad 

 awakening — an awakening that is, alas! 

 repeated daily, when at dawn of day 

 1 and my wife are aroused from our 

 slumbers by two or three niggers, armed 

 with lor)g wooden hoes, scraping the 

 flowers about directly over our sleepy 

 heads; and this despite the assurance 

 that the flowers would only require "two 



STEAMER SAILINGS. 



Those who wish to post steamer sail- 

 ings in the show window as a means of 

 securing orders for telegraphic trjmsfer 

 to a New York correspondent, or one 

 of the firms represented on the Re- 

 view's page of Leading Eetail Florists, 

 will find here the principal sailings for 

 the next two weeks: 



Aug. 5 — St. Patil Southampton. 



Aug. 5 — Flnlanil Antwerp. 



Aug. 5 — >Konigin Ljonlse. ... Naples. 



Aug. 5-7-Patrlclu Hamburg. 



Aug. 5 — Umbrla Liverpool. 



Aug. s — KalHer W. dor Gross Bremen. 



Aug. — Potsdam Kotterdam. 



Aug. 9 — Oceanic Liverpool. 



Aug. 10 — La Gascogne Havre. 



Aug. 12— New York Southampton. 



Aug. 12 — Vaderl«nd Antwerp. 



Aug. 12 — Lncanla Liverpool. 



Aug. 15 — Prlnz Oscar Naples. 



Aug. 15_K. WUhdm II Bremen. 



^^g. 16 — Noordam Rotterdam. 



Aug. 16— Majfestlc Liverpool. 



-Aug. 17— Moltke Hamburg. 



Aug. 17 — BarbaroBse Bremen. 



Aug. 17 — La Bretagne Havre. 



Aug. 38— Cedrlc Liverpool. 



Warsaw, N. Y.— H. S. Baker is put- 

 *i"g up a new greenhouse 20x65 feet. . 



Roller Chair Decorated by J. J. Habermehl's Sons for Atlantic City Parade. 



t (Gladiolus chair drawn b.v butterfly, peas and roses lu canopy.) 



