H8 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



Deckmbeh 7, 1905. 



NEV YORK. 



The Market 



Everybody seems contented among 

 the wholesalers. Prices steady ; demand 

 insistent from the retail section, that 

 real pulse of the market, and there was 

 no surplus, unless it might be found 

 in the violet department. There was a 

 large residue of "left overs" from 

 Thanksgiving, which the street mer- 

 chants were hawking on Saturday at 25 

 cents to 35 cents a bunch. 



Meanwhile roses and carnations have 

 awakened to their real values and, mums 

 having gone into winter quarters, assert 

 their independence and demand what 

 they are really worth. Everything 

 worth while was sold early Saturday 

 evening. Some Beauties of the highest 

 grade touched 50 cents each. Some 

 Maids and Brides were $10 per hundred. 

 Looks like old times again. This week 

 opens clear and cold, fine winter 

 weather, and society is busy with recep- 

 tions and dinners innumerable. 



Orchids seem to be the flower for the 

 palpitating bosoms of the "select." 

 They have never been used so largely. 

 A retailer without an abundant supply 

 on hand is quickly relegated to the 

 ranks of the "has beens. " I noticed 

 in McManus' wholesale windows last 

 week phalaenopsis, .odontoglossum, van- 

 das, oncidiums, lajlias, dendrobiums, 

 cyps and eattleyas and I may have 

 missed some varieties. It's the old 

 story; supply creates demand and the 

 call comes to New York from every 

 city in the land. 



Lilies are abundant. Ford Bros, re- 

 ceived one day last week 215 dozen. 

 Seldom a day when 150 dozen do not 

 arrive. Plenty of hyacinths and nar- 

 cissi are here and valley is abundant. 



Carnations are glorious in quality and 

 bring good prices. 



Various Notes. 



The ball of the wholesale florists' 

 employees takes place January 13 at the 

 Amsterdam opera house. An elaborate 

 poster adorns the walls of all the whole- 

 sale houses. Some fifty names appear 

 as officers, patrons, managers, etc. It 

 will be a big affair and boxes are re- 

 served for the trade in abundance. The 

 principal officers are Nicholas C. 

 Schreiner, president; Charles Matthews, 

 vice-president; John Foley, treasurer; 

 Elmer Greatfield, financial secretary; 

 John Egenbrod, recording secretary; 

 Arthur Wiese, sergeant-at-arms ; George 

 Hildebrand, chairman of trustees; W. 

 Scheen, chairman of the reception com- 

 mittee. 



Out at Great Neck, in addition to 

 Mr. Fischer and his Abundance, several 

 other growers for the New York market 

 have excellent greenhouse plants. John 

 Matthews has three big houses newly 

 built devoted to rose growing. Mr. 

 Adams, who is a member of the Cut 

 Flower Exchange, has five houses well 

 filled with a general line and is doing 

 a good local trade as well as visiting 

 New York weekly with a general assort- 

 ment. He has been in Great Neck for 

 twenty-two years. 



It's a little early, but everybody is 

 already talking Christmas. Two weeks 

 from Monday and the great day of the 

 year arrives. After all there is no time 

 to be lost. In a few days the air down 

 town will be charged with the sweet 

 perfume of the evergreens from the 

 Adirondacks and the Catskills. You 



can't kill the Christmas tree business as 

 long as the stork is busy. 



In the death of his mother George 

 Hildebrand has the sympathy of his 

 many friends. 



The Flower Market is no more. This 

 isn't the Cut Flower Market in the Coo- 

 gan building, you know, nor the old one 

 at Thirty-fourth street, nor is it the 

 Plant Market down town, nor does it 

 mean that great center from Twenty- 

 sixth to Thirtieth streets. This, is the 

 one I wrote about a year ago, up on 

 West Forty-fourth street, heralded by a 

 fiery charger and a man with a trumpet, 

 you remember. It was an "organiza- 

 tion of leading growers, ' ' where the 

 clerks were clothed in blue blouses, just 

 like * ' Lunnen, don 't cher know, ' ' and 

 lots of boxes were piled up with out-of- 

 town addresses on them. It was "to do 

 away with the profits of the jobbers 

 and wholesale dealers, ' ' and it really 

 must have done away with somebody's 

 profits, for the Fleischman Floral Co. 

 announces that it has bought the place 

 for $750,000! It is to be consolidated 

 with their new Fifth avenue store and 

 this magnificent piece of financing was 

 accomplished without even jarring the 

 littlest flower shop in New York. 



Joe Manda, of South Orange, has the 

 orchid fever and has bought the Japan 

 ese Nursery Co. 's plant at West Orange 

 to take charge next spring. He is com- 

 petent to make this a success and his 

 friends all wish him a paying venture. 



I met Paul Pierson, of Scarboro, on 

 the subway Monday night and he told 

 me some of his Beauties brought 60 

 cents that day. I told him it would 

 never do to quote that as a market price 

 and he admitted that he had seen some 

 mighty fine stock go as low as 25 cents, 

 so there you are. 



Van Praag's new store at 1207 

 Broadway looks very neat and he is de- 

 lighted with the encouragement of his 

 first week's venture. Ed Ladiges, for- 

 merly with the Fleischman Co., is first 

 lieutenant here. Mr. Roetke, lately with 

 the same company, is back in line at tho 

 Fifth avenue store of the Thos. Young 

 Co. Mr. Hanft is no longer with this 

 company. 



Mr. Karbmuller, for a long time 

 with Stumpp, at Fifth avenue and 

 Fifty-seventh street, is now with Fleisch- 

 man at his Forty-third street store. 



Charles Millang is preparing for u 

 big cut flower trade at Christmas by 

 turning his conservatory into a branch 

 of his wholesale department. 



Messrs. Donaldson and Purdy, of the 

 Dutchess County Violet Co., are visiting 

 their Ehinebeck violet growers this week. 

 The company is more than satisfied with 

 the business to date. The store is above 

 the Sigmund Geller Co. and silk violet 

 curtains are in keeping with their spe- 

 cialty. 



Starke & Kleine are building a con- 

 servatory back of their store in time 

 for a big Christmas plant trade which 

 they not only anticipate but have al- 

 ready established. 



Julius Lang, who proved himself a 

 prophet at the election by predicting the 

 victory of Jerome, is now wagering his 

 reputation on the triumph of McClellan 

 for the mayoralty. 



Cotsonas & Co. had a big shipment 

 of southern wild smilax this week and 

 a big force here and in all tho green 

 goods establishments are busy with 

 Christmas wreathing. 



A fire between Twenty-ninth and 



Thirtieth streets on Sixth avenue, close 

 to the wholesale section, on Monday 

 evening, varied the monotony of the 

 week's busiest night, when the growers' 

 checks aggregating a little less than a 

 million dollars go out in shoals to the 

 toilers in the greenhouses. Fortunately 

 the blaze was confined to the eating 

 house where it originated and the sign- 

 ing of the checks went steadily on. 



The Grand opera house last week 

 had quite a serious fire and the Florists' 

 Club's cozy rooms were in great danger 

 of annihilation for a time. 



The Bowling Club is still "hanging 

 fire" and while Philadelphia, Baltimore, 

 Washington, Chicago and even Flatbush 

 are full of enthusiasm over the health- 

 ful and popular sport this big metro- 

 politan aggregation of representative 

 florists find it impossible to get together. 



The Florists ' Club 's annual election 

 takes place next Monday night, Decem- 

 ber 11. Every member should be on 

 hand. J. Austin Shaw. 



PITTSBUHG. 



The Market 



Thanksgiving, that day when all good 

 American citizens should give thanks, has 

 come and gone, but I doubt if some of 

 the trade gave thanks in the weather 

 we experienced the past week, pouring 

 rain until Wednesday night, when it 

 turned in cold. Business was very good, 

 possibly as good in some respects as last 

 year, but nearly all the stores report the 

 small sales which figure so largely on 

 such days were lost, as people were not 

 out, unless compelled to be, and then did 

 not stop to look for flowers. Violets 

 sufi'ered especially, as none were bought 

 to be worn. 



Chrysanthemums, which had been 

 scarce for a week before, were very 

 plentiful. Some of the growers who 

 could not be persuaded to send stock in 

 when it was badly needed, had an abun- 

 dance for Thanksgiving, when it did not 

 bring as good a price as the week pre- 

 vious. It is only another evidence that 

 the grower knows more about the market 

 than the wholesaler, who tries occasion- 

 ally to advise him when to send in his 

 stock, and not hoard it up for a holiday. 

 Beauties were very plentiful and cheap 

 as well as roses which were in abun- 

 dance. In fact, there was plenty of 

 everything. 



Various Notes. 



Alex Nelson, who has been ill and in 

 the hospital most of the fall, is again 

 able to be about. He is looking very 

 well, but is still unable to take up heavy 

 work. 



David Geddis will open a new store 

 next Saturday, in Homestead. He says 

 that there is more money earned and 

 paid to the people of Homestead than 

 in any other town of five times the 

 population and thinks it the best open- 

 ing in sight. He will have an up-to-date 

 store, with all the appointments of a city 

 store, and hopes to reach a class of trade 

 that has been coming into the city here- 

 tofore. 



The Pittsburg Cut Flower Co. says it 

 handled the finest stock of violets 

 Thanksgiving that has ever come into 

 this city, and yet owing to the bad 

 weather were compelled to sell them at 

 an unusually low price for a holiday. 



The store of Walker & McLean, of 

 Youngstown, O., is in the hands of a re- 

 ceiver, until the firm can come to an 

 agreement for dissolution. Mr. Walker 



