236 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



Decbmbku 14, 1905. 



CHICAGO. 



The Great Central Market. 



Business has been good the past week. 

 Bright weather served to assist in ad- 

 vancing stock, but production has been 

 cheeked this week by return to lower 

 temperature, or is it that the growers 

 have an intimation that Christmas is 

 coming? At any rate receipts are lighter. 

 Funeral work and decorating keeps local 

 retailers on the jump and shipping trade 

 has improved materially since the chry- 

 santhemums have been used up. 



The Beauty crops are in excellent 

 shape. Supplies are large and stock was 

 never finer. Stem and foliage are strong, 

 buds large and color at its best. There 

 has been something of a let-down in 

 the quality of tea roses. A large part 

 of the receipts are now grading soft, 

 short or weak-stemmed, but there are a 

 few magnificent flowers to be had. Chate- 

 nay is in superb form. Bed roses are not 

 in large supply for the growers are doing 

 what they can toward holding back for 

 the Christmas demand. 



The carnation market is again fairly 

 active on reduced receipts. Quality is no 

 cause for complaint, but white stock is 

 not moving as rapidly as ,tjie growers 

 would like to see just before the holi- 

 days. The flood of violets' has subsided 

 but values are not what they have been 

 in previous years. 



There continues to be a good demand 

 for Harrisii and callas, of which the 

 supply is not large, but Komans and es- 

 pecially Paper Whites are abundant and 

 selling at low prices. Very good Paper 

 Whites are seen. Stevia is in large sup- 

 ply and selling well because everyone is 

 using it for filling. Good mignonette is 

 scarce but there are quantities of poorer 

 stock. A few sweet peas are seen and a 

 little bouvardia. There is no change in 

 the situation as to greens. 



Christmas Prospects. 



Christmas price lists indicate a consen- 

 sus of opinion that the holiday market 

 will not be far different from its prede- 

 cessors. Not reflected in many price 

 lists is a feeling that Beauties will be 

 exceptionally abundant this year. Crops 

 are now large and the big growers say 

 there is no prospect of diminution. Red 

 roses will, of course, be very much short 

 of the demand. Brides and Maids will 

 not be in full crop, but there will be 

 enough except of the special fancy stock. 

 This always sells quickly. The special 

 fancy grade is not mentioned in most 

 price lists for the reason that the city 

 retailers will take all that is offered at 

 prices above what the out-of-town buyers 

 will pay. Carnation crops promise to be 

 large and probably enough for all orders 

 except those calling for red and special 

 fancy Enchantress, etc. These are the 

 staple items. The miscellaneous stock 

 will be in large supply and in the price 

 lists is not advanced appreciably over 

 present values. 



Wise growers will not hold back stock. 

 The market is sure to be strong for a 

 week before Christmas. Stale stock can- 

 not go out on shipping orders and will 

 only serve to break the market. Keep 

 the stock coming and it will realize good 

 values right through. 



A Thanksgiving Story. 



Four or five days before Thanksgiving 

 there was an excellent demand for carna- 

 tions, and light receipts. A certain com- 



mission man sent to one of his growers 

 one evening for 1,000 carnations to fill 

 an order at $3 per hundred. The grower 

 refused to let him have them, remarking 

 to the messenger that carnations would 

 be "worth a whole lot more money in a 

 couple of days. ' ' The day before Thanks- 

 giving that grower sent in 6,000 carna- 

 tions and he was exceedingly lucky that 

 his returns averaged $1.80. Moral : Ap- 

 ply it to Christmas. 



Various Notes. 



There was a meeting of flower show 

 committees at the ofl&ce of the Benthey- 

 Coatsworth Co. on December 12 at which 

 accounts were audited and affairs wound 

 up. While it has been found to be not 

 a cheap proposition to run a show of 

 this magnitude, the financial result is 

 very satisfactory and leaves a nice nest- 

 egg for next year. 



Chrysanthemums are pretty well out 

 of the market, but the A. L. Randall 

 Co. has a 'grower who is coming in with 

 a nice crop of Christmas Eve for Christ- 

 mas. 



Louis Dreher, at Deerfield, 111., is send- 

 ing in a nice lot of single violets, but 

 they are not netting him anything like 

 the returns they did last year. It is the 

 general experience of all violet growers. 

 At the funeral of John V. Kopf, De- 

 cember (5, there was one of the largest 

 floral displays ever seen in the city. He 

 was a politician and died as the result 

 of an election brawl. The west side 

 retailers nearly all. shared in the work. 

 Bassett & Washburn are cutting some 

 very nice La Detroit and are almost the 

 only ones growing this rose here. 



John Sinner says the success of Christ- 

 mas does not depend nearly so much on 

 how high the price goes on extra fancy 

 stock as it does on what market there is 

 for short roses and such items as Paper 

 Whites and callas. The fancy stock 

 always sells. 



E. H. Hunt's people are pleased to 

 report that the worst of the rush on sup- 

 plies is over; nearly all orders out. 



M. G. Holding, who has been nineteen 

 years with the Sprague, Smith Co. and 

 who has sold millions of feet of green- 

 house glass, has resigned his position to 

 take the management of the Chicago of- 

 fice of the American Window Glass Co. 

 The Benthey-Coatsworth Co. is getting 

 a cut of special fancy Brides and Brides- 

 maids similar to the one which came on 

 at this season last year. 



Kennicott Bros. Co. had a shipping 

 order for 8,000 carnations last Friday. 

 They filled it. 



Baumann & Co. say that they have sold 

 three times as many folding paper 

 Christmas bells this year as last, but the 

 price was considerably reduced. 



George Harrer, at Morton Grove, has 

 entirely discontinued growing cut flowers 

 and has his place planted to lettuce, cu- 

 cumbers and tomatoes. 



One of the week's visitors was C. A. 

 Schaeffer, of Kansas City. Mr. Schaeffer 

 has recently opened a wholesale cut flower 

 and supply establishment and a new re- 

 tail store which is one of the best in the 

 west. He now has 17,000 square feet of 

 glass for miscellaneous plants and is hav- 

 ing plans made for a range of 500,000 

 square feet to be erected at Lenexa, 

 Kan., thirteen miles from Kansas City. 

 About 40,000 feet of this range will be 

 put up in the early spring and added to 

 as circumstances require. One of the 

 advantages will be heat by natural gas. 

 O. W. Frese, at Poehlmann 's, says 



that they have booked several orders for 

 Richmond for Christmas at $6 per 

 dozen. 



Some of the stock now going out is 

 intended for Christmas. One buyer asked 

 for shipment December 13 and frankly 

 stated that he expected to hold the stock 

 for his Christmas trade! 



Weiland & Risch say that increased de- 

 mand for Killarney and Wellesley for 

 Christmas is already apparent. As the 

 stock improves these roses grow in popu- 

 larity. 



E. F. Winterson Co. reports increasing 

 demand for boxwood sprays. This is 

 rapidly becoming the popular green. 



The Wdnandy establishment is sending 

 some good roses and carnations to Zech 

 & Mann. A large part of the place is 

 now planted with lettuce. 



George Reinberg has hit the market 

 just right with his Beauty crop two years 

 in succession, which not all growers can 

 say. 



Peter Reinberg has been having a very 

 fine cut of Richmond roses, and just as 

 it is passing off a big crop of Liberty 

 comes on. 



Vaughan & Sperry contemplate enlarg-' 

 ing their supply department. They are 

 doing quite a business in < "hristmas bells, 

 immortelles, etc. 



Phil Foley is getting around all right 

 after his recent experience at the hospital 

 and will soon be as hard at work as ever. 

 The firm reports a very satisfactory 

 season in 1905 and much building in 

 sight for 1906. 



E. C. Amling received poinsettias last 

 week and expects large supplies until 

 after the holidays. 



Percy Jones says that his growers ex- 

 press themselves as well pleased with the 

 results of the chrysanthemum season; 

 most of his stock was of the medium 

 grade, that sells at $8 to $10 per hun- 

 dred and moves quickly. 



Bert Budlong feels very highly hon- 

 ored by an invitation to contribute an 

 article on flower farming under glass 

 to the forthcoming Cyclopedia of Ameri- 

 can Agriculture, but says the only liter- 

 ary experience his work has given him 

 has been in signing checks. 



A. Dietsch Co. has been granted a 

 patent on a metal strip to prevent ice 

 from forming under and breaking the 

 glass at the gutter. 



C. W. McKellar says cattleyas will 

 be in the same class with long Beauties 

 for Christmas, one simoleon each for the 

 best. 



Increased coal consumption in Novem- 

 ber, as compared to a year ago, has 

 caused inquiry as to weather conditions. 

 The mean temperature for November, 

 1905, was 41 degrees as compared to 43 

 degrees in 1904 and 39 degrees average 

 for thirty-four years. Of greater impor- 

 tance was wind velocity, which averaged 

 eighteen miles per hour, about one-fifth 

 greater than usual. The prevailing direc- 

 tion was southwest. 



Club meeting tonight. President-elect 

 Hauswirth and his staff will take hold. 



DATE OF EASTER. 



Easter of 1906 falls on April 15, 

 eight days earlier than in 1905. 



If we could get as much return for 

 every dollar we spend as we get for the 

 one which pays for fifty-two visits of the 

 Review, we would have been rich long 

 ago. — Nick Greivelding, Merrill. Wis. 



