

APRIL 4, 1907. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



1529 



came in and everybody was begging for 

 stock at greatly increased prices. Vio- 

 lets and sweet peas had a great call Sun- 

 day morning, but few came in and only 

 half of the orders were filled. 



This month quite a lot of trade is 

 looked for. as a number of big wedding 

 orders are booked. April 1 was Fool b 

 day and April 2 was election day. There 

 was not much in either of these days 

 for the florists. The plantsmen are look- 

 ing for a big month 's business in bed- 

 ding, with plenty of orders ahead to 

 keep them all busy. The nurserymen, 

 too, have all they can do at present. 



Various Notes. 



J. J, Karins, representing Henry A. 

 Dreer, Philadelphia, spent Easter week 

 with the trade. 



Miss Bell Miller, of Springfield, 111., 

 spent a day here last week, visiting the 

 local commission men regarding Easter 

 stock. • 



Walter Betzer, who is now with the 

 St. Louis Seed Co., reports that the 

 firm's business is large and all hands 

 working overtime. 



Adolph Brix reports that he has 

 bought the ground and greenhouses of 

 Theodore K lockenkemper, on Mead ave- 

 nue. Mr. Brix has been running the 

 place under lease for some time, with 

 Henry Braun as foreman. The products 

 of the place are large and of good qual- 

 ity, and supply the store on St. Louis 

 avenue. 



The Foster Floral Co. has given up 

 the new location at 612 Olive street and 

 will be able to remain at the old place 

 for another year. 



J. F, Ammann, at Edwardsville, is 

 building a new house, 40x150, which is 

 almost completed. His retail store is 

 having a fine run of trade. The store is 

 in charge of his eldest daughter. 



Hugo Gross, at Kirkwood, Mo., will 

 start at once to build six new houses to 

 be used for carnations and violets. Mr. 

 Gross has had great success this season. 



W. J. Pilcher, of Kirkwood, has re- 

 ceived a large lot of rooted carnation 

 cuttings for the new houses he will build 

 this summer. Mr. Pilcher helped out 

 Mrs. Ayers during the Easter rush. 



Henry Ostertag was in a smash-up last 

 week. Luckily no bones were broken. 



George Waldbart has had a hard time 

 keeping himself from being hemmed in 

 on all sides with rock and brick from 

 the new building at the corner. 



Mrs. Frank M. Ellis will leave next 

 week to join her husband in Panama. 

 From all reports Mr. Ellis has fine pros- 

 pects there. His two daughters will re- 

 main here for a while. 



Oscar Huettemann, whose place is at 

 Grand and Florissant avenues, was driv- 

 ing along Grand avenue with a load of 

 blooming plants, when some one called 

 his attention to a fire on the rear of his 

 wagon. It destroyed the entire load of 

 plants and badly damaged the wagon. 

 The loss was about $50. 



Miss Schnell, of East St. Louis, drives 

 over every morning in her new wagon 

 for her supply of cut flowers. Easter 

 business was better than ever. 



The Florists' Club meeting will take 

 place next Thursday afternoon in the 

 Burlington building. The annual rose 

 show will take place, at which $50 in 

 prizes are offered. There will be a dis- 

 cussion on Easter trade. The trustees 

 are at work to make this meeting a big 

 success and the attendance large. Every- 

 body in the trade is invited to attend. 



J. J. B. 



GERANIUM COUNTESS. 



The new scarlet, double-flowered, 

 bronze-leaved geranium. Countess, is a 

 sport that originated with W. T. Bell 

 & Sons, of Franklin, Pa., about three 

 years ago, from the single, bronze- 

 leaved geranium, Earl Eosslyn, one of 

 the best of its class. They have grown 

 and increased it since, without selling 

 any, and believe it to be a very desir- 

 able and salable novelty. The color is 

 bright scarlet, which contrasts more 

 pleasantly with the distinctly-zoned 

 bronzy foliage than do the salmon-col- 

 ored flowers of some of the other 

 bronzes. The illustration is from a pho- 

 tograph of a plant growing in a 2-inch 

 pot. 



BOSTON. 



The Easter Market. 



Another Easter has come and gone 

 and again the verdict, taking all things 

 into consideration, is that it was the 



Geranium Gsuntess. 



best ever. Weather conditions were re- 

 markable, being more like those of June 

 than March on the Friday and Saturday 

 before Easter. Temperatures of 75 to 

 84 degrees in the shade were hardly 

 looked for and such hot weather nat- 

 urally brought in a tremendous flood of 

 cut flowers. 



The fact that the Easter market is be- 

 coming more and more one for plants 

 was again demonstrated and sales of 

 these were larger than ever, prices also 

 showing some improvement. Of course, 

 Easter lilies were the leaders and of 

 these there proved to be a decided short- 

 age. Prices which had been 121/^ to 15 

 cents per bud a week earlier advanced to 

 20 cents and 25 cents, and even then the 

 supply was entirely inadequate. Those 

 who got their crops in season are in good 

 spirits. Quite a few, however, were a 

 little behind. The hot weather, how- 

 ever, helped these considerably. Next 

 to lilies, azaleas were in most favor and 

 met with a splendid sale. In roses pink 

 ramblers went better than the crimson 

 ones. Lady Gay and Dorothy Perkins 

 being much in evidence. Many of the 



plants, however, carried small trusses 

 and were evidently fall potted stock. 

 Those grown in pots from the previous 

 spring were vastly superior in every 

 way and the wonder is that growers will 

 persist in the former method. Some 

 nice Frau Karl Druschki, Brunner and 

 other hybrids in pots were seen. 



In acacias, the variety arraata was 

 rather overdone. Some very good A. 

 heterophylla and A. Drummondi were 

 also seen. Pink and white hydrangeas 

 sold well, rhododendrons only moder- 

 ately. Dutch bulbous stock went rather 

 slowly. Marguerite Queen Alexandra 

 and Astilbe Japonica grandiflora and 

 Gladstone were seen at many stores. 

 Genistas sold well. Some nice Erica 

 Caffra densa were noted. Among flow- 

 ering shrubs pink and white hawthornes, 

 cherries, deutzias and apples were nicely 

 flowered. There was a fair call for 

 palms and small ferns. 



In cut flowers cut lilies cleaned out 

 quickly at higher prices than they had 

 realized for some years. Lilium candi- 

 dum was more largely seen than for a 

 decade. About every grower, however, 

 had the poor, narrow-petaled variety 

 which is but a ghost of the northern- 

 grown, broad-petaled one. Prices on the 

 candidums were 5 to 6 cents per flower. 

 Eoses were ample for all needs. On 

 Beauties $8 to $9 per dozen were top 

 prices, from that down to $25 per hun- 

 dred. There was a good supply of these, 

 Richmond, Killarney, Bride, Maid, Wel- 

 lesley, Chatenay and Morgan all showed 

 up well; but little advance on current 

 prices was made. A few nice Safrano 

 and Bon Silene were seen, but few good 

 hybrids. Carnations made no advance. 

 In fact, towards the close of Saturday's 

 market many were unsold. Ruling rates 

 were $4 to $5 for good, ordinary stock 

 and $6 to $8 for fancies. A good many 

 were, however, cleared at lower figures. 



Violets, owing to the hot weather, 

 were in enormous supply. The heat took 

 considerable odor out of the singles and 

 made them go to sleep quickly. It was 

 not a first-class market on these. Top 

 price was 75 cents. Many went at 50 

 cents and poor stock lower. English 

 primroses w^re overabundant and hard 

 to sell. Marguerites went quickly at 

 from $1 to $2.50 per hundred. Sweet 

 peas were fine and sold extremely well 

 at $1 and $1.50 per hundred. Bulbous 

 stock was in heavy oversupply and much 

 could not be sold at any price. Nar- 

 cissus poeticus sold the best in this class. 

 Valley was in good supply, the quality 

 being excellent. Sales were fairly good. 

 There was a good variety of miscella- 

 neous flowers. Of these ranunculi and 

 anemones sold well, as did Spanish iris. 

 Mignonette, stocks and snapdragons were 

 all inclined to be druggy. There was a 

 very good sale for smilax, asparagus and 

 other greenery. 



Summing up the cut flower market, 

 everything was in abundant supply but 

 lilies and the hot wave and consequent 

 heavy cuts kept prices down to a mod- 

 erate level. More flowers were unsold 

 than in 1906, but about all were of the 

 cheaper grades. 



Various Notes. 



The closing lecture of the season at 

 Horticultural hall, March 30, drew out 

 an audience which packed the lecture 

 hall. John K. M. L. Farquhar's lecture 

 on "Gardens of Italy" was the attrac- 

 tion. 



William H. Elliott has just closed a 

 deal whereby he secures possession of 



,^>IlJ ." 



