14 



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The Weekly Florists^ Review^ 



JcM 4. 1008. 



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PEONIES, VALLEY, SWEET PEAS 



. . , These are the flowers called for in largest quantity «, 



FOR THE SPRING WEDDINGS 



We can ship in quantity and of the best quality. Also plenty of Roses, Carnations, Lilies and Greens 



BASKETS 



For the Commencements and June Bridesmaids. A complete stock of all staple and plain baskets always on 

 hand and our assortment of fancy baskets always contains the most up-to-date and newest to be had. See pages 

 4' to '7 in our catalogue for prices, of staple baskets. Largest stock of nothing but Florists* RIBBONS and 

 CHIFFONS in the west. 



PDnUf ERG* ^^^ ^^^^ ^'°^ "^ Fertilizers, \\'ith prices, page 21 of our cat- 

 UnUlf CliOi alogue. Insecticides— all kinds— order your favorite of us. 



A. L. Randall Co. 



Wholesale Florists "f^f^^'^r" 19-21 Randolph St., Chicago 



Mention The Review when you write. 



May 28 than on any other day in their 

 history.' It is ' a decidedly conservative 



. estimate to say that the quantity of 

 flowers handled this day was only half 

 again as large as the quantity handled 

 the second day before Decoration day 

 last year. Some wholesalers say they 



. handled double the quantity, and it is 

 doubtless the fact that the market han- 

 dled more flowers on that day than in 

 any other twenty-four hours since Chi- 

 cago became "the great central mar- 

 ket." 



Friday was not nearly so heavy a day 

 as Thursday — about two-thirds the vol- 

 ume of business is the general estimate. 

 Saturday morning there was a lively lo- 

 cal demand and some shipping, but many 

 houses closed at noon. Others say they 

 found enough to keep all hands busy up 

 to the usual closing time, and there was 

 good business Sunday morning. 



After the rush was over it was found 

 the market was fairly well cleaned out, 

 as thoroughly as could be expected with 

 the enormous volume of receipts. The 

 growers had made the usual mistake of 

 storing up white carnations in anticipa- 

 tion of an extra demand. This never 

 now develops at a holiday, and, as at 

 Easter, there were white carnations which 

 had to be dumped when they had stood 

 in the wholesale house the limit of their 

 endurance, which, in many cases, was not 

 long. 



The anticipate shortage of peonies 

 develqped into tne opposite condition; 

 there were so many fresh arrivals that 

 thers wae little occasion for sending to 

 the cold storage houses for the quan- 

 tities of indifferent stoct put away from 

 the southern crop. First-class peonies 

 held their prices because, as usually is 

 the case, a large part of the stock was 

 > of unsatisfactory quality. But there 

 ' were such immense quantities of the 

 I second and lower grade peonies that 

 i the poorer stock realized exceedingly low 

 'prices and not all were sold. A great 

 Ideal of the stock in the freezer will be 

 a total loss. 



Eoses cleaned up better than had been 

 expected, there being only small quan- 

 tities of short-stemmed stock left. There 

 has been no Decoration day in recent 

 years when the quality of all stock has 

 been so low. The weather was decidedly 

 unfavorable. Carnations were soft and 

 the whites, especially, perished in a few 

 hours. Neither roses nor peonies were 

 of the quality usually sent out from 

 this market and many complaints will in- 

 evitably result. Buyers should bear in 

 mind that the wholesaler cannot ship 

 any better stock than the weather per- 

 mits. As a rule, wholesalers went to 

 much trouble to pick out the best stock 

 possible for all shipping orders. So poor 

 was the average quality that there was 

 strong demand for the little really good 

 material. Good carnations, especially 

 the colored sorts, were in strong demand. 

 Enchantress, in a measure, shared the 

 fate of the white. Red roses sold bet- 

 ter than any other color. 



The cape jasmine placed in cold stor- 

 age proved practically a total loss. On 

 coming out of the freezer they promptly 

 turned yellow and, in some cases, did 

 not realize storage charges. There were 

 practically no fresh capes, the crop hav- 

 ing been too early in Texas. 



Sweet peas, lilies, valley, gladioli and 

 miscellaneous items sold about as they 

 usually do. There was no advance iQ 

 price and no special demand. Those 

 who had expected a large increase in 

 the call for green goods were disap- 

 pointed. The month has been a bad one 

 for the specialists in this line. 



Since Memorial day there has been 

 fair business on certain specialties, such 

 as are wanted for weddings and other 

 seasonable work. The houses that are 

 shy on this class of stock complain of 

 dull trade. 



The Weather in May. 



The average grower may be. inclined to 

 dispute it, but the weather professor 

 in the dome of the post-oflBce avfers that 

 there were eight clear days in May. 



Public Notice 



is hereby given that we shall not allow 

 anyone to undersell us on Wire Work, 

 although our wire frames for funeral 

 designs are of the best possible quality 

 and worth more than the flimsy frames 

 ofTered at cheap prices. 



For Your Protection 



get our prices before you order else- 

 where. We are headquarters. 



A.L.RandallCo. 



19-21 Randolph St., CHICAQO 



There Were eleven partly cloudy, and 

 twelve on which the sun did not shine. 

 It got to be as warm as 87 degrees in 

 the weather man's office May 25, and 

 there were four other days 80 degrees 

 or above. The rainfall was 6.74, or prac- 

 tically twice as much as the average. 



The May Business. 



It is unfair to compare the May busi- 

 ness with that of last year. May of 

 1907 was an exceptional month, a period 

 of cold weather, no outdoor flowers, brisk 

 demand and high prices for greenhouse 

 crop. It is no wonder that May of this 

 year does not compare favorably with 

 it. Go back another year and this May 

 does not seem so bad. In fact, had it 

 not been for the interminable rains there 

 would have been nothing to complain of, 

 even compared with last year. 

 ''Shipping was good, but local demand 

 was poor throughout the month. Stock 

 was in large supply and it rained so 

 frequently that the retailers had little 

 transient trade and the outdoor salesmen 

 were day after day prevented from ply- 

 ing their vocation. The result was ex- 

 tremely low values for stock. 



Not Hard Times. 



E. C. Amling says that the Memorial 

 day business proves, what he has main- 



