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Deckmbeb 28, 1911. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



21 



clay with tenacious clay soils, or by 

 mixing the subsoil with top soil if it 

 differs in quality. This subsoil should 

 be brought to the surface and exposed 

 to the action of the frost. The third is 

 accomplished by drainage and by sprin- 

 kling or irrigating. 



[To be concluded.] 



BOSTON. 



The Christmas Market. 



Everyone concedes that it was a great 

 Christmas. Wholesalers, retailers and 

 growers all are pleased, and that is 

 saying a good deal. Never was Decem- 

 ber warmer than in 1911. This was 

 a wonderful help to shippers, and to 

 the plant growers it was a veritable 

 boon. It has become somewhat hack- 

 neyed to say it was a plant Christmas, 

 but certainly more of these were sold 

 than ever, and about every plant spec- 

 ialist is tired, but happy. 



Poinsettias were in great demand. 

 The short, stocky ones were what people 

 wanted. There was less call for the 

 single plants in 6-inch pots. Azaleas 

 sold well, there being a big call espe- 

 cially for the dwarf varieties, Mme. 

 Petrick and Hexe. Lorraine begonias 

 were rather overdone. The new Glory 

 of Cincinnati was seen in quantity and 

 sold well. As it is a better house plant 

 than Lorraine, it will be more seen in 

 1912. The only objection to it is that 

 the leaves are brittle and break in pack- 

 ing. Primroses, cyclamens, ardisias, 

 cypripediums, berried hollies, aucubas, 

 skimmias. Erica melanthera, solanums, 

 Otaheite oranges, nephrolepis, crotons, 

 palms and araucarias were leaders 

 among plants. 



Coming to cut flowers, there were 

 some fine Beauties. The best easily 

 made $12 per dozen. In Bichmtuids, 

 some were offered with stems as Jong 

 as ninety inches. The top grades of 

 these were offered at $9 a dozen, but a 

 more popular grade was that selling at 

 $15 to $25 per hundred. In addition to 

 Richmonds there were some fine Bhea 

 Reids, which realized fancy prices. Kil- 

 larneys sold well, but, as is usual at 

 Christmas, White Killarney was rather 

 hard to move. There was a steady call 

 for Hillingdon, Ward, Waddell and 

 Safrano, but no great advance in prices. 



Carnations were not in as heavy crop 

 as anticipated and sold remarkably well. 

 Fenn, Beacon, Scarlet Glow, Victory, 

 Octoroon and some fancy pinks made 

 $12 per hundred, some a little more. 

 White was, of course, the hardest to 

 move, but from $6 to $12 were the rul- 

 ing prices on carnations. Some whites 

 and pickled goods had to go as low as 

 $4. Violets made $1 and $1.50 per hun- 

 dred. . There was a heavy lot of sweet 

 peas at $1 and $1.50 per hundred. 



Valley made $3 and $4 per hundred, 

 poinsettias $2 to $6 per dozen, cypri- 

 pediums* $8 to $12 per hundi*ed, cat- 

 tleyas $5 to $9 per dozen. Percivaliana 

 making the lower price. Antirrhinum 

 was extra fine at $4 to $12, and there 

 was some splendid mignonette. Mar- 

 guerites sold well, especially yellows. 

 Paper Whites and stevia were each in- 

 clined to be druggy December 23. Yel- 

 low trumpet narcissi made $5 to $6 per 

 hundred and tulips $4 to $5. There 

 was some fine freesia at $6 to $8 per 

 hundred. Gardenias were in fair sup- 

 ply. The best quality flowers made high 

 prices. For asparagus there was a very 

 heavy demand, also for adiantum and 



hardy ferns, while the call for wreath- 

 ing was phenomenal. 



Prices still held up well December 26, 

 but continued mild weather will soon 

 cause a drop. 



Various Notes. 



W. J. Thurston, the courteous mana- 

 ger of the Boston Flower Exchange, was 

 the surprised but delighted recipient of 

 a beautiful gold watch and chain De- 

 cember 23, subscribed for hy the grow- 

 ers, salesmen and other habitues of the 

 market. 



W. C. Stickel, of Lexington, has extra 

 fine carnations this season. His varie- 

 ties are Fenn, Pink Delight, Lady 

 Bountiful, White Wonder and Beacon. 



The Montrose Greenhouses had an 

 extra heavy cut of roses for the holi- 

 days. Three Killarneys, light pink, deep 

 pink and white; Mrs. Aaron Ward, 

 Perle, Richmond and Lady Hillingdon 

 are their specialties. 



Among the best of the late mums seen 

 for Christmas were Intensity, Nonin and 

 Enguehard from H. W. Vose, of Hyde 

 Park. 



H. M. Robinson & Co. were fairly 

 swamped with business, which far ex- 

 ceeded all previous records. In addi- 

 tion to their heavy cut flower and plant 

 trade, the demand for wreathing and 

 other greens was enormous and taxed 

 their resources. 



W. A. Biggs, of Auburndale, had a 

 beautiful lot of poinsettias for the holi- 

 days, as well as fine cyclamens, Lor- 

 raines and azaleas. He also had a good 

 pick from his carnation houses. 



Penn, on Bromfield street, hired two 

 nearby stores for the plant trade. These 

 additions, with a much enlarged main 

 store, proved none too much space. 

 Their plant trade was tremendous, due 

 in considerable measure to heavy ad- 

 vertising in the daily papers. 



W. D. Howard, of Milford, had a 

 heavy holiday pick of high grade car- 

 nations. His varieties were Pink De- 

 light, White Enchantress, White Per- 

 fection, Beacon and Fenn. The two lat- 

 ter realized top notch prices. 



MacMulkin, on Boylston street, had 

 his annual attractive scarlet window for 

 Christmas. His plant trade was heavy. 



Carbone's, on Boylston street, was a 

 veritable hive of industry. In addition 

 to a tremendous plant and cut flower 

 trade, a heavy business was done in 

 Italian ware, in which Mr. Carbone spe- 

 cializes. Some fine pink bouvardia seen 

 here was grown near Philadelphia. 



"Practically sold out of everything 

 carrying a flower or berry," was the 

 comment of H. H. Bartsch, of the W. W. 

 Edgar Co. This firm had by far the 

 heaviest Christmas trade on record. 



The Waban Conservatories had a fine 

 cut of high grade Beauties, as well as 

 splendid Richmond, Killarneys, Hilling- 

 don and other sorts. Mr. Montgomery 

 is enthusiastic over Hillingdon and says 

 it will produce ten flowers to one of 

 Mrs. Ward. 



The next meeting of the Gardeners' 

 and Florists' Club will be January 23. 

 Installation of officers will be followed 

 by a fine entertainment. It will be 

 ladies' night and regular business will 

 be shortened as much as possible. 



Welch Bros, had a banner Christmas 

 business. Their only trouble was in be- 

 ing able to secure sufficient material 

 with which to fill their orders. 



A free exhibition of 400 photographs 

 of the flora and scenery of western 

 China, taken by E. H. Wilson on his 



last trip, will be held in Horticultural 

 hall, December 27 to 31. 



Albert Roper's new pink seedling 

 carnation, resembling Pink Delight in 

 color, but more in the style of Enchan- 

 tress, realized the highest price of any 

 of its color and equaled the finest scar- 

 lets. It makes an immense flower. 



E. H. Borowski, of Roslindale, as a 

 grower of Lorraine begonias is in the 

 first rank. His plants this season were 

 unusually fine. 



The Rosary, on Boylston street, J. J. 

 Casey proprietor, and Arnold & Petros, 

 across the way on Huntington avenue, 

 each had attractive window displays 

 and a fine Christmas trade. 



Sidney Hoffman's immense store on 

 Massachusetts avenue was the Mecca 

 for a host of buyers. Auto trucks were 

 kept busy trying to keep up with the 

 deliveries. 



The H. E. Fiske Seed Co. did quite a 

 business in Lorraines, azaleas, bulbous 

 plants in pans and other seasonable 

 flowers, the windows looking as attrac- 

 tive as those of the regular florists. 



The Flower Growers' Sales Co. did a 

 heavy Christmas business in all lines 

 of flowers, plants and sundries. The 

 finely equipped and convenient new 

 salesroom at 1 Park street, is now com- 

 pleted and is found a great convenience. 



W. N. Craig. 



OBITUARY. 



Victor Lemoine. 



In the death of Victor Lemoine, at 

 Nancy, France, December 12, the flori- 

 cultural world loses one of its most 

 venerable and venerated men, for M. 

 Lemoine was 89 years of age and had, 

 in his long life of gardening, devel- 

 oped more new and valuable varieties 

 in more different families of plants 

 than probably any other of the keen 

 minds that have been turned in this 

 direction. His tastes were cosmopoli- 

 tan and, taking up first one genus and 

 then another, he wrought wonder after 

 wonder. To catalogue even a small 

 part of the plants raised by him and 

 put in commerce by his firm would 

 give these pages the appearance of a 

 botanical dictionary — they number 

 many hundreds and include some of 

 the most important plants in the Amer- 

 ican trade today. Of these may be 

 mentioned Begonia Gloire de Lorraine. 

 The gladiolus received a large share of 

 his attention, as did the begonia, cle- 

 matis, deutzia, lilac, peony, hydrangea, 

 weigela, delphinium, pyrethrum, pent- 

 stemon, streptocarpus, mimulus, spiraea, 

 pelargonium, abutilon, lobelia, primula, 

 montbretia and many more. 



Victor Lemoine was born at Delme, 

 France, October 21, 1822. His ances- 

 tors for generations back had been 

 gardeners. After completing his educa- 

 tion at Vic-sur-Seille he devoted sev- 

 eral years to traveling and then 

 worked successively for Bauman, at 

 Bollweiller, Louis Van Houtte, at 

 Ghent, and Miellez, at Lille, France, 

 and ila 1850 established himself in a 

 small "way as a florist and landscape 

 gardener at Nancy. There he was a 

 member of the town council from 1871 

 to 1888. June 13, 1885, he was made a 

 knight and AprU 3, 1894, an officer of 

 the Legion of Honor. He was a mem- 

 ber of all the great international horti- 

 cultural bodies and was the first for- 

 eigner to receive the Veitch Medal of 

 Honor from the Royal Horticultural 



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