12 



The Florists' Review 



March 27, 1913. 



said March 26 that it was impossible to 

 estimate the loss, but that the stock 

 was damaged but little owing to the 

 quick Vepairs made. Considerable insur- 

 ance was carried on the plant and stack 

 and it will fully cover the loss. Busi- 

 ness was not interrupted. 



H. C. Blewitt, at Des Plaines, lost one 

 house and another was somewhat dam- 

 aged. 



At Downers Grove, 111., March 23, 

 Wellworth Farm, the establishment of 

 John F. Kidwell and his son-in-law, Ru- 

 dolph C. Ellsworth, suffered heavily 

 from the blow. Four houses were dam- 

 aged and about 12,000 square feet of 

 glass put out of commission. The great- 

 est damage was done when a shed 200 

 feet long that had been built in a posi- 

 tion to protect the greenhouses from 

 westerly winds was split in half, lifted 

 in the air, carried 100 feet and crashed 

 into the west end of the plant. One 

 house of roses was crushed and the 

 gable ends of two other houses torn 

 away. The ventilating machinery was 

 . twisted and bent until useless in the 

 houses, while only in spots was any 

 glass left intact. These houses were 

 all planted in Killarney roses, which 

 were in full crop. A fourth house had 

 just previously given way at one end, 

 breaking almost all the glass, but being 

 damaged only slightly so far as the 

 framework was concerned. Efforts were 

 at once made to save as much of the 

 stock as possible and with 500 yards 

 of burlap loaned by Bassett & Wash- 

 burn such sections of the houses as 

 still contained any glass were covered 

 and a gang of twenty men put to work 

 replacing glass. 



At Deerfield, 111., one house of gar- 

 denias belonging to the Deerfield Nurs- 

 eries was demolished, while the glass 

 of another gardenia house, as well as 

 that of a house of Sprengeri, was blown 

 out. These houses were 34x150 feet 

 and the stock in the gardenia houses 

 was lost, but it was hoped that the 



house of Sprengeri could be saved. John 

 Kruchten, who is interested in the com- 

 pany owning the plant, said 250 boxes 

 of glass would replace the glass in the 

 two houses damaged, but the third 

 house was completely wrecked. 



At Park Ridge, 111., the storm cost 

 August Priebs about $3,000 in damage 

 done when one house was destroyed and 

 part of another wrecked. Considerable 

 glass was blown out of the other houses 

 also. Hunt Bros., at Park Ridge, re- 

 ported two houses hit by falling tele- 

 graph poles, considerable damage being 

 done. The numerous other growers in 

 the Park Eidge colony escaped with the 

 loss of a little broken glass. 



At Galewood, 111., the houses and 

 stock of Dinstel Bros, were destroyed, 

 only a house of carnation cuttings be- 

 ing saved. 



At Mendota, 111., the Restland Floral 

 Co., B. Katzwinkle, proprietor, lost glass 

 in greenhouses and hotbeds to possibly 

 a value of $500. 



At Hinsdale, 111., Bassett & Wash- 

 burn 's houses were only slightly af- 

 fected. Hail was responsible for the 

 loss of fifty boxes of glass, which was 

 replaced within twenty-four hours and 

 without damage to the stock. Not a 

 pane of glass was lost at the new plant 

 at Gregg's Station, although the blow 

 was severe in that region. 



At Detroit three houses in the estab- 

 lishment of G. H. Taepke, on Elmwood 

 avenue, were practically demolished. 



At Cleveland March 25 the J. M. 

 Gasser Co. said: "Never before since 

 we have been in business have the floods 

 been so severe in our neighborhood as 

 they are today. Scarcely any trains are 

 in operation out of Cleveland except on 

 the Lake Shore, and all our shipments of 

 flowers have been returned to us by the 

 express companies with the word that 

 it was impossible to reach any of the 

 various points of shipment." Ship- 

 ments out 'of Chicago also are being 

 taken, if at all, only at owner's risk. 



THE RETAIL -^^^l 



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THE EASTEB TRADE. 



There is only one variation in the 

 Easter trade reports. It was the banner 

 Easter in all those parts of the country 

 where the weather was favorable; in 

 other sections the trade was unsatis- 

 factory and below last year just in pro- 

 portion as the weather conditions were 

 unfavorable, 'through the west and 

 centering in the Mississippi valley there 

 was a heavy storm of rain, snow and 

 sleet in the early morning hours of Good 

 Friday, which interrupted business seri- 

 ously. This storm passed and Saturday 

 before Easter was pleasant overhead, 

 though bad under foot. The reports are 

 quite unanimous tiat Saturday gave the 

 florists of the entire United States the 

 biggest ohe day's business in the his- 

 tory of the trade at Easter. The storm 

 .of Good Friday was followed bjr a much 

 more severe storm sweeping from west 

 to east, covering the valleys of the Mis- 



souri and Mississippi during the day. of 

 Easter and passing on eastward. This 

 storm not only did much damage to 

 property interests, but it cut thousands 

 upo|i thousands of dollars from the re- 

 tailers' flower sales. It was most se- 

 verely felt between Omaha and Detroit; 

 east of this region it did not come until 

 after the Easter business had been dis- 

 posed of, and all through the eastern 

 section of the country the report is that 

 the Easter trade surpassed the best pre- 

 vious records. Unfortunate as weather 

 conditions were through the central 

 states, the reports are encouraging as 

 showing that the business is still in- 

 creasing much faster than the popula- 

 tion. 



In the storm region no deductions 

 can be drawn from the comparative sup- 

 ply and demand, as conditions were ex- 

 ceptional in all respects. In the sec- 

 tions that were, favored with pleasant | 



weather, all retailers found cut flowers 

 and plants to sell almost equally well. 

 Possibly because of the early date, lilies 

 appear nowhere to have been in over- 

 supply. Flowering plants in general 

 were in greater supply than ever be- 

 fore and, except where some special rea- 

 son could be found for it, the stock 

 cleaned up so well that there is encour- 

 agement for still larger production next 

 year. 



It was noticeable that everywhere 

 throughout the country prices on cut 

 flowers were held at practically the 

 normal wholesale level. The days of a 

 sharp advance ii» the price of cut flow- 

 ers for Easter apparently are over. 

 There was some increase in the whole- 

 sale prices of carnations, but in many 

 cases it proved unwarranted, and in 

 nearly every large city market roses 

 were advanced in price for the holiday 

 no more than they are on any day that 

 sees a really first-class market. The 

 supply of roses was large. Froni all 

 eastern parts of the country comes com- 

 plaint of the violets, but it seems prob- 

 able that a large part of the trouble 

 grew out of the unfavorable weather 

 conditions; the violet industry is not in 

 the precarious state that some of this 

 week's reports would indicate. 



Perhaps it was because of the more 

 moderate prices for cut flowers that the 

 cut flower business increased quite sat- 

 isfactorily. Many retailers who report 

 being left with some expensive plants 

 say that they cleaned up better than 

 usual on cut flowers. 



The weather conditions in some im- 

 portant centers were extremely unfavor- 

 able, and the interruption of telegraph 

 and telephone service in the vicinity of 

 Chicago imposed a handicap upon a 

 large number of retailers in sections 

 outside the storm area, but there is a 

 general disposition to view the situation 

 with philosophy, • because it is every- 

 where apparent that the weather, and 

 the weather alone, was responsible for 

 any decrease in sales. The trade at 

 large certainly was demonstrated to be 

 upon afe healthy a footing as at any 

 time in recent years. 



EASTEB TBADE IN NEW YORK. 



Cut flowers reach the New Yorker 

 through three channels, by far the most 

 important of which is a group of whole- 

 sale commission merchants located on 

 West Twenty-eighth and West Twenty- 

 sixth streets. There are about thirty-five 

 of these. These dealers kept open from 6 

 a. m. Saturday until 1 p. m. Sunday^ 

 and were busy every minute of the 

 time. The second channel is the co- 

 operative wholesale- houses, termed ex- 

 changes, which are maintained by 

 (groups of growers and which are lo- 

 cated on West Twenty-sixth street. The 

 third channel through which cut flowers 

 reach the public is the suburban grow- 

 ers who sell their own products direct 

 to the public. This group is located 

 mainly in the vicinity of the cemeteries 

 and depends largely on the cemetery 

 trade for the demand. Their prod- 

 ucts are not included in the estimates 

 given below. 



Some idea of the enormous volume of 

 wholesale business transacted in cut 

 flowers in New YoMt on the Saturday 

 before Easter may he gathered from 

 the following estimates, based on con- 

 fidential reports made to The Review. 

 According to iheae estimates, the sales 

 for that day and night included about 

 100,000 Ameiii^an Beauty roses, 400,000 



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