THE EASTER FLOWER MARKET OF NEW YORK. 



- , ' By WILLIAM G. FITZ GERALD. 



^UNNING one's eye over the dainty tables of 

 a smart restaurant, or a fashionable church 

 turned into a fragrant bower of violets and 

 roses for a wedding, one wonders vaguely 

 at the extent of the flower traffic of the 

 world's richest city, where "American Beau- 

 ties" command thirty dollars a dozen at 

 retail in winter, carnations six dollars, and cattleya orchids 

 fifteen dollars a dozen. 



And one is amazed to find there are in the city over two 



from far-away orchards of semi-tropical Tampa or Pasadena. 

 The flower artist's men — a round dozen of them in felt 

 slippers — glide round the silent church, dragging twenty-foot 

 palms, each tub strategically labeled, and with its base des- 

 tined to be buried in blooms with every ugly corner hidden 

 by tufts of dainty isolepis grass. Outside are his luxurious 

 motor-vans, all plate glass and gilding, and each heated so 

 that the delicate immigrants of a day may not sicken and 

 droop in the icy air. 



Chart in hand the foreman appears like a ship's captain 

 directing his crew, and in a couple of hours the 

 magical transformation is wrought. 1 hen back 

 to the bride's home, where the floral wand works 

 similar wonders; and lastly the lovely " shower" 

 b()U(]uet, representing the last word in scientific 

 floriculture. 



True, those snow-white orchids came from 

 New Jersey or \ew Rochelle — one of hundreds 

 of flower "farms" under glass, representing an 

 investment of twelve million dollars within the 

 ten-mile radius I rom City Hall. But tnice those 

 superb floral stars back further yet, and you will 

 find yourself in Venezuelan wilds. Here a New 

 ^'ork orchid hunter like Sachse, Massmann, or 



What a Hailstorm Means to a 

 Flower Farm 



hundred and fifty retail florists 

 with an annual turnover of one 

 hundred and twenty-five thou- 

 sand dollars, and many more who 

 do at least sixty thousand dol- 

 lars' worth of business. Any one 

 of these men thinks little of a 

 thousand-dollar order for a wed- 

 ding, turning church or home 

 into a lovely garden of Lilium 

 Harrisii, hydrangea, chrysanthe- 

 mum, cyclamen, lilac, hyacinth, 

 and even natural orange-blossom 



How the Air Feeding Orchids Are Propagated 



