NEW YORK FLOWER MARKEl . 



43 



ease has made it difficult to raise them in many 

 places. Orchids find many admirers, but are not 

 within reach of the general public. 



Garden and wild flowers are also in demand and 

 have a steady sale in their season. Many of these 

 are sent to market by farmers' wives and daughters, 

 who add to their income by raising a few flowers for 

 market, or gathering wild ones and then sending 

 them by some local shipper. They come from 

 everywhere about New York. The country is dot- 

 ted with flower farms. 



The city life of New Yorkers, and the decorative 

 use of flowers and plants has tended to foster this 

 trade. The daily retail sales of the fashionable 

 florist amounts to hundreds of dollars, and on occa- 

 sions of special festivity go well into the thous- 

 ands. Most of the growers make a specialty of 

 one class of things — roses, bulbs, orchids, potted 

 plants, etc. The raising establishments are not 

 especially attractive to visitors, being shorn of their 

 bloom as soon as it is fit for market. The gay show 

 in the seller's window often comes from as many dif- 

 ferent localities as there are varieties. While most 

 of the world still slumbers, great wagons come rum- 

 bling across the ferries, full of nodding ferns and all 

 manner of greenery. 



The principal market for potted plants is in Spring 

 street, and by daylight the big wagons are unloaded 

 and the market ready for customers. The enter- 

 prising dealers come early to have a good choice, 

 and soon the plants are on their way to stores and 

 stalls. In springtime the street venders have filled 

 their carts and the plants will soon be hawked 

 through all the streets. A little later in the morn- 

 ing the market for cut-flowers near the east Thirty- 

 fourth street ferry opens, located here it gets the main 

 supply from the many growers on Long Island. 

 The surroundings do not inspire poetical thoughts 

 although conductive to conviviality. Most of the 

 business is transacted in a dingy saloon, where those 

 present can refresh themselves with any of the 

 usual drinks before or after sales. The large baskets 

 of cut-flowers from the smaller and near-by growers 

 are ranged about, while the shallow boxes, hinged 

 in the middle and held by a strap around them, are 

 piled one on top of another and filled with roses 

 and the more delicate flowers. When the bulb and 

 seed farms on Long Island are in their zenith of 

 bloom, the piles of gladiolus, zinnias, calendulas, 

 the sprigs of rose geranium, and lemon verbena are in 

 great sheaves, pansies by the bushel, and dahlias in 

 all colors from blood to snow. The odor of helio- 

 trope mingles with that of whiskey, cheese, violets, 

 sausage, hyacinths and beer, until it becomes in- 



supportable to one not accustomed to it. The 

 flowers are exhibited, and the regular customers 

 among the florists make their selections first. When 

 they have taken all they want, the rest go to the 

 street peddlers, who drive their trade on the street 

 corners and around the elevated railroad stations. 



The retail florists are influenced by the tastes of 

 their customers, and many of them make a special 

 drive with one kind of flowers and get up a reputa- 

 tion for them. Excepting for a few rare or scarce 

 things, the flowers are sold by the dozen or hundred. 

 Chrysanthemums, cornflowers, calendulas, etc., are 

 tied up and sold by the bunch ; violets in bunches 

 of 50 and 100, with a border of green leaves. Lil- 

 i es and roses sell by the dozen, as do most flowers 

 on a single stem. 



Most of the wholesale stores are situated within a 

 block or two of Broadway, between Twentieth and 

 Thirtieth streets, and here go most of the finer flow- 

 ers that are regularly sold to the trade. The deal- 

 ers are commission men, and the flowers are handled 

 on the same principle as are butter, fruit, eggs or 

 any country produce. Large quantities of flowers go 

 directly to the commission merchants, whose ware- 

 rooms are supplied with large ice chests, where flow- 

 ers are stored and where retail dealers and decora- 

 tors come for them when they have a demand. It 

 astonishes a novice to see the apparent roughness 

 and carelessness with which many flowers are 

 handled, but skilled workers can move them rapidly 

 and with little injury. Some of the most delicate 

 kinds, like camellias, are kept in boxes. Lilies have 

 their anthers removed to prevent the pollen scatter- 

 ing over their whiteness, and, with delicate orchids, 

 easily discolored by a rough touch, are kept out of 

 the general market as much as possible. 



Although the bulk of the flower-trade is among 

 our own people, visitors to the city, charmed by the 

 unaccustomed floral beauty, are among the best pur- 

 chasers. Other places are supplied from here, even 

 to the base of the Rocky Mountains and to New 

 Orleans. Although more is done in winter than at 

 any other season, the fashionable summer resorts 

 have drawn upon this city for supplies even as far 

 away as Bar Harbor, and a strange taste has some- 

 times even preferred the conventional hot-house 

 productions, although ever higher in summer than 

 winter. Flowers in bloom have been successfully 

 sent to England, arriving in splendid condition, and 

 lilies are imported from Bermuda, but these features 

 of the trade are not likely to be great commercial 

 successes. New Yorkers are reproached for want 

 of horticultural enthusiasm, yet they are the most 

 liberal purchasers of flowers in the world. 



