The Washington critic., 1886-03-01
RoSEBUDS AND vIoLETS.
Prices Paid for Flowers by the sociot
People.


Any one who attends the receptions
and banquets Of the season now pre-
vailing in society must be struck with
the lavish floral display on such occa-
sions. One of THE CRITics young
men was and wondered where all the
| flowers came from and what they cost
He wandered into prominent florists
| establishment to find out. The florist
was engaged in arranging $50 centre
| piece for Swell banquet" but could
spare time to give few points on
| flowers.
'1Iow is our business now2 1t is
| excellent; we have all we can do; just
| rushed from morn till night. It's q
dinner party here, and reception
there, and n dozen corsage bouquets
| somewhere else, with an occasional
| sprinkling of weddings. What kind
| of flowers do we use the most? Well
we use n great many lilies of the val
ley, violets, cheap roses and tulips
Lilies of the valley are cheap-about
| ninety cents dozen punches, violcts,
one dollar per hundred. We have
very nice rose for dollar dozen, and
then we have some roses as high as
|
sivc now, the finest being five dollars q
spray"
Have there been many large affairs
in your line this yeary'
mo very large ones; but II is not
the grand banquets and balls that are
the most profitable to us. You see, IL
a lady wants to give a ball with pro-
fuse floral decorations she rents Of me
| ;,,f, Il ,Nt Ia ut
the rent of which ranges from fifty
few yards Of greens, $50 center-p piece
nieres, and that is all. The whole af.
It's these select dinner parties and ban
quets that pay us. They must have
fine center piece, two nice end pieces.
corsage bouquets for the ladies. The
corsage bouquets for such an event
would be considerable item. 1t is
not an unusual thing by any means to
furnish them as high as 80 and $40
each.
During the eight years administra-
tion of General Grant il was not un-
usual to furnish $3.50 worth of flowers
for banquet. Theatre parties fur.
nish us good trade. A young man
wants to take q lady to the opera, and
of course she must be accompanied by
two or three chaperones. In the after
noon he sends up the corsage bouquets;
they must be fine, too-Marechal Neil
roses, violets and other rare flowers.
About $5 each will be very low for
them.
another good source Of revenue to
us is the young man who makes it q
point to send his sweetheart flowers
continually; the flowers will often make
} deeper impression than the young
man could. The foreigners are great
hands at that. There is one young
member of legation who has a stand
} ing order with me to send every Sunday
D morning magnificent basket of cut
D flowers to belle on Connecticut ave-
0 nue.. He sends her flowers all through
D the week, too. He pays me about $50
month for his flowers l have an
0 other regular customer, society fel-
0 low and man of the world, who sends
0 over 800 worth of flowers every month
to the wife of q prominent official. But
y this is sub rosa and you must not
mention it,
0 Where do you get these fine
q flowers ?"
o 1.-THE greater part of them are raised
n in the vicinity of Washington and
some come from New York and Phila-
dclphia. The trade in flowers that
U bloom in the winter has grown TO large
proportions and is getting larger every
!, year. 1t is not considered az fat to
have any kind of a social affair now
without flowers, and there Is more So
: cial life in Washington today than for
many years. There are more rich peo-
!. pie here, who are willing to spend
r their money, than during any other
administration l know of. 1t is true
that there are not so many large af
fairs as in former years, but there is Q
general rally among society people and
pretty social events are occurring al
the time, and more general consump
tion of flowers.
4 1--WE get considerable transient trade
from the hotels. Some visitors stop
=, ping over few days wish to attent
40 the opera, and, of course, must have
% flowers, and usually fine ones, so We
% get many good jobs that way. A for
"a eigner came into my place last Frida,
50 and wanted basket of rare flowers
% fixed up one that cost him just $2S
10 which nc paid without murmur, an,
,s ordered it sent to the hotel. Something
very strange about 1t, though, was tina
the lady to whom the flowers went wa
20 70 his wife; they had been married fiv
10 years. This i learned subsequently
90 1t is seldom that married man send
g his own wife expensive bouquets
40 When Appointment actress comes to tn
90 city we always have n big trade, ant
90 you would be surprised to know VIII
w 1t is sends the flowers; not always th
young society men, but staid pate,
90 tamilids
% During the week that favorit
oc %, opera company spent here, some tim
SC ago, II member of Congress bought
oc So basket of flowers from me ever
70 evening, and had it sent to the roor
70 of the chorus girls, after the play wa
SC over. This is not to be mentioned
'c either. We florists get onto som
h. racy items occasionally.
90 THE demi-monde receive n grei
GO many flowers. have sent as many Q
~ $50 worth of flowers day to one G
90 the principal establishments. The st
90 cial world would be surprised an
M shocked sometimes to know who sen
90 the flowers, too"
9U90 For cure Of rheumatism neuralgia In /
w various phases Of sciatica, tic douloreu
..... 10. AtA Snl,V