San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-12-06
MILLIONS SPENT ANNUALLY FOR
FLORAL BEAUTIES.


Are Always observation-disclosures That
I Are Favorites in New York.
| There is fashion in flowers as in other
things with which rich people have to do,
and it is even more unreasonable and more
capricious than other fashions. As n rule,
whatever is most costly is most fashion
able, or at any rate most sought after. A
| flower that is difficult to procure from its
being not yet in season is sought after for
| that reason, and as soon as it becomes plen-
tiful it is no longer priced above its fell
lows. Another forced flower takes its
place, and so the fashion changes from one
premature growth to another
An exception to this rule is the orchid,
which is always in vogue because it is al
ways expensive. On the other hand, many
persons, especially women, have their ia
vorite flowers, which they order in season
as well as out of season, not despising
them when they become comparatively
cheap. A person whose favorite is the
orchid never has, of course, this reason for
thinking less of it, "You could put $50
worth of orchids in your hat" a florist
said, "and 500 would buy only small
centerpiece for dinner table"
A choice Cataylia costs 20 cents 1t is
perhaps on account of it's cost that the Or
child is the holiday flower At Christmas
tide people are more likely than at other
times to buy the most expensive things
they can get. The Jacqueminot, or in its
English form, the Jack, roses are also
holiday flowers. They first bloom about
then, and sell readily at from IS to $40 a
dozen. The American Beauty finds favor
all the year round, even when it is COM
paratively cheap, but it becomes an espe-
cial favorite soon after Christmas. for. be-
coming rare, it sells for from SIS to SIS
dozen.
VARIETIES OF ROSES
Until the Jack blooms the Meteor, a new
flower quite like it, will have a sale for
that reason, in spite of it's selling at the
comparatively low rate of from 81 to S.
dozen. The Mrs. John Lang, also a new
rose, which stands perhaps in the same re-
lation to the American Beauty that the
Meteor does to the Jacgues-it is quite as
large, but it has lighter and, some think,
a more delicate color-is of French origin,
and was introduced by an English grower,
who named it after his wife. 1t sells for
from 81 to 81. so each.
A florist said: People think the sum
mer is the time for flowers. They are very
much mistaken. The summer in this eli
mate is too hot, and as we cannot regulate
the heat IS we can the cold we are at the
mercy of the elements. The winter is the
time for flowers, especially roses. Then
only the fine varieties which people prize
are grown The colder the weather the
better, for cold days are more likely to be
sunshiny, To be sure, there is an interval
in midwinter when some of the choicest
varieties-the American Beauty, for in
stance-are cultivated with difficulty, but
a revival begins in the dollhouse just before
Easter, the season which typifies the re-
vival of life out of DOORS" /
Persons who believe that nature raises
finer roses than a dollhouse horticulturist
probably think that owners of greenhouses
are independent of florists. Quite the con-
trary, say the latter In the first place
they cannot, as rule, raise such fine flow
ers as professional growers, and it costs
them more to raise a rich rose than to buy
it. When a man finds that his floral home
industry, in addition to being unreliable
and uncertain, is more expensive than i'm
portatioDs from the greenhouses of for
lists, he goes elsewhere for his flowers.
give got tired paying $50 apiece for my
own roses, good and bad, and prefer to pay
a florist to raise them for me-" a green
house owner is quoted as saying.
Among the flowers that are expensive
and correspOndjngly valued on that &C
count are chrysanthemums. Choice Japan
csc varieties sell at from S. to $40 dozen.
The more expensive kind are from eight to
ten inches in diameter.
yIoLETS ALWAYS IN DEMAND.
Violets always have the call, and are
never out of fashion, except when they
cannot be had for love or money, which is
seldom or never. They are used in house
or table decorations as well as in bou-
quets and boutOnnieres. A bunch of
hundred violets costs generally $50, but
late in the season it will cost more.
AS cost and not cheapness is an inCen-
tive to purchase, it is easy to believe that
the amount Of money spent in year by
New Workers in flowers and plants would
keep thousands of poor families in comfort
for the same length of time. What this
amount is it is difficult even to guess at.
Each florist is likely to estimate it differ
emily One is inclined to think that s., 0O0,-
COO year is spent in cut flowers and as
much more in plants. This estimate is
based on the assertion that one wholesale
forist-the chief, to be sure-did bust
ness one year of s, 100000 Stock that
cost 81, 500, 900 wholesale may retail for
s, OOO, 900, and 100000 is certainly little
| enough to allow for the sale at retail of
the stock of the other wholesale dealers.
The cost of private greenhouses must be
considered besides. Florists are sometimes
paid 5000 a year to take charge of green
houses.
! The flower bill of the comparatively
| moor who do NOT hny nlants is a LARGE one