The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-12-02
FLOWERS CJSf MONEY.
MILLIONS SPENT ANNUALLY FOR
FLORAL BEAUTIES.

The Most Costly Are The Most Fashiona-
BILE Until They Are Plen:ifnl-orchids
Are Always observation-disclosures That
Are Favorites in New York.
There is fashion IL flowers as in other
things with which rich people have to do.
and it is even more unr .asenaoe and more
capricious than other fashions. As rule,
| whatever is most costly II 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 1t becomes plen-
tiful it is no longer prizea above its fell
lows Another forced flower takes its
place, and so the fashion changes from one
| premature growth 10 another.
An execution to this rule is the orchid,
! which is always Ia 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 cut 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" florist
said, "and 500 would buy only small
centerpiece for dinner table"
A choice Cataylia costs 15 cents. 1t is
! perhaps on account of its cost that the or
enid 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 So TO s12 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 a
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 its 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 Jacques-it is quite rs
large but il has a 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. 80 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 as 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
sunshinv. 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 typifes the re-
vival of life out of doors"
Persons who believe that nature raises
finer roses than 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 man finds that his floral home
industry, in addition to being unreliable
and uncertain, is more expensive than i'm
portations from the greenhouses of flor
ISIS, he goes elsewhere for his flowers.
''I've got tired paying 81 50-spiece 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 correspondingly valued on that &C
count are cnrysanthemums. Choice Japan
csc varieties sell at from s. to $40 a dozen.
The more expensive kind are from eight to
ten inches in diameter
vIoLETs ALWAYS N DEMAND.
Violets always have the Gail, and are
never out of fashion. except VIXEN 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 a
hundred violets costs generally s.. %, but
late in the season it will cost more.
AS cost and not cheapness is an incen-
tive to purchase, il is easy 10 believe that
the amount of money spent in n 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 il is difficult even to guess at
Each florist is likely to estimate it differ
emily. One is inclined to think that 5000
900 year is spent in cut flowers and az
much more in plants. This estimate Is
based on the assertion that one wholesale
florist-the chief, TO be sure-did bust
ness one year of 81 800 900. Stock that
cost 81 ,500,0 600 wholesale may retail for
$4,000 900, and 1900, 600 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
poor, who do not buy plants, is large one
More money, in proportion 10 the slender
incomes of the buyers. is spent for flowers
at funerals and weddings and in the sick
room in tenements than by well TO do peo-
pie. who, the florists say, spend more in
proportion than the very rich. The num-
Der Of florists shops in densciy populated
sections indicates that many flowers are
bought by slender purses.
Flowers, too, are sometimes considered
almost a necessity in the sick room: they
often do more to cheer the sick than al
most anything else That Is why the Flow
er mission, which seeks 10 supply flowers
70 the very poor who cannot pay for them,
is one Of the most practical Of charities.
Flowers at festivities and funerals are now
sent By many persons 10 the patients Of
their favorite institutions. Very often a
church is stripped Of It's floral decoration
Immediately after wedding. and funeral
flowers are not allowed time TO wither.-
New York Sun