The Flower-Borders of New York [pp. 142-143]

LITERA TURE, SCIENCE, AN~D ART.
daybreak is something remarkable, and, had we any proper place for
their display among the fearful rookeries which we have heretofore
had the superstition to call "markets," the daily exhibition could be
made to excel the celebrated Parisian Maarch aux Fleurs. The early
horse-cars that descend the hill by three or four different routes, including Bergen and Hudson City in the range, come down well stocked
with huge, fiat baskets, carefully covered with white cloths, and full
of masses of cut flowers or ready-made bouquets. These supply certain venders in the markets, on the regular days, and, to some extent,
the up-town dealers, who have stands and shops on our great thoroughfares. These baskets are generally in the custody of bright-eyed,
ruddy-faced, rustic damsels, with an occasional dame of riper years,
but no less russet cheeks, each and all practising that one great right
of woman-free speech-in astonishing variety of dialects, and with
embellishments quite characteristic of the " language of flowers."
Once in a while there is a genuine case of "love among the roses,"
and Weehawken has its romance; but, usually, the drama goes no
further than the surreptitious procurement of "a posy" from some
incautious maid by a persistent conductor or ferry-man, to be retained
as a pledge of tender interest until the next load comes along.
Once in the city, the flowers are rapidly distributed. The raw
material is immediately forwarded to the establishments whose agents
are in waiting for them at the ferries, and the street venders-the
dames and damsels aforementioned-hie to their various stations, dispersing each to her prescribed and familiar post along Broadway,
from Trinity Church to Central Park, and dotting here and there on
Fulton, Dey, and Cortlandt Streets, with an intermittent appearance
on Chambers Street, the City Hall Park, and Fourth Avenue.
The general estimate of these floral gitani embraces about fourscore well-known faces, and the stock in trade of each will run from
twenty to fifty pieces, at all rates, to suit customers, from two cents
for a single tuberose and five cents for a simple buttonhole-nosegay,
consisting of one or two flowers and a geranium-leaf, to ten cents for
the smallest and one dollar for the largest bouquet that they sell.
The latter size, however, is rare; fifty cents being the usual limit,
while the average sales do not rise in great number above the twentyfive-cent assortment. Any one who may chance to pass the Astor House steps in business hours, and as late as sunset, will get a very
fair idea of the flower-vender sisterhood. The neatest and most
stylish of them has her glass case, containing hand-bouquets and
baskets of flowers, exquisitely put up d la Francaise, and her polite ness and celerity are not the least of the attractions that she imparts
to her little trade. At this season she also exhibits baskets of beau tiful fruit, which come, like the flowers, from German and French
gardens in Jersey. A camp-stool for a seat, and a large, covered
basket, in which to bring and remove her wares, complete her furni ture, and, when business is dull, the knitting-needle or a newspaper
speeds the hour. This Flora and Pomona, in one of the great down town caravansaries, has held the same post for years, and will be re membered by thousands, in different parts of the Union, who have
visited our city and now glance at these pages.
At a little distance, on either side of the hotel-entrance, are hum bler dealers, some with only an open basket holding a few cheap
nosegays, and others with a rather better class of wares in a small
glass case resting, like themselves, on the pavement, or on a very
small portable stool. Farther down the street, and in front of St.
Paul's, these venders sit on the edge of the grating-wall, and make
themselves more pleasantly at home this season than they did while
the shadow of that iron nightmare, the Loew Bridge, rested on the
scene.
From these specimens the reader may judge all the street venders.
In addition to a few made bouquets, they have loose material, from
which, with a little thread and the use of nimble fingers, they can, in
a very few moments, put up an exquisite knot of roses, camelias, vio lets, pinks, or tuberoses, with sprigs of mignonette, geranium, and
ribbon-grass, and, as it is deemed the proper thing to have this done
instead of buying the ready article, they are kept quite busy thus
until their assortment of loose clippings is exhausted.
As we have hinted, costume is overlooked by these floral sprites,
and both rococo and motley are the wear. Nevertheless, they turn an
honest penny in their way, and their sales range from three to ten
dollars per day, on stock that costs from one to four dollars, thus
leaving a clear profit of from two to six dollars in good seasons. The
last figure, however, is reached only by the "star" operators in their 1
line; nine-tenths of them are glad to net two dollars-and upon the
accumulations of a year or two, at that rate, they marry and are given
in marriage, and more pine cottages, like carved toys from Nuremberg, start up on the Jersey hills, and fresh acres of bloom and perfume gladden the sunny slopes, that coquet with the lordly Hudson on
one side and the diminutive Hackensack upon the other.
Of the heavier branches of this attractive business, it will suffice
to say that there are some fourteen considerable houses engaged in
them, which have regular lists of customers trading steadily with
them, and purchasing bouquets from one to ten dollars, and baskets
from five to one hundred dollars in price. Of course, wealth and
pride frequently leap beyond these rates, and one concern, not far
from the Fifth Avenue Hotel, has put up baskets that cost four hundred to five hundred dollars. The chief business of these houses is
during the winter, and their main stock is consequently drawn from
hot-houses-Westchester County, Long Island, and even the environs
of Philadelphia, famous for camellias, supplying them. However,
within a year or two, New Jersey has encroached upon the hot-houseculture largely, and is gradually gaining upon her rivals. This line
of the business is immense, and is growing from year to year, until we
already begin to eclipse the famous flower-trade of Holland, where, it is
said, six millions of flower-plants are sold annually; Harlem and Noordwyk being the centres of the traffic. There the favorites are tulips,
hyacinths, lilies, ranunculuses, anemones, crocuses, roses, and marigolds,
and some dealers have a revenue of twenty thousand florins, or nearly
eight thousand dollars, per annum, from the sale of roots and bulbs
alone.
With us the staples are violets, roses, camellias, tuberoses, mignonette, and heliotrope, and the city and suburbs of New York consume
the value of nearly one million two hundred thousand dollars of these
every year. Pinks, verbenas, and the flowering geranium, are also
great favorites; while superb tulips and clusters of the lily-of-the-valley from time to time appear, and are eagerly bought up. Frequently,
too, some enterprising steward of a Southern steamer brings in a ven ture of magnolia-blossoms, and these are hawked about the streets by
special salesmen, on commission, at five cents apiece, for a few days
gladdening offices and homes with the waxy whiteness of the flower
contrasting with the glossy green of the stem and leaves, and giving
us strange celestial whiffs, along our too-highly-commissionered streets,
of balmy and spicy fragrance from "the sweet South."
Theatres and public ballrooms naturally extend the largest patron age to this floral trade, and the expenses of skilful managers who have
heavy "stars" upon their hands is something wonderful in this direc tion. But, in truth, the jeunesse dorte of the metropolis are florally
most liberal, particularly where the robust ballet and the cancan dancing "Duchesse" are concerned.
Nor do the great houses of wealthy residence or popular amuse ment have it all to themselves. A becoming and graceful taste for
flowers pervades the younger classes of our active population. What
present so welcome and so agreeable, so beautiful while in bloom, so
touching a memento when withered, as a little bunch of flowers to
"the loved one at home?" and thus, while the Lovelaces of the
counting-house snatch a ten-cent camellia or tie of tuberoses for their
button-hole, as they go down-town in the morning, the hard-working
clerks and poor sewing-girls sweep off the five-cent bunches of violets
and pinks, as they return from labor in the afternoon, to brighten some
humble chamber, and gladden some waiting heart with its presence.
But, whether in splendid hall or in scanty garret, whether by the
cradle of infancy or at the bedside of age, blessed be the taste that is
surrounding our homes with these charming and innocent adornments!
The great city has need of "flower-borders." and what intense relief
it is to soul and body to lift the mind, weary with the contemplation
of the fret and conflict of the human hive, to those enamelled fields
and rainbow-hued parterres that every year are making brighter and
more beautiful the fringes of the queenly city's garments! The voy ager who sails in from the sea, whether he skirt the margin of Long
Island and beholds the spires of Flushing far away; or, descending the
Sound, hugs the Westchester shore; or, passing up from our grand
bay to the Hudson, glances beyond the wooded knolls that crown the
Elysian Fields-will see the sunlight gilding acres of glass parterres,
where thoughts of grace and beauty are maturing to make a May-time
for us in December, while, on all sides, verdure and bloom already fill
the outer summer air from plots and boscages that June and August
hare caressed.
1869.]
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