The business was led by three large mail order firms: Good & Reese, McGregor Brothers, and Innisfallen Greenhouses, the last of which had been purchased the previous July by a man with valuable shipping experience, former assistant postmaster George H. Mellen.
In all, though, “16 florist firms secure their mail at the Springfield Post office,” the paper said. And their influence was felt wherever flowers were sold.
“The wholesale florists of this city,” the paper said, “fix the price of plants throughout the union.”
McGregors’ gardens
Called “one of the pioneer floral firms of the city, having been engaged in the business here for 20 years,” the McGregor Brothers raised “over a million plants a season,” the story said.
In a Springfield Daily Press report of Oct. 22, 1899, Frank McGregor, who handled advertising for the company at Belmont Avenue and Main Street, said the firm had found “little profit” when it started in the retail business in the mid 1870s.
Switching to wholesaling, “our business has enjoyed a steady growth,” he said. “At the start we equipped three (green) houses. Now we have with all modern appliances 35 houses, requiring about 115,000 square feet of glass.”
He told the Daily Press that 1899 had been “the banner year of my experience.”
With the most important segment of its business in shipments to the western United States, the company also did a profitable trade in Canada and Mexico, augmenting all with sales to the so-called “catalog men” of the East.
Said McGregor, “Springfield is the greatest floral center in the country and these catalog men have their orders filled here.”
That meant work not just for Frank McGregor and brother, David, but for the whole family: the brothers’ four sons, Robert and Ray, Allen and Harold; Misses Grace and Olive McGregor; and the clan’s skilled artist.
The company’s catalogues, “noted for their beauty ... all over the country,” said the Republic-Times, “are made from original sketches from nature by Miss Bertha McGregor, who is an artist of merit and originality.”
2 million roses
If the McGregors were happily employed, Good & Reese enjoyed an even larger output and reputation.
Referring to it, the headline of the Republic-Times of March 1895 wrote: “Springfield has the biggest rose plant factory on the face of the globe.”
Its array of greenhouses on South Limestone Street “are the largest in the United States devoted to the commercial plant business,” the Republic-Times reported.
From 20 greenhouse devoted solely to roses, the company shipped out 50,000 a week in the spring season. It also grew 1,000 varieties of “soft stuff” or bedding plants, including geraniums, coleus, carnations and heliotrope.
“In the spring, 40 girls are employed in the office opening mail and addressing letters,” the paper said.
The Daily Press reported that in preparation for the 1900 mailing season, “there are now potted up to 1.5 million roses, with 500,000 yet to pot.”
Good & Reese employed 65 men throughout the year.
“It may surprise many people in this city to learn (the company) enjoy(s) a large trade in the West Indies,” the story said, “and, in fact, send their roses and plants to every civilized country on the face of the globe.”
Shipping news
The Daily Press said the process for shipping plants was straightforward: “They are dumped in water, wrapped in wet moss and oil paper and placed in paraffin paste board boxes, and then are consigned to the tender mercies of Uncle Sam’s mail agents.”
Good & Reese took advantage of the local publishing industry that had been its advertising arm to promote its product and make Springfield the Rose City.
The company’s “very profitable results are obtained by extensive advertising,” the Republic-Times reported.
“The firm states they will spend $14,000 this year in advertising in farm papers, magazines, floral publications and so on. In addition ... they mail 300,000 catalogs every year, sending out an average of 75 mail sacks every day.
“Fifteen separate florists’ catalogs are published in this city in a season reaching an aggregate of over half a million copies.”
A brass band
Helped by the former assistant postmaster, George Mellen, the Innisfallen Green Houses, which had been founded by C.A. Reeser, grew markedly from 1894-1899.
“Since that time, the business ... has doubled and the capacity of the houses taxed to their limit,” the Daily Press reported. As a result, they were adding more capacity to a business that sold about 750,000 rose plants a year, and provided full time work for 30.
“These houses have the distinction of supporting a brass band, which is composed of the employees of the company,” the Daily Press said. “The band, which plays under the leadership of Frank Goe, has gained much popularity and is the source of not a little amusement for the men at the dinner hour.”
The Daily Press mentioned an Orient account.
“It has one customer in China, to whom it sends a large order every year by mail, reaching its destination in five weeks. This demonstrates the scientific method and carefulness with which the plants are packed.”
After decades of success, Springfield’s floral industry finally withered during the Great Depression, making way for new plants to grow in its place.
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