42 THE GARDENER. U AN - 



LIVERPOOL CHRYSANTHEMUM SHOW. 



Chrysanthemum Exhibitions are by no means uncommon nowadays, for, in addi- 

 tion to the one now being noticed, a large oue is held at Bristol, and then in the 

 London district there is the old Stoke-Newington Society — an association to 

 which the present position of the Chrysanthemum owes much — besides several 

 others of less reputation, though all doing good service in the cause of floriculture ; 

 and there are in addition the admirable exhibitions made by Messrs Salter & Son, 

 at Hammersmith, and Mr A. Forsyth, at Stoke-Newington (one at the west of 

 London, aud the other at the north-east side), growers whose names are household 

 words with the exhibitors of Chrysauthemums all over the United Kingdom. 

 For the rich quality aud high development of the flowers, Stoke-Newington stands 

 pre-eminent ; and it is generally admitted that on the occasion of the annual exhi- 

 bition in November last, the Chrysanthemum blooms were never seen finer. For 

 extent, in all probability, Liverpool leads the way; and in regard to that great and 

 essential result which does not always crown the efforts of the best and most zeal- 

 ous committees — success — Liverpool wears the conqueror's crown. An autumn 

 exhibition at Liverpool means the magnificent hall of St George's, in Lime Street, 

 filled with plants and fruit, and the hall thronged with company the whole day 

 through, and resulting in a large profit to the Committee. St George's Hall at 

 eight o'clock in the evening, when the full glare of the gaslight brings out distinct 

 and clear the smallest object, and a crowd so dense that sometimes any move- 

 ment in the huge mass of humanity gathered between the tables and in the 

 galleries is scarcely perceptible — and delicious music adds its pure enjoyment to 

 the scene, — that is a sight well worth looking on. Ah ! it is a poor spirit that 

 can look upon a scene like that unmoved, whatever may be the ruliug motives 

 operating to bring such a company together. 



Touching the Liverpool Show, let us hope that the day is not far distant when 

 we shall see the last of such hideously-formal and unnaturally-trained plants of 

 Chrysanthemums as those staged at the last show. There is a layer of green 

 leaves almost as smooth as a lawn, so closely are the branches tied down to flat 

 wire trellises, overlaid by a layer of flowers, giving a regular and unbroken surface, 

 and looking like floral card-tables. What twisting and torturing processes must 

 be adopted to accomplish this ! what manoeuvring must be required, and all to 

 secure something as unlike nature as can possibly be ! All that natural elegance 

 of the plant is suppressed, as if it were a thing foreign to it, and not one to be 

 developed with all the skill of the grower. In our next number we will endea- 

 vour to show, by a reference to what has been most worthily done during the 

 season by a most successful grower, that Chrysanthemums can be cultivated in 

 the form of specimen plants with only the aid of a few upright sticks to support 

 the plant in a natural and easy manner. The specimen plants were staged all 

 round the sides of St George's Hall on two broad shelves, one above the other, 

 nicely covered with green baize, and in size they averaged from a diameter of 2 

 feet to huge examples fully 6 and 7 feet in diameter. There were to be seen 

 none of the magnificent incurved flowers similar to those at Mr Salter's, at Ham- 

 mersmith ; the sorts used are invariably the reflexed flowers, that do not fold their 

 petals over towards the centre in the form of a half-ball. Cut blooms were not 

 so fine as they are always seen at the Stoke-Newington Show, but we would be 

 led to suppose that more attention is paid to the cultivation of plants. The best 

 eighteen, shown by Mr R. Foster, gardener to S. H. Thompson, Esq., consisted of 

 Lady Slade, Jardin des Plantes, Fingal, Empress of India, Bronze Jardindes Plantes, 



