384 



THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[December, 



Horticultural Societies. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Exhibitors. — It is remarkable that the best ex- 

 hibitors at the New York Horticultural Society are 

 professional men. Though there are numerous 

 amateur growers, they seldom exhibit, the reason 

 given being that wealthy employers there some- 

 times collected and retained the premiums, and 

 gardeners could not be expected to take on them- 

 selves the great extra work preparing for ex- 

 hibition entailed. They are generally over-bur- 

 dened with routine work. 



Entrance Fees. — The committee of the New 

 York Horticultural Society report their surprise 

 that Philadelphia should have asked but twenty- 

 five cents admission fee from non-members, for 

 such a magnificent display. 



Chrysanthemum Shows. — These are becom- 

 ing popular autumn attractions. There was a fine 

 one in Philadelphia during the first week in No- 

 vember. Those which obtained the premiums 

 were sold to a leading clothing house, the price 

 paid being the premium money. The same week 

 there was one in New York, the plants afterwards 

 being sold for the benefit of the Horticultural So- 

 ciety. At Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, thou- 

 sands thronged to see the collection, and people 

 had to stand in long lines in order to get their turn 

 to enter the large building wherein the flowers 

 were. 



The Chrysanthemum Show in Philadelphia. 

 — The flower-lovers of Philadelphia have reason 

 to be proud of their first attempt to organize an 

 exhibition wholly of chrysanthemums. The huge 

 hall of the Horticultural Society was completely 

 filled with collections, and the mere variety would 

 fill a large catalogue. It was feared that the ex- 

 hibits would be confined to commercial men, but 

 two of the largest and best exhibits came from 

 private gardeners, Mr. Stewart, gardener to Wistar 

 Morris, Esq., and Mr. Vallandigham, gardener to 

 G. Bullock, Esq. Their plants were near three 



I feet in height, and nearly as much wide, with 

 I healthy leaves from the pot upwards, and crowned 

 by hundreds of perfect flowers. Among the com- 

 mercial growers Mr. W. K. Harris had the most 

 numerous awards. 



The exhibition was particularly interesting as 

 showing that skill was being employed to grow 

 these plants. Of late good plant-growing was fast 

 becoming one of the lost arts. Plants are watered 

 and cared- for, doing the best they can of their 

 own accord, and if it ever should enter the grow- 

 er's mind to exhibit, he looks around a few hours 

 in advance to see if he has anything "worth tak- 

 ing." These plants showed deliberate intent to 

 try and see how well a chrysanthemum could be 

 grown. There is yet room for improvement. 

 Some of the exhibits had more stakes than stems. 

 The efl'ort should be to make good plants by 

 pinching and training, with the smallest possible 

 employment of stakes. Some growers had the 

 plants trained to single stems, and in all cases 

 these had much the finest flowers. If close atten- 

 tion be paid to the skillful management of the 

 plant, we fancy the best specimens of growth 

 could be had from this method. It would be well 

 to offer separate premiums for these different 

 methods of growth. One exhibitor had trained 

 some plants to single stems, and then pinched 

 them to form heads like Kilmarnock willows, fans 

 and other fanciful objects. The flowers were not 

 very good, nor the growth very luxuriant, but the 

 exhibit was very useful and praiseworthy, as show- 

 ing that much might be done in the way of train- 

 ing when the proper skill shall be brought to play 

 to get the best effects. 



A vase of Mr. Evans' " 55,000 " rose was exhibi- 

 ted, and proved the rose to be a very meritorious 

 one. It is a tea rose, with all the peculiar merits 

 of General Jacqueminot. 



A very fine lot of seedling chrysanthemums 

 from Julius Wolff showed that our own growers 

 are alive to the improvement of the chrysanthe- 

 mum. 



