For July, 1922 



215 



Departments of Foreign Exchange and Book Reviews 



AN AMERICAN'S IMPRESSIONS OF THE 

 CHELSEA SHOW 



FOR ail American gardener a visit to the Chelsea Show is a rare 

 and happy privilege, an inspiring lesson in the possibilities 

 of making a flower show not only instructive, but beautiful, and 

 also, alas ! a source of despair in seeing so many exquisite plants 

 which will not survive our cold Winters and hot Summers. 



In recent years we have had in the Eastern United States many 

 fine flower shows of which we are very proud, but even the 

 large size of our biggest national shows had left me unprepared 

 for any show on such a gigantic scale as the 1922 Chelsea Ex- 

 hibition. We hope that the rapid growing interest in horticulture 

 may make such shows possible with us in the not far distant 

 future. 



The show impressed me on account of its great size, its artistic 

 arrangement, the high quality of the exhibits, and the tremendous 

 variety of the plant material used. I liked it all so much that it 

 is difficult for me to try to pick out the best things to comment 

 on, for, with the possible exception of the big Carter clock and 

 the garden surrounded by bright pink dwarf Rhododendrons, I 

 liked everything. 



.As ray greatest interest is in the Iris, I naturally spent much 

 time in .Messrs. R. Wallace and Co.'s garden, which received such 

 high honors. This garden was a gem of design and color ar- 

 rangement, and contained two of the newest Irises of English 

 origin, Asia and Prospero, side by side with the French -Am- 

 bassador and Souv. de Mme. Gaudichau and the American Lent 

 A. Williamson. Lady Foster, Crusader, and Neptune also ap- 

 peared to good advantage here, but Dominion had suffered from 

 too hard forcing, and the flower was not characteristic. The 

 Lilies, .Azaleas and Regolio Cyclus Iris blended well with the 

 Iris, and made a perfect whole. 



The Bunyard Iris garden was also a source of delight to me, 

 and here Ambassadeur, Lord or June, Magnifica and Isolene 

 stood out as giants among some of the older sorts. In the 

 Perry and Whitelegg exhibits, Regelio-Cyclus Iris were the 

 feature. 



Perhaps even inore fascinating than the Iris gardens were the 

 rock gardens, something we hardly know in America. I liked 

 Mr. Wood's conception best, because it was so very simple that 

 it reminded me of some exquisite bits of wild landscape in some 

 of our New Hampshire or \'ermont hills. 



Messrs. R. Tucker and Sons' garden contained a greater variety 

 of plant material, and was also very beautiful ; in fact, nearly 

 all the rock gardens struck me as being wonderfully artistic, as 

 well as showing many exquisite little plants, and I spent more 

 time with them than I did in some of the formal gardens. 



The Rhododendrons were finer than any I bad ever seen, the 

 big bushes, in one of the big tents and in Messrs. R. Wallace 

 and Co.'s natural garden being the most striking. To Rhododen- 

 dron experts the cut flowers were probably equally interesting. 



Another group of plants that I admired particularly were the 

 Clematis hybrids exhibited by Messrs. G. Jackman and Co. and 

 one or two others. European gardeners are used to these, but 

 to an American all but one or two varieties are totally new. 

 I do not know how they would grow under our conditions. 



We are used to fine displays of Roses in our American shows, 

 and perhaps for this reason the Roses did not impress me so 

 much as some of the other flowers. They were of splendid 

 qualitv on the first day, and I was glad to see some of the 

 triumphs of two or America's greatest Rose breeders. Dr. Van 

 Fleet and Mr. H. Walsh, Ixith of whom have died within the past 

 few months. The varieties noted were American Pillar, Hiawa- 

 tha. Paradise. Excelsa and Minnehaha. W'e are very glad that 

 these are appreciated in England, where so many fine Roses have 

 originated. The Atnerican Rose Los Angeles, which won a 

 gold medal at Bagatelle in 1918, was also noted in good condition, 

 as were several other American varieties. The nurnber of vari- 

 eties exhibited was much greater than in inost American shows. 



Paul's Scarlet Climber was seen in wonderful form, but I 

 did not think the flowers of the beautiful new Souv. de Claudius 

 Pernet were quite as fine as those staged in our New York show 

 last March. 



There was so many new Roses to attract attention that I can 

 comment on only a few. I liked Padre the best, but admired 

 also Rev. F. Page Roberts, the singles Mrs. Oakley Fisher and 

 Pink Delight and the Polyanthas Queen W'ilhelmina and La 

 Reine Elizabeth. 



The Tulips were gorgeous. I have never seen a display as 



fine as Messrs. Dobbie and Co.'s, although I have seen as fine 

 flowers in small ciuantities in our shows at home. As usual, I 

 liked La Tulip Noire the best of all, and Dom Pedro, Fans 

 and Louis XIV were noted in fine condition in many exhibits. 



Carnations surprised me, because I had always supposed the 

 American Carnation was far superior to those grown in Europe. 

 True, there was a liberal sprinkling of American varieties like 

 Enchantress Supreme, Beacon, Benora and White Wonder, all 

 of excellent quality, and also a few of Laddie, which were not 

 nearly so big as with us, but the British varieties seemed equally 

 good. I made no notes on varieties, but Thor impressed me the 

 most. We have no commercially important Carnation of the 

 color of Marion Wilson, which I liked very much. I was also im- 

 pressed with the fact that at least one breeder was emphasizing 

 the fragrance of his new varieties — a point forgotten by many 

 American breeders in the race after size and productiveness. 



The Sweet Peas were as fine as those shown by Burpee in 

 New York, and were shown in greater quantity. The display 

 of Orchids was larger than usually seen with us, with the ex- 

 ception of the recent special Orchid exhibitions put on by Mr. 

 Burrage, president of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. 



These swtes have already grown longer than 1 intended, be- 

 cause I do not know where to stop. I cannot close without men- 

 tioning how hungry I got every time I passed Laxton's wonderful 

 strawberries, the like of which I have never seen. We are used 

 to seeing fine vegetable and fruit displays at home, but for this 

 season of the year the Hon. Vicary Gibbs' collection of vegetables 

 was remarkable, and so was Messrs. Bungard and Co.'s collection 

 of Apple varieties, which interested me as showing me many 

 Apples I had read about in your columns in previous years. No 

 American varieties were shown, and they are probably as un- 

 suited to your climate as your varieties are to ours. 



I am sorry that you had to treat us to some real American 

 Summer weather during the show week, for it was not only 

 hard on people but on the flowers, many of which were not in 

 good condition on the last day, but my surprise was to see how 

 remarkably they stood up under such adverse conditions. _ All 

 praise is due to the skillful growers and to the able exhibitors 

 and managers of the show who put on these wonderful shows 

 year after year. I hope I may be able to attend many more of 

 them.— JOHM C. Wister in The Gardners' Chronicle (British). 



Manu.^l of the Trees of North America, by Charles Sprague 

 Sargent. Houghton, Mifflin Company, Boston and New York. 



It might seem superfluous to mention in an American journal 

 this work, the transcendent merits of which have already been 

 recognized in Europe. An English reviewer, a no mean authority, 

 refers to it as "no doulit the finest work on trees ever published." 

 He declares that "for the lover of trees in North America this 

 work must be indispensable; and in the British Isles, where 

 (gardens owe so much to the arboreal vegeta,ition of North 

 America, its value is almost as great." 



The first edition, published in 1905 as a revision and conden- 

 sation into one volume of the author's Silva of North America, 

 a magnificent monumental work of fourteen quarto volumes and 

 containing seven hundred and four handsome plates, has since 

 its appearance held complete dominance in its field. This new 

 edition, as an example of the book-making art — a volume that 

 with all its astounding mass of content is of size and structure 

 that actually makes it a practicable manual for field work, — and 

 in composition so sane in se'ecting and in omitting— is beyond 

 praise. It is absolutely unique in being the well-ripened fruit 

 of most extraordinary genius and powers of work possessed by 

 a man who for forty' years has indefatigably studied and worked 

 long hours as the Director of the Arnold .Arboretum, by far the 

 best place for a systematic study of the subject. But it may 

 not be known generally that this institutional study and research rest 

 upon a foundation laid in many arduous explorations, such as could 

 be made only by a person of tremendous physical strength and 

 energy, of all the widely sca-ttered portions of the enormous 

 field. The author shows the advantage of thorough acquaintance 

 with the Silva of Japan also, which is so closely related to that 

 of temperate North .America, and about which he once published 

 an authoritative work. When reference to a genus existing in 

 other parts of the world also seems to be desirable for contrast 

 such reference is made, as for example, in the case of Ficus, 



The work is profound in its scholarship. The few changes 

 made from classifications in the former edition must meet with 

 universal acceptation. There is commendable insistency upon 



