GARDENERS' CHRONICLE 



The Tenth International Flower Show 



FLORUM AMATOR 



FROM the very moment a visitor to this show, held 

 in the (irand Central Palace, New York City, March 

 12 to 17. 1923. reached the head of the broad stair- 

 way leading- to the main floor, he was caught and held 

 by a loveliness of color, a beauty of form, and an intoxi- 

 cating perfume, a combination found only in the re]iublic 

 of flowers. Garden on garden of flowering and foliage 

 plants, in charming arrangements and groups, and single 

 specimens, and vases of beautiful cut flowers confronted 

 him and hemmed him in on every hand. When later he 

 passed from the main floor scene of beauty to the mez- 

 zanine, he found a supplement of that on which his eves 

 had just l>een feasting. 



ond prize, was not far behind in the number of plants 

 used. It is, it seems to me, vain to waste words in saying 

 bv way of criticism that such gardens as these with their 

 great wealth of blooms, appearing on a large variet\- of 

 ]>lants at a time, are impossible in real gardening in the 

 open, even in the mfist favorable season of the year, and 

 in the most congenial part of our country climatically. 

 True it is, that not a .garden exhibited at this show, either 

 by private or commercial growers, could be proditced and 

 maintained for a week under the open sky. Such gardens, 

 however, as these, are justified by the fact that only by 

 the setting up' of high ideals is advancement graduallv 

 gained anfl ])iitentialities marie realities. The main fea- 



T/ir prize '(x-iititing group of flowering plants exhibited ut the hilenuitional Flower Show by 

 Thoiupsor i.lndrezs.' Siroehivi, gonieiier) arronged as a garden 



l>uring several days of the week in which this greatest 

 of all flower shows in this country was staged, the ele- 

 ments were unkind and doubtless curtailed somewhat the 

 aggregate attendance. The 1923 New York Sjiring 

 Flower Show, nevertheless, as re.gards the number, va- 

 riety, and quality of its exhibits scored a distinct success. 



Without the many admirable gardens, groups, and 

 single specimen ])lants. .staged by tlie skilled gardeners of 

 private estates, this Tenth International I'lower .^^Imw 

 would have been like "Hamlet with Hamlet left out." ( )n 

 the main floor directly in front of the head of the stairway 

 leading thereto and attracting at once the attention of 

 visitors, were two grou])s arranged as gardens, each cov- 

 ering five hundred s(|uare feet, of flowering ])lants. T.dth 

 were lavisjily planted with hardy and tender flowering 

 stock : that of the first prize winner, William I'.oyce Thomp- 

 son, ^'onkcrs, N. Y. (gardener, .\ndrew Strachanj, the 

 more so, but that of Mrs. Payne Whitney, Manhasset, 

 L. I. Cgardener, George Ferguson), whidi drew the sec- 



uires (if Mr. Thiinip-cin's garden were a central bed of 

 Primula Kewensis with an ed.ging of Sweet Alyssnm and 

 four other beds of Primula malacoides. In the back- 

 ground were tall Cl.ukias ; a pergola covered w iih i"»orothy 

 Perkins roses : .\cacias. Genistas, and Chorizemas. The 

 ])illars at the front corners were wreathed with Excelsa 

 niscs and r)ii each side of the frcmt and two side gates 

 were Dorothy Perkins ro.ses and lilacs. I liked the three 

 .gate features of this .garden, warm invitations, as it were, 

 to enter its precincts. ATrs. \\'hitney s garden, however, 

 was a very close .second to Mr. Thompson's, the chief 

 features of which were a center of green sward inter- 

 sjierscd with stei>i>ing stones: little groups of .-nx-uses 

 growing in the grass; on each side of the gate double 

 \'an .Sion narcissus, tuli]) Clusiana. snaixlr.igons, and 

 I, ilium rubrum ; lUuldleia .Asiatica around the front corner 

 i.illar'- and I'arwin tuli]'.s at their sides and back: a back- 

 ground of rhododendrons. Genistas, lilacs and hardy 

 azaleas against a hig-her backgrotnid of late cedar;-. 



