IRISH GARDENING 



XIII 



poNSi'ssinj; their coin iit piilicucc, while lurioits oOii-ials 

 poked .'iiui pi'odiletl at its vitals. Anil, then, when it 

 went eliekini; merrily on a>;ain, ollieials weie asking 

 what wonlil it have heeii the ilay befoie when .Messrs. 

 Jupiter pliiviiis and J. tonans helpeil eaoh other to 

 lloiul Lord Iveajjh's line i^roinuls ; or, i'\en the da\' 

 .ifter? Hilt it was neither before nor .irter this jjlh d.iy 

 of .\uifiisl. with its reeord atlend.inee, harrinif those all 

 too rare royal visits in the history of the ancient 

 society. 



Hut to the show. " I'lanls" - not easy to find Iheni, 

 tor the show-planl o( former d.iys h.is jjrown .smaller hv 

 dej.^rces, till it is now a nej^liijihle (.|uaiittty. Ilowi'ver, 

 we never s.iw better Zonals, and the half-dozen from 

 D.innm could not be beaten, were not, in fact ; Colons, 

 iv'o, were caplivalinj,'. The new class for British ferns 

 — thint^s not much known now.ailaj's — i>ujjhl to becoine 

 popular, for the simple reason that they aie within the 

 power and scope of any amateur, or even a town 

 ijardener, to ilo them— and heiifho 1 for fifty years ago. 

 when they were ;i power in the gardening world. Tell 

 it not in CValh. thai even some of our up-to-date, 

 go-ahead gardeiier.s, when criticising the Rev. H. 

 Kingsmill .Moore's crested and plumose half dozen, 

 were dubious as to their Britishness. The last Rose of 

 Summer r.in well for Dublin and rather rubbed out 

 Kildare. Dahlias were delightful, for the season ; and 

 how nice it was to iigain see that ticar, vulgar old 

 show Dahlia, with its peifeclion of form and suggcs- 

 tivcness of the Wiggcs family, as a cut flower in the 

 lunise. Begonia blooms were tiptop for any season, 

 and Carnation competition seems coming on. .\sters 

 were the worst we ever saw at any show or at any 

 season, but Sweet Peas were excellent — some o{ them. 

 The thirty classes for fruits and vegetables seemed very 

 well filled, and it is a long time since we saw as many 

 grapes staged in Dublin for competition, and of fair 



ipiality, too ; for, be it known, wt- arc not inclined to 

 point i|uite as hi^h in our praise as if viewed through 

 the prizeman's spect.icles, which have the optic illusion 

 of sliowing such size, bloom, atul finish as we were 

 prone to see without this second sight, when Coleman 

 of Kaslnor Castle won hands down wherever he went. 

 The same with peaches. But why — oh why, ye powers 

 that be ! —was the fine dish of tlolden Drop plums shut 

 out of competition for want of a class for it':* .\n over- 

 sight in schedule-making, surely. Criticism, if de- 

 structive and not constructive, is often useless, and 

 perhaps worse ; hence, with all the rashnesss of youth, 

 v.'e just flash olT things as they appe.'ir to us front the 

 dual point of view. The collection o( fruit staged by 

 .\lderman Bewley as an extra, not for competition, was 

 sulTiciently impressive and standoulish as to impress us 

 that a class for similar collections, provided the prizes 

 were worth competing for, would considerably help an 

 autumn show and make a valuable and distinctive 

 feature. Dishes in this collection, by the way, were 

 more or less of high merit in analysing its component 

 parts — mostly more, a few less. 



With fourteen dishes of pe.iches, sixteen of necta- 

 rines, quantity rather than quality seemed mostly in 

 evidence. .\ score of melons, comprising two classes, 

 spoke up very well for themselves. Dessert apples 

 filled their classes excellently; all of this section indeed 

 appeared an improvement, as did the collections of 

 vegetables competing for the .M.ickey Cup. verifying 

 our prediction that it would be a fine fertiliser. .\s for 

 trade exhibits, really our floral artists soared high, 

 notably where an aeroplane spread its wings. This, 

 however, is higher art than we can touch, and, de- 

 scending to tcira-firiiiii, the Kilkeiniy Gladioli rang a 

 gladsome note, especially in the noble .\merica. Messrs. 

 Drummond's new departure on land and water was 

 effective, although, had it been a drier season, we 



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