CHAPTER XII. 



ON EXHIBITING. 



Every one who cultivates Roses may not do so with the design of becoming a 

 candidate for floricultural honours ; many are satisfied with the calm enjoyment 

 which this, in common with other branches of the pursuit, affords : the quiet mind, 

 the healthful glow, yields them a sufficient recompence, and ample satisfaction. 

 From such we must ask a little forbearance while we offer a few remarks on pre- 

 paring for exhibition, for we should be doing an injustice to some of our sub- 

 scribers were we to neglect this point altogether. Let us first consider the 

 arrangement and exhibition of cut Roses. The old plan of shewing large crowded 

 bunches is superseded by the more natural one of shewing three loose trusses of 

 each variety. By the old method, a gorgeous display was created, but the prin- 

 ciples of good taste were violated, and the connoisseur could find little to delight 

 and interest him : each bunch was a confused mass of colour, with a ragged out- 

 line. By the method now in vogue, the flowers stand out separately, the variety 

 is shewn in a graceful style, displaying flowers in different stages, from the tiny 

 bud to the full-blown rose. So far, great improvement has been made ; and we 

 submit whether a classification of the varieties exhibited would not be another 

 step in the right direction. A more heterogeneous mass could not be produced by 

 any other genus than that commonly displayed by bringing together Roses of dif- 

 ferent groups, and arranging them indiscriminately. It is cheerfully admitted 

 that certain groups may be mixed together without any grave offence against 

 taste ; but I have seen the beautiful but tiny Moss de Meaux completely smo- 

 thered between two large French Roses, and the richness and beauty of the full 

 deep colours of the latter marred by the soft and bewitching tints of an adjoining 

 Tea-rose. And are similar cases unfrequent ? By no means. Why not, then, 

 arrange the kinds according to the classification of some popular grower ? The 

 beauty of each group would thus become apparent, and the abrupt transitions 

 complained of be avoided. 



We think it a pity that Horticultural Societies should limit the number of 

 varieties to be shewn. Would it not work better to reduce the number of trusses 

 from three to two, or even one, and append a notice to the schedule that a bad 



