ioo THE BOOK OF THE DAFFODIL 



of beauty and character. But the best flowers for ex- 

 hibition are generally those which are cut as the bud 

 begins to break, about five or six days before the show 

 day, and allowed to open in a moderately warm room. 



Every exhibitor should make a point of showing his 

 flowers clean and fresh and in the finest condition possible. 

 To this end he should always gather them before the 

 bud quite unfolds itself and open them under cover, 

 uninjured by wind, dust, sun and rain. Then again, 

 very careful packing for their journey is of supreme 

 importance. A good plan is to pack in shallow boxes, 

 each box just taking one layer of flowers, arranged in 

 rows so that they mutually support each other, with a 

 little dry tissue paper used to fill up empty spaces and 

 keep everything in place. It is a great mistake to pack 

 Daffodils for a journey in damp cotton wool. 



Of course additional flowers should always be taken, 

 over and above those actually required for staging ; and 

 all should be unpacked and revived in water several 

 hours before they come under the judge's eye. 



In the matter of staging the following additional hints 

 may be useful. 



Now that bulbs of so many very excellent varieties 

 may be obtained at a moderate cost, none of those which 

 are poor in form or colour should be staged, unless it 

 should be absolutely necessary to do so in order to make 

 up the required number in the exhibit ; but it is better 

 to show fine, well-grown flowers of really good ordinary 

 kinds, than flowers of expensive and scarce varieties in 

 poor or doubtful condition. 



The exhibit should be made as widely representative 

 as possible. Most judges, other things being about equal, 

 will give first place to the exhibit which shows the 

 greatest variety of form and colour, and which is best 

 representative of the different sections. 



Daffodil flowers always look best when set up with 



