CHAPTER V 

 EXHIBITION BOARDS, STANDS, ETC. 



THERE may come a time when cut flowers will always 

 be exhibited in vases ; when all boards and formal 

 stands will have been burned ; and when a Flower Show 

 will not contain long rows of blooms all on the same 

 dead level. Almost every Exhibitor agrees that blooms 

 of roses, chrysanthemums, dahlias, etc., are much more 

 effective, more beautiful, more natural, and more useful 

 when displayed in vases than when arranged on boards. 



The difficulty of carrying long-stemmed flowers, suit- 

 able for vases, over long distances is considerable, and 

 such flowers, owing to the enlarged surface of stem and 

 leaf from which moisture evaporates, do not last so long 

 or carry so well as the short-stemmed flowers. And 

 these points are used as arguments for the retention of 

 boards at exhibitions, rather than used directly against 

 the vases. 



There is little doubt, however, but that boards and 

 stands will have to give way to more elegant methods 

 of display as the years advance and as the taste for grace- 

 fully disposed cut flowers increases. In many instances, 

 especially in connection with Chrysanthemum Shows, it 

 would be fatal to suddenly and wholly do away with 

 boards and substitute vases. Let the change come 

 gradually, and remember that the abolition of boards, 

 boxes, and stands would mean the loss of invested 

 capital to many Exhibitors ; and further, these same Ex- 

 hibitors would have to make or purchase larger and 



