CHAPTER IV 

 EXHIBITING THE FLOWERS 



IT is within the recollection of the older Carnation ex- 

 hibitors that self-coloured Carnations, fancy varieties, and 

 yellow-ground Picotees were not always shown at these 

 exhibitions. Now they are the leading features. The flowers 

 are now exhibited with long stems with Carnation foliage 

 intermixed, which shows the beautiful blooms off to the best 

 advantage. The older amateurs, and many of the younger 

 ones, still like to see the flowers displayed on white cards, 

 and to display their beauty to the best advantage they re- 

 quire a certain amount of dressing ; but this latter operation 

 is very often overdone by eager candidates for prizes. The 

 procedure is to make a hole in the centre of the card large 

 enough for the calyx to pass through easily ; the segments 

 of the calyx are turned back, which causes the petals to 

 fall over, and any badly formed or irregular petals may be 

 removed. A pair of ivory tweezers are used to arrange the 

 petals. After such treatment the flower is still the same 

 flower, no addition has been made to it, the petals have 

 not been faked in any way, but the flower is more perfect 

 in its outline than it was before it passed into the hands of 

 the operator. Many people disapprove of dressing in any 

 form, but all flowers exhibited at exhibitions on cards are 

 dressed in some degree. One great advantage of modern 

 exhibitions is in the fact that certain flowers are to be seen 



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