DRESSING BLOOMS FOR SHOW. 93 



CHAPTER XVII. 



DRESSING BLOOMS FOR SHOW. 



Incurveds wamt a great deal more dressing (or arrang- 

 ing) the florets than Japs. A great deal can be done while 

 they are on the plants by pulling out any deformed florets 

 or bad centres ; but this must be performed very carefully, 

 or the tweezers will bruise the good florets, and they will 

 show it in a day or two. This will do more harm than 

 good. It is better not to attempt to dress the blooms 

 until as near to the time of the show as possible, in case 

 the marks of the tweezers should show. The stiff-petalled 

 sorts should be left until the last. Many of the largest 

 and best flowers will perhaps take an hour or more to 

 dress to make them perfect, as there are so many florets 

 which get one into the other. These should all! be parted, 

 for that makes the flower so much larger. If there are 

 any short petals in the centre, pull them out, so as to 

 get some of the longest and best to form a good high 

 centre, and build the others up regularly round them, 

 until the flowers are finished. Do not cup your flowers 

 too tightly, or the depth of them will be lessened thereby. 

 A good incurved should be perfectHy round and even when 

 finished, with every petal snowing itself distinctly. 



I have known caterpillars to eat holes in incurveds suffi- 

 ciently large to insert a nut. If these short stumps are 

 pulled out the florets can easily be made to cover the hole 

 so that no one can detect it; but, of course, every petal 

 must be moved, and this reduces the size of the flower 

 somewhat. In dressing blooms nothing must be added, 

 not even a drop of gum, or it will disqualify the whole 

 stand. 



In arranging the blooms on the board the largest are 

 generally put in the back row, then the next largest in the 

 middle row, iand the smallest, which are generally the 

 neatest, in the front row. Incurveds must not be shaken 



