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The Weekly Florists^ Review^^ 



Skptembkb 3, 1908. 



THE SHREWSBURY FLOWER SHOW 



A Great Engti^ Exhibition. 



This exhibition, which is conceded to 

 be jthe largest and most successful flower 

 show in the world, held its thirty-third 

 annual show August 19 and 20, and your 

 humble scribe, being a Shropshire man 

 by birth, made a point ©f being present 

 and received much profit and pleasure 

 thereby. The second day was very wet, but 

 notwithstanding this, I understand that 

 some 80,000 people paid for admission, 

 the attendance every year running from 

 110,000 to 120,000 for the two days of 

 the show. 



In an attempt to find the cause of the 

 popularity of the show, I had several 

 talks with W. "W. Naunton, who has 

 been honorable secretary continuously 

 since 1875. From him I found out that 

 upward of forty judges were engaged, 

 to complete the worK„quickly this year; 

 that many entries were refused on ac- 

 count of lack of space, and that even 

 then it took ten large tents to hold the 



horticultural side of the fete, I would say 

 that the groups and principal pjant 

 classes were won by J. Cypher, of Chel- 

 tenham, who has for many years held an 

 unbroken record in this line. His plants 

 of Ixora Duffii and I. Williamsii Italica 

 profusa and Erica Eweriana were sim- 

 ply marvelous and the groups, in which 

 there was keen competition, were an ob- 

 ject lesson to every lover of the beau- 

 tifui. 



Sweet Peas. 



Perhaps the feature of the show was 

 the display of. sweet peas. It would 

 seem that Shropshire is the center of 

 sweet pea growing, though I have seen 

 sweet peas in all parts of England dur- 

 ing the last month that positively beg- 

 gar description. It is, of course, known 

 to every grower that peas need a, cool, 

 deep, moist soil, with lots of water, and 

 these conditions we cannot get in Amer- 

 ica, so we can never hope to attain the 

 same results. Eckford's exhibit con- 

 tained some wonderful flowers of Spen- 

 cer, St. George, Evelyn Hemus, Pink 



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Standard AUamanda Hendersoni, Exhibited at Bar Harbor. 



(Grown by A. W. Ekstrom.) 



exhibits. Much of the success of the 

 show is undoubtedly due to the outside 

 attractions that are provided, these tak- 

 ing the form of horse leaping contests, 

 balloon ascensions, trapeze performances, 

 fireworks, and splendid music. 



Groups of Plants. 



Confining myself, as I must, to the 



Pearl, John Ingman (the most striking 

 of the lot) and Nancy Perkins. 



H. Jones, of Ruabon, staged the finest 

 flowers of the show and captured ■ most 

 of the prizes. 



Double Tuberous Begfonias. 



Double tuberous begonias were a great 

 feature, T. S. Ware gaining first award 



with Blackmore & Langdon a good 

 second. The former had a wonderful va- 

 riety called Lady Cromer in his exhibit, 

 which was a feature. It was a lovely 

 shade of pink, and individual flowers 

 were nine inches across. As showing 

 how quickly the public jump at a ster- 

 ling novelty in this line, I was assured 

 that 500 plants of this variety were sold 

 on the first day at two guineas each, or 

 $10. No wonder the trade is anxious to 

 exhibit at Shrewsbury. C. Small, Pink 

 Pearl and W. Sparshott were also splen- 

 did varieties. 



Dahlias were a grand feature, the 

 cactus section being particularly beauti- 

 ful. There, again, the cooler climate of 

 England helps the grower and probably 

 we shall never see such flowers ia Amer- 

 ica as' were staged at Shrewsbury. 



American Gututions. 



American carnations were well shown 

 by Messrs. Cutbush, of Highgate, Hugh 

 Low and several others. A chat with 

 Ml*. Cutbush reveals that White Perfec- 

 tion is the finest white in England today. 

 Other varieties that do finely are Win- 

 sor, Lady Bountiful, Beacon, Robert 

 Craig and, of course. Enchantress. The 

 English variety Britannia was well 

 shown. 



Gladioli. 



Gladioli were staged in quantity, the- 

 finest being set up by Kelway & Son,, 

 of Langport. I am not an expert on 

 gladioli, but I thought these spikes were- 

 certainly the finest I ever saw. Many 

 of the colors were new to me. Dorothy 

 Kelwa;^ is a lovely blush; The Sirdai, 

 dark crimson; Golden Measure and 

 Golden Ray, two fine yellows. Baron 

 Goldstein and Painted Lady wera th(' 

 most prominent. Whether our more bril- 

 liant sunshine would not bleach these 

 lovely colors is an open question, but 

 they are worth trying. 



Herbaceous Plants. 



Herbaceous plants were staged by a 

 number of exhibitors and, needless to- 

 say, all in splendid condition. Space for- 

 bids a mention of all, but in this section 

 I noticed a grand new oriental poppy, in 

 the collection of Amos Perry, Enfield, 

 called Mrs. Perry. This was a lovely 

 shade of salmon pink, the individual 

 flowers being eight inches across. 



Early Flowerins Chrysanthemums. 



Early flowering chrysanthemums are 

 not encouraged to any great extent by 

 the management, as they think there is' 

 no need for them so early in the season, 

 but there were many vases on exhibition, 

 nevertheless. Mrs. Sydenham, Nina Blick,. 

 Mattie, Hector, A. Willis, Goacher's 

 Crimson, Estelle, Polly, Stella, Well's 

 Scarlet, Caledonia and The Champion 

 were perhaps the best. 



It was too late to see roses at their 

 best, though many were staged. The 

 Dicksons, between them, captured most 

 of the competitive classes. I noticed 

 several fine vases of the new Mrs. Jar- 

 dine on exhibition, and also Richmond, 

 though the latter was rather single. 



The baskets of cut flowers and 

 epergnes, and made-up work of every 

 description, were of marvelous beauty 

 and grace. I presume they represented 

 the best work of the finest floral artists 

 of the country and thoy were an educa- 

 tion in themselves. 



Fruits. 



The fruit classes, while they were 

 beautifully staged, wore disappointing to 



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