170 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



L March 3, 1863. 



PLANT-JUDGING. 



The object of our present remarks is to offer a few observations 

 upon plant-showing generally, and to point out what we consider 

 ought to be the guiding principles in awarding prizes. In judging 

 plants, various things muEtbe taken into consideration — not only 

 the health and general appearance of a specimen, but also the 

 excellence of individual perfections — qualities which appear in- 

 significant when considered separately, but which when viewed 

 collectively, constitute perfection. Thus, supposing a plant had 

 been beautifully grown, was of fine form, had short -jointed wood 

 and clean and healthy foliage, but had flowers in insufficient 

 quantity, ill-formed or badly-coloured, or flowers insufficiently 

 above the foliage, or with unusually long footstalks — these 

 would be great defects, inasmuch as flowers being the aim and 

 end of the cultivator, and the main object of attraction, it is 

 indispensable that they be of the finest and most perfect form 

 and colour. However fine a plant may be, if it is deficient in 

 flower, or the bloom is of bad quality, it is a defect, and in like 

 proportion if a plant is ill-formed or has bad foliage, that also is 

 a defect ; but if a plant is unhealthy, that is a decided disqualifi- 

 cation, for as prizes are offered to reward 6kilful cultivation, if 



the exhibition shows the want of skill, that is a disqualifying 

 point. A plant to be perfect must be of symmetrical form, be 

 short-jointed, and furnished with robust and healthy foliage 

 from the base upwards. The form should not be formal, neither 

 should the plants hear a rough and uncultivated appearance, 

 but it must be graceful and easy in character, and while it bears 

 the impress of art, must be sufficiently removed from formality 

 to have some of the easy grace of nature about it. The bloom 

 must be large and profusely produced, brilliant in colour, finely 

 formed, and if scented, rich in odour. At the time the 

 plant is Bhown, sufficient bloom to present a uniform head 

 should be expanded, and it should have a rich, crisp, and glossy 

 appearance. Cleanliness is a great point ; consequently every 

 leaf must be free from dirt of any kind, and not an insect must 

 be seen. Plants thus appointed, whether they be hard or soft 

 wooded, come from the tropics or be denizens of a milder 

 climate, will always please ; and it matters not whether they be 

 large or small, they all alike show the skill of the gardener — so 

 long as they are sufficiently large to show some mark of cultivar 

 tion since they left the nurseryman's stores. 



Fancy Pelargonium. 



As, however, example is generally better than precept, we here 

 pourtray two examples of good management — one a Chorozema 

 cordata grown in the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew, and the other 

 a Fancy Pelargonium, as shown by Mr. Robinson of Pimlico. 

 These may be regarded as perfect specimens of their kinds, are 

 symmetrical in form without being formal, and graceful in out- 

 line without being encumbered with numerous sticks. It must, 

 however, be remembered, that a plant may he large and finely 

 formed, and yet not meritorious in point of management, for 

 it may be a plant of very easy cultivation ; for instance, the 

 Chorozema, though admirable in its way, would not bear com- 

 parison with a plant of C. triangularis, angustifolia, or Hench- 

 manni, of the same or even smaller size, while a plant of Burtonia 

 conferta or violacea, Boronia Berrulata or pinnata, or Gompho- 

 lobium splendens, not half the size, would be infinitely superior 

 and more meritorious. Hence it is necessary that censors should 

 be persons of experience, and practically acquainted with the 

 management of the plants they undertake to adjudicate upon. 



Plants also should harmonise in point of Bize, so that when 

 grouped together they may look as if they came from the same 

 place, and not as if they had fallen together by chance. We 

 once saw a collection of splendid Heaths, averaging from 2 to 4 feet 

 in size, lose the first prize through the gardener putting in 

 a small but admirable plant of Erica Sprengelii ; and only last 

 year we saw Cytisus racemosus, 5 feet high, and Hoya bella, 





Ckorozema cordata. 



about as many inches, shown in the same group. Such arrange- 

 ments show bad taste, and ought to be publicly reprobated. It 

 may, perhaps, so happen, that several collections of plants may 

 be so nearly equal in point of merit as to render it difficult ta 

 say which is the best. In such a case it is the duty of the 

 censors to examine the plants in each collection separately, both 

 as to form and inflorescence, and then if they were equal, the 

 difficulty of cultivation would decide the point, for if one 

 collection contained plants of more difficult management, that of 

 course muBt have the firBt prize. 



Size, more especially when it arises from age, is not a leading 

 quality, except in plants of very difficult management, and then 

 the mere fact of keeping them alive and in exhibitable conditio*! 

 is very meritorious, for of course, plants which are very difficult 

 to grow in a young state must require equal skill to keep thera 

 healthy when full grown, but plants which have grown large, 

 and have afterwards been twisted and twined about to make 

 them shapely, should not be exhibited at all ; for though we 

 cannot join in the cuckoo song which has been raised about 

 growing plants without stakes, knowing it to be impossible, yet 

 it must never be forgotten that they are a necessary nuisance, 

 and never can be used too sparingly or too slight in character. 

 In a few words the leading principles to be observed in plant- 

 judging are — First, that the plants be clean, healthy, and finely 

 formed ; second, that they be profusely covered with bloom, ths 



