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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