596 



THE GARDENERS' MAGAzilNE. 



Atjgust 3, 191: 



QUANTITY V. QUALITY. 



An interesting little article on " Baskets 

 of Roses" appeared in the Gardeners' 

 Magazine of July 20, in which the writer 

 calls attention to the new classes for garden 

 baskets to be found in many of the rose 

 schedules of to-day. After commenting on 

 the attractiveness of these baskets of roses, 

 he proceeds to protest against the practice 

 adopted by many recent exhibiU)rs of over- 

 crowding them with flowei s ; and he justi- 

 fies his criticism by giving an excellent 

 illustration, from a photograph taken at 

 the National Rose Society's exhibition, of 

 a basket of the Lvon rose. In this basket I 

 ain count at least forty-(Nght roses, which 

 is certainly twice as many flowers as should 

 be arrangtHj in a ba^^ket of the specified 

 size — namely, 14in. across. 



I l>elieve Messrs. AVilli.irn Paul and Son, 

 of Waltham Cross, wvir the first to make 

 <"onsiderublo use of iln'sr baskets. For 

 Tiianv vwirs I have notir^Ml th»'ni in the 

 nonH'onipetitive exhtl)its tliis firm stages at 



the Hatfiohl Show, and I have always been 

 struck with the beauty and freshness of 



roses to be seen both at the National and 

 at provincial shows are spoilt from a deco- 

 n'tive, and still more from an artistic, 

 point of view by being overcrowded. Ex- 

 hibitors would seem to think they have 

 only to produce a fine mass of colour to be 

 awarded first prize, and in not a few cases 

 the judges would appear to be of the same 

 opinion. When, however, the judges have 

 a more cultivated taste, and refuse to 



award the prizes to the weightiest 

 hii)its, looking rather for beauty in the 

 individual flower or truss, and elegance 

 and taste in the arrangement, then it is 

 often the public who object. 



At a recent show in the Eastern Coun- 

 ties, where the judges had shown their good 

 taste by passing over some enormous vases 

 crowded with blossoms in favour of some 

 well-arranged vases w^hich contained about 

 half the quantity of flowers, I was amused 

 hear the comments of a local visitor. 

 He stood in fi'ont of the great, clumsily- 

 arranged vases, then looked disparagingly 

 at the light and pretty arrangement to 

 which the first prize had been awarded. 

 He was evidently mu,ch puzzled, and, turn- 



J- - 



4 



r 



.■■1 



MR. 



SHOW. 



CARN 



the result. At the Holland House Flower 

 Show this summer the same firm's exhibit 

 owed much of its attraction to these bas- 

 kets, and, as I was thinking of showing in 

 the amateurs' class for three baskets at the 

 National Rose Show^ I noted specially how 

 they w^ere arranged, and how many flowers 

 were wanted to make a good effect. In 

 most cases from fifteen to twenty roses 

 were used. The flowers were all yoimg and 

 fresh, and this gave a light and graceful 

 effect, and allowed the form of each rose 

 to be seen. When I came home I arranged 

 a basket of Lady Ashtown with about 

 twenty-four flowers. It looked well when 

 the flowers %vere half-open, but the next 

 morning they had expanded, and the bas- 

 ket was just a mass of pink colour, each 

 flower having merged its shape and indi- 

 viduality in that of its neighbour, and any 

 charm of arrangement there might have 

 been w^as entirely lost. I think that if 

 the flowers used are of good form, and the 

 exhibitor is skilful in arranging them, fif- 

 teen to eighteen blooms wall generally be 

 found sufficient to make a goocl effect in 

 a basket of the dimensions quote<1 above. 



It is not, however, in baskets only that 

 exhibitors are inclined to use far too many 

 flowers. Many of the bunches of garden 



ing to his wife, he said, '^Why arn't them 

 roses got first prize? Them's the finest." 

 His wife, in whom, I fancy, the dawning 

 of a better taste was at hand, but who 

 hardly liked to trust her judgment against 

 that of her lord and master, said doubt- 

 fully, while she cast a furtive but appre- 

 ciative glance at the first-pri^^e exhibit. 

 ' xes; they are certainly the biggest.'' 

 But this, from her husband's point of view 

 was a mere splitting of straws. **We]l! '' 

 he said triumphantly, ' 

 the finest?" Th^ UcU 



arn't the biggest 



iy w^as silenced, if 



rot con\^nced ; but I felt very grateful to 

 the mail for having summed up in such a 

 delightfully concise sentence w^hat appa- 

 rently, is the motto of many exhibitors and 

 some judges— ^^4rn't the biggest th 

 finest ? " 



If we look to the real meaning of the 

 word fine/' we shall see it is more nearly 

 opposed to than synonymous with bigness. 

 Crabb defines it thus : ''Fine, in the natu- 

 ral sense, means smallness in general, 

 thread is said to be fine as opposed to the 

 coarse and thick. . . that the texture of 

 a spider's web is remarkable for its fine- 

 ness," etc., etc. Or, as Pope has it, The 

 spider's touch, how exquisitely fine!" So 

 a specimen rose, to be fine, may be either 



would more 

 specify the 

 a 



large or small; it must be well-proi, 

 tioned, pure in colour, perfect in foi 

 A vase or basket of roses should be fi| 

 with roses xhat are as good in form 

 colour as their type admits, and so 

 ranged that each flower or truss of flowei, 

 stands clear of the rest, allowing the beau- 

 tifying effect which results from light 

 coming between the sprays 



If the framers of schedules 

 often copy the N.R.S., and 

 number of sprays allowed in a vase we 

 should not see so many of the distressingly 

 crowded vases as we now do. I was sorry 

 to see that in this year's schedule of the 

 N.R.'S. a retrograde movement had been 

 made, in the fact that in the decorative 

 classes for garden roses, where the space 

 occupied by the exhibit is limited, the 

 maximum number of stems allowed has 

 been increased from seven to twelve. The 

 latter number, in most cases, is too many 

 for the space at the exhibitor's disposal; 

 but too often the temptation to cram in 

 as many sprays as were permitted proved 

 too strong to be resisted, and the. decora- 

 tive effect of the exhibits suffered in con- 

 sequence. 



In sweet pea classes, and again in daffo- 

 dil classes, the number of blooms to be 

 shown in each vase is nearly always speci- 

 fied, with the result that no one can win 

 simply by bringing up big battalions of 

 blooms; and the taste of the exhibitors 

 r.nd of the general public is improved. 

 There results^ no doubt, a certain mono- 

 tony which is the last thing to be wished 

 for in a rose show ; so it is well that in 

 some classes the taste of the exhibitor 

 should be trusted, and where this fails the 

 judges should consistently refuse to award 

 the prize. White Ladt. 



PRIZE CARNATIONS AT 



BIRMINGHAM, 



Mr. 

 ham. 



H. Parton, Moseley, Birming- 

 ^ an enthusiastic amateur carnation 

 grower, staged at Birmingham Show on 

 July 19 a fine dozen blooms of border car- 

 nations and picotees, distinct varieties, 

 with w^hich he won first prize in open com- 

 petition. Our illustration of this exhibit 

 shows that the flowers were staged sipglv, 

 in vases, with sprays of carnation foliage, 

 a method that has of late largely super- 

 seded the old-fashioned florist's custom cf 

 staging on boards. The varieties included 

 excellent flowers of Linkman, Lord Steyne. 

 and Sam Weller, three good yellow-ground 

 fancies, as well as selfs of rich colours and 

 with broad, smooth petals. 



DIPLADENIA BOLIVIENSIS. 



Several examples of this eaLsily-growu 

 species of dipla-denia were noted in a colla- 

 tion of indoor plants shown by Mr. L. 1^ 

 Russell at Holland Park. This specif; 

 which, as its name implies, is a native oi 

 Bolivia, was first introduced by the late 

 Richard Pearce, of tuberous begonia fani^- 

 It may be grown in a cooler structure th^i- 

 the large-flowered, brightly-coloured kin*^^* 

 which were at one time popular for g^o^^- 

 ing into large specimens. In Dipladf^^^'^ 

 boliviensis both the leaves and flowers are 

 comparatively small, these last being fr<^"^ 

 2^ to 3 inches in diameter, and in colonj* 

 pure white, with the interior of the throat 

 rich orange. It forms a very pretty chm^'^ 

 for the roof of an intermediate house, esP^' 

 cially where the flowers are brought near tne 

 ^-ye. Besides this, prettv decorative pla^^' 

 may formed by training the A^^^f^! 

 branches around a few sticks, under wbi^^^ 

 conditions they will flower freely.— T. 



