JUDGING CHRYSANTHEMUMS '. MEN AND METHODS. 133 



and a mass of dark leaves hanging like thick drapery all round, 

 half hiding the pots. Those are the specimens to which judges 

 award silver cups, and the nearer plants approach them in ex- 

 cellence the greater is the pleasure in granting them the awards 

 they merit. 



The training is simple. The stems when bent are coiled at 

 the base, instead of near the tips, and several weeks before the 

 blooms develop instead of just before a show. The former is the 

 right method, the latter the wrong, and judges honour the right 

 as far as they can, as it is represented in pleasing symmetry of 

 outline, luxuriance of foliage, and massiveness, with richness and 

 freshness of blooms rising up boldly as if each stem came from 

 the centre of the plant without a twist or curve. 



Pompons may be more dwarfed yet gracefully rounded (ex- 

 cept in the case of pyramids), but the pancake style is hideous, 

 and glaring twisted stems unsightly ; so they are in standards, 

 and the better the foliage the easier they are to mask, especially 

 if the training is not deferred too long. 



In this paper the common order of things is reversed in giving 

 priority to the points of merit in plants and their arrangement 

 for winning prizes, and if their merits entitle them to this honour 

 they will be in the best condition for home decoration. Plants, 

 dwarf, well trained, in the best leafage, and each bearing a dozen 

 or more of high-class blooms, afford greater evidence of skill in 

 culture than is displayed in those that produce only two or three 

 blooms on tall stems for cutting and arranging in stands. More- 

 over, there is more room for improvement in the former than the 

 latter. Specimen plants have degenerated, and many recently 

 arranged groups have been defective ; therefore I have dwelt on 

 the weak points in Chrysanthemum culture with the view to 

 their being strengthened by cultivators, so that judges may be 

 better employed than they have been of late in meting out the 

 awards in the classes in question. 



A little must now be said on cut blooms. The advance in 

 these during the last fifteen years has been marvellous. The 

 best stands of incurved and Japanese varieties even a dozen years 

 ago would not have the remotest chance of winning third prizes 

 now in the best competition. Exhibitors have increased in equal 

 ratio, and at no period in the history of the Chrysanthemum has 

 the standard of excellence as represented in stands of cut 



