386 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[October 30| 1890. 
the surrounding damp air, they “ drink in ” the moisture that is 
deposited on them, and as what they cannot appropriate cannot quickly 
escape by evaporation they become saturated, hence decay; and the 
colder the house the less the evaporation, and the more quick and com¬ 
plete is the work of destruction. 
I now pass to another cause of Chrysanthemum blooms damping. 
It reminds somewhat of the butcher who was searching long and 
anxiously for his knife, and found it in his mouth. Most persons have 
probably sought for something at some time or other that was all the 
time very near. Not many men have studied Chrysanthemums more 
closely than has Mr. Pithers, the grower of one of the largest col¬ 
lections in the kingdom—Messrs. Pearson’s of Chilwell. He is con¬ 
vinced that many blooms decay because the plants are left outdoors 
till the buds open and the blooms are partially expanded, as in 
showery weather the water must pass down between the florets and 
lodge in the capitulum, from which it cannot escape by evaporation, 
and especially in houses in which little or no fire heat is employed. 
That appears to be a common sense view of the matter. We all know 
that if Mustard and Cress is grown thickly, and freely sprinkled with 
water in a cold house at this season of the year, that it “ damps off.” 
This is because the excess moisture cannot escape by evaporation 
through the thicket of leaves. Damping is then bound to follow, and 
I think the suggestion of Chrysanthemum blooms damping by the same 
cause is worthy of consideration. 
That view of the case, and probably others previously advanced, 
will be very likely opposed, on the ground that the blooms on plants 
grown in the open air, and therefore exposed to rain and extreme 
fluctuations of temperature, do not, as a rule, decay to anything like 
the extent that those do under glass. This is a fair practical argument 
to advance, and should be fairly met. I can only, in the few moments 
remaining to me for completing this paper, suggest in what way to 
meet it. 
In the first place the plants grown in beds or borders are not highly 
fed with nitrogenous manure, and the florets are shorter, stouter, and 
hardier in consequence. In the next place the florets do not press on 
each other so closely and firmly, either in incurving or reflexing, as in 
the case of more highly developed blooms under glass, consequently 
air can pass between them the better ; and, lastly, though the rain may 
pass into the open blooms readily it passes out of them the more freely 
when shaken by a brisk dry wind, and the evaporation of moisture from 
them is then more rapid than it can possibly be from closer blooms that 
remain stationary under glass. 
Undue feeding for the production of large blooms, and con¬ 
sequently tender florets, with great variations of temperature, or allowing 
them to get too cold, so that on a natural and sudden return to dull 
damp weather moisture is condensed on them, are, I submit, the chief 
causes of the calamity that befals so many blooms and brings dire 
disappointment to their cultivators. 
I have seen water standing on the floor of a supken house for weeks, 
and the stages filled with Chrysanthemums in flower, yet by maintain¬ 
ing an equable temperature with the aid of fire heat and blinds there 
was no damping of the blooms. They were not, however, fed up with 
anmmoniacal manures for exhibition, but the plants were grown in a 
natural way for home decoration. The night temperature was not 
allowed to fall below 45°. If it had sunk below 40° and remained so for 
any considerable time the blooms would have “ damped,” as they did in 
previous years when fire heat was reduced to a minimum and screens 
and blinds were not brought into requisition. 
I should like to say more on the subject with which I have been 
requested to deal, but all 1 can say at present is this : It is my\wish 
that the whole matter be well considered ; that everything I have 
advanced be opposed freely by friends who can point out the weakness 
of the propositions and adduce others more sound, for I shall be very 
willing to be proved wrong if by more sure and certain methods the 
blooms which have been worked for so long, and looked for so anxiously, 
can be preserved in all their freshness and beauty over the full term 
of their natural life, instead of being devoured, as it were, in their 
infancy by the dreaded ogre of Chrysanthemum growers—the “damp 
fiend.”—J. Weight, Fleet Street. 
DRESSING AND STAGING CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 
This paper is unfortunately written somewhat hurriedly on account 
of the small space of time allowed, consequently I feel that I shall not 
be able to say (and what I do say will be said imperfectly I fear) all 
that I would wish. My subjects, for they cannot be considered as one 
subject, are such as are properly open to various opinions and forms of 
practice, and therefore are very suitable for debate. 
Dressing is necessarily the first to be considered, for the flowers must 
be made as perfect as possible before they are staged. Considerable 
variance of opinion exists in regard to dressing Chrysanthemums and 
other-flowers when about to be exhibited in competition for prizes, and 
so long as judges make their awards according to the canons of perfec¬ 
tion now and long in vogue, so long will it be necessary for competitors 
to render what manipulatory aid they can to bring their flowers as near 
as possible to the standard required. 
Whether it would be better to exhibit flowers as grown need not here 
be discussed, but perhaps I might be allowed to say that, in my opinion, 
were the law to go forth that in future no flowers for competition shall 
be dressed, such law would be futile. By the term dressing many people 
imagine that some occult and secret process is implied, and that reflexed 
blooms can be transformed into incurved by fhe aid of curling irons ; 
also that a poor and badly grown bloom can be made as fine as one that 
could properly be called a good bloom. This is not the truth in the 
abstract and under such conditions ; but given two blooms of equal 
quality and of the same variety—one flower to be dressed and the other 
not—the one that has been dressed is nearly always admitted to look 
much better, even by persons who are prejudiced against dressing. 
That a bad bloom can be greatly improved by dressing must be admitted, 
also that a really good bloom may be slightly improved, but as a rule 
the better and more perfect the bloom is the less there is to do in 
dressing. 
I do not attempt to deny that the best blooms are occasionally 
placed second or third to those not quite so good, but which had been 
well dressed ; but such cases are very rare, and during a period of ten 
years I have only once been a participator in such awards, and then an 
unwilling one, being one against two in making the awards. It is very 
hard on a man who has grown and exhibited the best blooms in an, 
exhibition to place him second or third simply because he had not 
touched his flowers in the way of dressing ; but, after all, is it harder 
than withholding the first prize from a man who exhibits a splendid 
horse or ox in dirty and untrimmed condition, or a bunch of Grapes 
containing seedless berries, or which has never been thinned ? 
Assuming, then, that dressing improves the appearance of Chrysan¬ 
themum flowers, and that therefore it is desirable, the question arises, 
How is a grower to proceed ? He must first obtain a pair or two of 
tweezers that are made for the purpose of extracting deformed, short,, 
or superfluous florets. Possessing these, it is as well to commence 
dressing, as the flower expands by extracting the florets just mentioned^ 
as they appear. This allows the bloom to develop symmetrically^' 
whereas when such are left in until the last it not only takes a consider^ 
ably longer time to dress the blooms, but sometimes the florets tha c 
have been pushed out of place by such deformed florets do not readily 
fall into their proper places, hence arises a tendency to roughness of 
appearance. Any staminate florets (yellow florets) that are seen at the 
base of the florets or in the centre should also be removed, and when 
the bloom is fully expanded, if it is a perfect bloom, there will be a 
number of short florets in the centre, and these must be removed by the 
aid of the tweezers, when the longer florets will fall into the centre and 
present a perfect bloom. A little courage is required to remove these 
short florets ; they should be plucked out boldly and with a firm hand. 
When the blooms are cut preparatory to staging, they should be again 
examined for the purpose of removing any overlooked deformed floret, 
and then be cupped. After being pulled up so that the florets close 
well over the centre, they should be securely pegged. Then, com¬ 
mencing at the centre of the bloom, with the small end of the tweezers 
proceed to arrange the florets in an-imbricated manner smoothly and 
regularly, and radiating from the centre. In a good bloom there are 
numbers of florets having one or two underneath them ; these should 
be carefully released, and placed in their respective places. Any floret 
that reflexes may be had into proper form again by stroking the inside 
with the smooth and rounded end of the tweezers ; but some are very 
obstinate, and in such cases there is no alternative but to pull them out. 
To dress a large and good bloom well takes from twenty to forty 
minutes, therefore such work requires patience and a steady hand. 
Having dressed the blooms the next subject is staging them, or more 
properly, arranging them in their stands ; and here there is abundant 
scope for the exercise of the faculties of form, colour, proportion, and 
ingenuity. In the first place the stands when filled should appear as 
evenly balanced as possible, and likewise each row. Dumpiness and 
lop-sidedness must be avoided. Let the weight of the flowers be evenly 
distributed from end to end and back to front of the boards. The back 
row should be higher than the middle row, and the middle row higher 
than the front row, so that the whole of the flowers may, as far as 
possible and consistent with general effect, be seen to advantage. Some¬ 
times it is necessary to have a flat flower in the same row as deeper 
ones ; in such a case it should be specially raised to the level of the 
others in the same row, and this rule applies in all cases—viz., that all 
the flowers in the same row should be raised to the same level. 
These are all aids to general effect; but I may here observe that 
competent judges are never deceived by any of these extraneous aids,, 
but they are relieved of the trouble of raising flowers or taking them out 
of the stands for the purpose of seeing them properly ; consequently 
good staging greatly facilitates the work of the judges, and all other 
conditions being equal, the best staged blooms would look the best, and 
therefore would rightly receive the first prize. 
A proper arrangement of colours is also very important; harmony 
and contrast always to be borne in mind. Some people follow their own 
taste—or rather, the want of it—in opposition to all the rules of colour. 
Generally speaking, colours complementary to each other are the most 
easy of arrangement amongst distinct varieties of cut blooms of 
Chrysanthemums, and white agrees with any colour. In such an 
arrangement shades of the same colour should be separated, because they 
give either too light or too heavy appearance of that part of the stand. 
But I think horticultural societies have room for advancement in this 
particular. The stereotyped “ Groups for effect” are about played out,, 
and it is time something was done to advance a knowledge of the art of 
arrangement of colours. As a fact, very little advance has been made in 
that way.— James Udale, Haverland Hall Gardens. Norwich. 
In reference to dressing blooms, there is not so much art as supposed. 
The principal points are to grow the floiets to the greatest possible 
