Febrnary 16. 1888.'’] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
137 
the beginning of last year of £106 Is. 3^(1. The annual subscriptions and 
donations amounted to .£106 ; receipts of the three days of the Chrys¬ 
anthemum Show, £179 11s. 4d.. and including some other items of 
income the total was .£415 18s. IM. The expencliture, including award 
of prizes, printing, advertising, music, judges’ allowance. Secretary’s 
salary, &;c., amounted to £266 17s. Id., leaving a balance available of 
£149 Is. Id., being the largest sum the Society had ever had at disposal 
at the close of any season. On the motion of Mr. G. Cowper, seconded 
by Mr. W. Robinson, the report and balance sheet were adopted. 
The officers were elected as follows :—President, His Grace the Arch¬ 
bishop of York ; senior Vice-President, the Loixl Mayor (Mr. Aid. 
J. Sykes Rymer) ; Vice-Presidents, the City Sheriff (Mr. S. Bonier), and 
Mr. G. Cowper ; Stewards, Mr. G. Lamb, and Mr. T. Homley ; junior 
Stewanl, Mr. W. C. Milburn ; Treasurer, Mr. J. Fielden. Mr. T. Coulson 
moveil and Mr. Folkanl seconded that Mr. J. Pilmoor be appointed 
Secretary. Mr. J. Lazenby having intimated that he had not resigned, 
Mr. J. E. Wilkinson proposal the re-election of that gentleman. Mr. Hard- 
castle seconded the proposition. In the course of the discussion which 
followed, it was shown that Jlr. Lazenby, since his appointment as 
Secretary nine years ago, had satisfactorily attended to his duties, and 
that whereas in the e.arly portion of the Society’s career they had only a 
membership of thirty or forty, with scarcely any cash in hand, there 
were now upwaixls of 400 members, and a balance of £149 in hand. 
Mr. Lazenby held that he hatl always faithfully performed his duties, 
and said that if re-elected he should continue to do his best for the 
welfare of the Society. Mr. Pilmoor’s name was then withdrawn, and 
Mr. Lazenby was unanimously appointed Secretary. 
The following gentlemen were chosen as the Committee :—Messrs. 
Folkani, Key, Moore, Pilmoor, Rodwell, Robinson, Simpson, Smith, 
Fieldhouse, Douglas, Hudson, and Richardson. Mr. Manton and Mr. 
G. Pilmoor were elected Auditors. An alteration in Rule 8 was made ; 
the annual meeting to be held on the second Tuesday in January, instead 
of the first Tuesday in February. 
Votes of thanks were passed to the donors of special prizes and to the 
officers of the Society, and the meeting made a grant of £100 for the 
Chiysanthemum Show of 1888, and .£40 for the series of periodical 
exhibitions held in the Guildhall. 
GROWING DAFFODILS IN POTS. 
Like the Rev. Mr. Englehart I agree with your correspondent, Mr. 
J. A. Calthorpe, that I)affo<lils are not nearly so much grown in pots as 
they should ne for blooming during January and February. They 
should be foroetl to have them sooner than January, and, except the 
Tenby Daffodil and in a less degree N. Princeps, they force badly. 
Besides with a profusion of Chrysanthemums in December they are not 
required then, neither are they required after mid-February, except in 
special cases for house or conservatory decoration, as in the south of 
England and Ireland they commence flowering then in the open air. 
I have numbers of them either expanded or preparing to do so. If pot 
culture of Daffodils is to be extended, I would surest that it should be 
with the sweet-scented ones. I do not mean a mere perceptible scent, 
but such as is obtained from N. Tazetta Grand Monarque or N. Tazetta 
Her Majesty. The true varieties of these can only be had from 
respectable firms. Perhaps Mr. Burbidge might tell us more of 
fragrant Narcissi for pot culture. 
The size of the pots cannot Ire fixed for general purposes, as Mr. 
Calthorpe seems to convey, for the pot that will suit N. Bulbocodium, 
say to flower and grow in, would hardly hold the bulb of the “ large 
Welshman,” N. B. Sir Watkiii, Horsefieldi, Emperor, or Empress. Many 
of the Tazetta section are equally as large. There is this supposition to 
explain this reference to “ 3 or 4-inch jxits.” Either the bulbs were 
lifted out of the ground for the mere flowering one season, or they were 
principally small varieties like N. nanus or N. minor, or say N. poeticus. 
I never give those named of the Bicolor section less than an 8-inch pot, 
as I take care of them for the following season. Many arc difficult to 
procure true to name, and large flowering bulbs of some exceed 1 lb. 
per dozen, and if for no other reason should have fair play. 
I fully agi-ee with the Rev. Mr. Englehart, after many years’ experi¬ 
ence, that light has nothing to do with the failure of the bulbs to 
flower. Undue forcing may help to produce it, where the embryo 
flower inside is only partially (leveloped ; Vjut a main cause in my 
exjierience is where the Dutch growers send out “ offsets ” or side bulbs 
that should have had an additional year to mature florally. This they 
always do when the demand is considerable, as, for instance, for N. Leda, 
after the Daffodil Conference. —W. J. Mukphy, Clonmel. 
Youe correspondent, “J. H. E.,” page 112, seems to think that I 
attribute the fact of my Daffodils going blind to a wrong cause ; but to 
confirm what 1 previously stated I may say that I took six jxits out of 
the ashes the same as the others, these were placed into a warm pit, and 
pot shaded. Strange as it may appear, only four flowers appeared on the 
eighteen bulbs, while of those in a cold frame and shaded 90 per cent, have 
flowered. As to the bulbs not having room to develope, I send you two 
double flowers taken from a 4-inch pot with three bulbs in it, so that 
you may see they are of gocnl substance, and the colour can scarcely be 
equallc<l in any other flowers. Standing between the winter flowering 
Pelargoniums they ,eivc the whole house a charming appearance.— 
John A. Calthoepe, SummerriUe, Bunmvre Eaxt, Waterford. 
[The flowers sent were of gootl size and bright in colour.] 
SHOWING—OWNERS’ CLAIMS. 
' I HAVE felt very much flattered by the attentions of Mr. Raillem. 
IVTien I ventured to indulge in a little quiet humour the other week I 
did not think I should attract such serious attention from Mr. Raillem, 
and 1 hope he will forgive me. I feel that I deserve a rebuke for such 
levity, but I will try not to do it again, and I hope “ Wraith ” will not 
be so provokingly mirthsome.— Phantom. 
RIPENED WOOD. 
Few incurved varieties came up to the usual standard of per¬ 
fection last season. This must be very disappointing to the advocates 
of thoroughly ripened wood as necessary to the production of blooms of 
the finest quality. Long ago in these pages I repudiated this theory, 
but at that time the prevailing testimony was against me. The past 
summer has been all that could be desired for the thorough maturation 
of the wood of these plants, and if the result had been blooms of excep¬ 
tional quality throughout, we must have accepted the theory as a correct 
one. It may be said the spring was a late and cold one, but this will 
scarcely bold good, for it is only a poor pretext upon which the ripened 
wood theory can be maintained. We have had springs as late and cold, 
if not worse, and summers and autumns that have been sadly deplored, 
and yet the incurved blooms of Chrysanthemums have been superior to 
what they have been this year. On the whole the plants had not such 
a hard struggle early in the season as they had the previous year, and 
yet the blooms generally were .then better than they were last autumn. 
While a certain amount of firmness in the wood is unquestionably 
necessary for the plants to produce good flowers that possess brightness, 
depth, and solidity, it can be over-ripened and thus prove detrimental 
to the size of the flowers generally. If I have observed rightly, those 
plants that have produced the best flowers this year have been particu¬ 
larly strong, taking them all through, and therefore less likely to be 
over-matur^. The consequence is that these growers have shown better 
blooms than the majority of other competitors. This year I have seen 
no better blooms than those from Wyncote and Impney. The plants at 
the former were strong, kept their foliage to the base, and presented a 
less ripened appearance than we should have expected to find. Those 
that showed unmistakeably their ripened condition by the foliage did 
not produce blooms good enough for showing. Three that I especially 
noticed were Refulgence, Nil Desperandum, and Prince Alfred. I think 
only one bloom of the former was staged, none of the second, 
and the latter, with the exception of one bloom, was inferior to those 
staged by Mr. Mease in past years. I have not seen the Impney plants, 
but from what I have heard they are exceptionally strong—just the 
plants I should say in a season like the past for producing good blooms. 
Stands that have been shown from plants that were less strong and 
evidently more ripened have been smaller in size, taking them through¬ 
out, but even, and possessing greater solidity than those staged from 
the two gardens I have referred to. A little perplexing, perhaps, was 
the condition of the plants from which Mr. J. P. Leadbetter cut the 
blooms he staged at Hull in the open class. It was generally said that 
the stems of the plants were no thicker than a lead pencil. This was 
confirmed by the plants in his first prize group of Chrysanthemums 
arranged for effect. The plants were conspicuous for their weakness in 
comparison to what v'e are in the habit of seeing, and yet many of the 
blooms were of sufficient quality to have been shown in a cut state. 
The southern growers are noted for their blooms being brighter in 
colour and possessing greater solidity than those grown in the north. 
The latter may be due to a more thoroughly ripened condition of the 
wood, whUe the former is due principally to a lighter atmosphere. 
They do not, as a rule, however, grow them so large or develope the same 
width in the florets. There is unquestionably a reason for this, and it 
is worth discussion. I think this may be traced to thoroughly ripened 
wood. The drier atmosphere of the south may, even against the culti¬ 
vators’ will, bring about this condition. It cannot be disputed that a. 
plant thrives best at a certain temperature, and it may be that the 
south is too hot and dry at times for these plants, and therefore the 
growth is practically brought to a standstill. The wood may be too 
thoroughly matured for the plant to produce good blooms, for the cells 
must become filled with matter that cannot be dissolved, and the plants 
do not take up by their roots the nutriment requisite for the proper 
development of the blooms. The flower may for a time after the- 
roots cease actively draw supplies from the upper leaves and portion of 
the stem. Under such conditions width of floret and large blooms can¬ 
not be expected. The wood may and should be matured, but not too 
much so to prevent activity at the roots and the various processes in the 
leaf and stem carrying out their proper functions until the blooms are 
fully developed. 
Those who wish to attain success must not place too much trust in the 
ripened condition of the wood, for they may, and will, assuredly be 
deceived. The object to be attained is hard fine wood, but not so ripe 
as to bring the plant to a standstill. The roots must be kept thoroughly 
active to the last, and the broad florets and large blooms produced about- 
