Jane 0, 1887. } 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 
457 
country the practice is very prevalent among the smaller exhibitors. 
"What pleasure or honour a man can derive from a prize won by 
perjury and lying I cannot imagine. It cannot be for the paltry sum 
of money that it is done ; but perhaps exhibiting is looked upon 
by those who do this sort of thing in a similar way to that 
in which certain persons regard Government contracts, these 
people apparently being of opinion that it is no sin to rob the nation. 
As far as Roses go, I am pretty certain that three-fourths of the 
Roses exhibited in this neighbourhood by the smaller exhibitors are 
not grown near Sheffield at all, but are procured mostly from Not¬ 
tingham. It is the duty of every exhibitor, if he know of any 
case of dishonest showing, to go boldly to the Committee and make 
a complaint; it is a duty he owes not only to himself, but to others; 
and, further, it is the duty of a Committee to state in their rules 
that any person detected in dishonesty of this kind will be for ever 
debarred from exhibiting again at any show held by them. 
Boxes for exhibiting Roses should all be 18 inches wide, and 
when closed 13 inches high. The length should be— 
For six Roses 1 foot long. 
For twelve Roses 2 feet long. 
For eighteen Roses 2 feet 9 inches long. 
For twenty-four Roses 3 feet 9 inches long. 
N.B.—Some societies do not allow boxes more than 3 feet long; 
in the larger classes therefore two boxes would be required. 
When the lids are off the boxes should be 7 inches high at the 
back and 5 inches at the front, consequently the lids should measure 
G inches high at back and 8 inches at front. The interior of the 
boxes should be fitted with laths put in lengthways, and so arranged 
as to admit three parallel rows of tubes. The top surface of these 
laths should be about 1 inch below the edges of the box. On the 
top of these laths a sheet of thick paper should be spread, and 
above this about 2 inches of moss and sphagnum. The parallel 
laths enable us to move the tubes nearer to, or further from, each 
other as may be desirable, and the use of the laths makes the 
box much lighter, besides saving trouble in collecting such 
a quantity of moss as is required where we fill the box with it. The 
moss should be packed so as to come well up above the edges of 
the box. Tubes are made of various patterns. For travelling the 
old-fashioned one, with the lid on to retain the water, is the best; 
for exhibiting, a double tube, patented by a watchmaker in Kent, 
is preferable, this holds the Rose at any height and in any position 
we wish. For those who require a great quantity, or where the 
cost is a consideration, I think a plain zinc tube with a flange on the 
edge can be made to answer all purposes. 
In setting up the flowers a good deal of taste can be exercised. 
To start with, the moss should not be flat, but should be raised 
about an inch above the edge of the box, as already advised, and all 
roots and brown parts should be kept out of sight. I have seen a 
considerable variety of material used as a substitute for moss. In 
one case I remember a box had been filled with about 2 cwt. of 
sand, into which the tubes had been placed. It was rather a big 
lift, and I wonder the bottom of the box did not collapse. Another 
exhibitor had utilised the mowings from the lawn, and though they 
looked fresh and nice in the morning, they made a very poor 
appearance in the afternoon. Sawdust and green baize I have also 
noticed. Other exhibitors I remember to have seen with boxes 
made as for showing Pansies or Picotees, but the Roses were 
without those abominable white collars or paper frills which make 
the other flowers look so hideous. I have noticed, too, a great 
many different kinds of bottle used in place of tubes. Stone 
ginger beer bottles, ale bottles, wine bottles, blacking bottles, scent 
bottles, medicine bottles and others. Beginners will notice that 
the old hands always have their blooms standing well above the 
level of the moss. This must be strictly attended to; the blooms 
will look 50 per cent, better. They must on no account be rammed 
down flat on the moss. Any bloom not sufficiently stiff in the back 
to stand up and look the judges and the public straight in the face, 
must be made to hold its head up by means of a little stick attached 
to the stem. Modesty is all very well, but it is out of place in a 
show box. The patent tubes provide for this, a wire being inserted 
into the tube for the purpose. Generally speaking, an old hand 
can make a better show and effect with a second-rate box of blooms 
than a beginner can do with the same number of the best flowers 
that were ever grown. 
The leading society has made a very stringent rule against 
adding any foliage to any box of Roses for competition. The 
Rose, with such leaves as grow naturally round the bloom on its 
own particular stem, may be put into the tube. Now looking at 
the exhibit as a test of skill in the production of foliage and flower 
on the one shoot, or rather top portion of the shoot, this rule is 
all very well. I know that growing flowers is one thing, and 
growing foliage is another and very different one. I know on my 
poor light soil I could get blooms for years before I could 
produce anything like decent foliage. I may say here that limo 
and clay had a good deal to do with my ultimate success, not 
forgetting manure also. 
But if we wish to make a box of Roses not for competition, 
but for beauty, we must add foliage. There are many people who 
will hold up their hands here and cry out, “ Unnatural ! What 
can be more beautiful than a Rose shown naturally as it grows ? 
Added foliage is contrary to the natural habit of growth.” My 
answer to this is, that when all Roses are like Baroness Rothschild 
and Merveille de Lyon, the blooms of which are buried in a little 
bouquet of foliage—these Roses in the show boxes are made to 
cover a multitude of sins in cases of absence of foliage in other 
varieties — I shall give in, but while my own favourite Rose, 
La France, remains as bare as it is, the bloom growing on a long 
bare flower stem, I shall hold to my present opinion. This being 
so, I find the best way to add foliage is to cut a piece of a blind 
shoot, or a piece of the flowering shoot if well furnished with 
leaves, and bind it to the stem of the Rose, putting both into the 
tube together. Without this treatment, a box of La France or 
other similar Rose—this remark applies to many of the Tea Roses 
—would be very like a box of blooms I once saw at a show, 
where “ added foliage ” being forbidden, one exhibitor had re¬ 
moved all the leaves, and the poor Roses stood in the box looking 
very bald and miserable. 
Lastly, cut your Roses at the latest possible moment ; either 
very late in the evening, or very early in the morning. Take a 
box of extra blooms with you ; have locks on your boxes, and 
keep the lids on. Do not expect to carry all before you at first, 
and if you should fail to be successful in winning prizes, never 
forget that there are other and far more solid pleasures in Rose 
growing.—D. Gilmour, ,jun. 
(To be continued.) 
TOMATOES IN THE OPEN AIR. 
Considering the great and increasing demand for Tomatoes it 
is surprising their culture is not more general in the open air. 
Very often the plants are introduced to every corner that they can 
possibly be pushed into under glass, and many of them are given 
such unfavourable positions that only a few fruits are secured ; 
in fact, they do not pay for their place, and if the same labour 
was devoted to plants in the open air during the summer and 
autumn the returns would be heavy and profitable. As yet 
Tomato growing in the open air might be said to be an almost un¬ 
known practice. A few surplus plants may be placed out in some 
large gardens, but no regular system is general amongst amateurs, 
and small growers appear to be afraid to have anything to do with 
Tomatoes in the open. They suspect that the plants will not suc¬ 
ceed, that they may fail to grow, and if they grow they will fail to 
fruit freely or with any prospect of remuneration ; but have they 
been tried properly in every county and parish in the country ? I 
think not ; and I feel sure if they were cultivators would be 
startled with the good results. No one need be surprised if they 
fail to prove satisfactory when they are taken from under glass or 
a hot place and planted out in the open and then left to scramble 
for themselves, as such attention does not merit profitable returns, 
but if as much care is devoted to them as many are in the habit of 
giving to wall fruit trees, Roses or Dahlias, they will bear 
freely. 
It is now too late to write of sowing seed, but not so as regards 
planting, and their culture may be said to begin in earnest. Avoid 
having anything to do with late spindly plants. Dwarf sturdy 
specimens are the only satisfactory kind. They should be raised in 
heat and grown under glass until about 9 inches or 1 foot in height, 
then place them in a cold frame close to the glass, and harden them 
by degrees. The plants grow with the greatest freedom in heat, 
and a cool atmosphere will not check them afterwards, but cold 
wind will make the foliage brown and check their growth. This 
must be avoided, and if the plants are hardened without injury, as 
they easily may be, their success in the open is insured. Nothing 
is gamed by being in too great a hurry to get them out. Some may 
conclude that by planting early they will fruit early, but the 
opposite may be the result, as plants that are placed out too soon 
and receive a check in consequence are long in recovering, and it 
may be well into autumn before they bear ripe fruit. The present 
is an excellent time to plant out. All who either possess a house or 
frame may have the plants in fine condition now, and there is 
little danger of the weather injuring them. 
Before planting the position they are to occupy must be selected. 
In highly favourable localities they may be planted in the open 
quarters at a distance of 3 feet or 4 feet apart and trained to stakes, 
but those who wish to grow them without any fear of failure and 
to produce ripe fruit in August, and continue to do so until cut 
