FEBRUARY. 
35 
created quite a sensation.” This sensation must have been great in 
proportion as the plants were large compared with anything seen before. 
Mr. Fish, in the “ Cottage Gardener,” speaks of them as “ huge plants 
which created such a sensation, &c.” A gentleman who is alike above 
falsehood and flattery, and who has been at the top of the horticultural 
profession, and has had the direction of the most successful horticul¬ 
tural exhibition in the kingdom for years, declared that he had no 
conception that “ Fancies ” were capable of becoming so large. And 
when I state that I have a plant of the same variety, in a pot exactly 
12 inches in diameter, which now (the 13th of January) measures 
3 feet in diameter, crowded with shoots, averaging 3 inches long, in 
want of “ tying out,” it may safely be left to the public to judge what 
might be the size of the plants in question on the 18th of June in pots 
18 inches by 16 inches, though they did not then appear so large, nor 
were they actually, as when the extreme trusses, always the latest, 
were open about the middle of July. The main object for which I was 
urged by so many to exhibit these three large plants was to show that 
large symmetrical specimens could be grown without stakes; but of 
this the reporter of the Florist steers quite clear, though it was dis¬ 
tinctly stated; and forgets too that they were not “ table topped ” plants 
nor trained to a “ face,” but alike full and globular all round, and 
covering the pots a third way down. 
Last of all, there is the happy comparison of my four plants with one 
in Mr. Turner’s collection (a splendid collection too) as having more 
bloom than all the four put together. But according to our way of 
reckoning in this county there were only three plants. This was a 
fortunate “ hit ” for the magnifying of the one side and diminishing on 
the other, in the imaginations of those who read the Florist only, and 
did not see for themselves. The stupidity of the judges who awarded 
them the “ silver medal ” though no prize was offered, is the only 
thing overlooked. If all the other Pelargonium prizes were rightly 
awarded except this, it was perhaps a matter of small moment. 
Turning now to the reference of last month, which for the sake of 
accuracy I will quote: “ That the great metropolitan shows have done 
very much for the advancement of horticultural science, no one can 
deny, although occasionally we see great mistakes committed as shown 
in the three large Fancy Pelargoniums exhibited by Mr. Thomson at 
the last July show in the Regent’s Park. In this instance we saw that 
by giving plants too much pot room—over potting them—the object the 
cultivator had in view of obtaining masses of bloom was frustrated, and 
an exuberance of growth was the result. It must have been evident to 
all that a great mistake had been made, for in the immediate vicinity 
of these plants were other plants nearly as large, and completely covered 
with bloom in pots about half the size. The metropolitan shows form a 
great school in which the science of horticulture can be studied from 
practical examples, &c.” Here it will be noticed that these plants only 
are singled out from among all the Geraniums and other things which 
have appeared at the metropolitan shows, and it is strenuously made to 
appear “ to all that a great mistake had been committed.” Why not 
