THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, November 24, 1857. Ill j 
4 V j 
the purpose for the best conservatory in England. The I icolours of many of the kinds arc quite different from 
large Chrysanthemums as tiiey were staged here put one I the usual colours, which I must say makes a vast 
in mind of the Roses at late exhibitions. The size of the i “ improvement ” on mottled flowers. When I began to 
plants and the training were very much the same as 
with Roses; the flowers more numerous of course, and 
the plants more flat at the top than Rose plants. The 
Pompones were exact representations of exhibition Pe¬ 
largoniums— all the flowers brought to one flat surface 
by twist training; but there was one exception, a spe- , 
cimen plant of the second best white Chrysanthemum in j 
England, namely, Vesta. This one plant will be just 
two years old next Christmas; it was twenty-one feet 
round the edge of the pot, six feet high, and carried very 
nearly 600 full-blown flowers. In shape and appearance 
it looked very much like one of those huge bushes 
of Roses at Chiswick, the mother of that delicate and 
beautiful race of “Roses in pots.” This specimen 
of Vesta was to be sent to the Crystal Palace after 
the Show. It would not do so well the third year, nor , 
could it be so large from a one-year-old plant; but | 
you may call it more than one plant, as it is made ! 
out of the collection of suckers from a spring plant j 
which flowered this time last year. Therefore those 
country gardeners who can remove the ends or broad 
sides of their conservatories to get in such a plant as 
this should think of it now, and select from their present j 
flowering plants. 
The second and third tables wero covered roof-ridge 
fashion with cut blooms of large Chrysanthemums and 
some Pompones of the Anemone class^ all in single 
blooms, as the Dahlias are shown; they were in collections 
of twenty-four blooms, and twelve and six blooms; each 
collection in three rows. A Tulip bed must have been 
a grand sight when that “ fancy ” was in its prime ; but 
surely it must have been a faint sight as compared with 
these two tables, for not a single flower at this Exhibition 
was staged without being dressed with as much care and 
neatness as a maid of honour would be for a grand 
dinner party “ at the palace but the flowers on the pot 
plants were not interfered with. Thus We had two dis¬ 
tinct and different exhibitions, and there were two classes 
of Judges to decide their merits. 
It is a common saying that florists are most jealous of 
their art of dressing flowers being known; but that is 
entirely a mistake. There is not a more liberal class of 
men on the face of the earth as far as the secrets of then- 
craft are concerned ; but they are extravagantly jealous 
of their Judges at Stoke Newington, lest they should be 
tampered with. Perhaps they lock them up lor weeks 
before an exhibition for aught that we know, as jurors 
are occasionally secured from a wicked world. At all 
events, I saw myself some of the best growers and 
best dressers there, who made not the slightest scruple 
to teach strangers the secrets of dressing up flowers, and 
yet rather than that strangers should have access to 
their Judges they would sooner allow their ears to be 
changed into purple Chrysanthemums. “ It is unbe¬ 
known what mischief a knowing cove like that there 
gent” might do or not do. However, there were no 
scruples about showing me the proper mode of dressing 
the Chrysanthemum, so here it is. 
The eye or centre of a stiff flower is first extracted, 
then the petals next the eye are operated' upon with a 
blunt ivory dressing implement, which is on the prin-. 
ciple of the sugar tongs if the spoons wero cut off; it 
works among the petals like the bill of a duck, and can 
hurt none of them. After the eye is extracted the rows 
of petals round it fall in, or if not they are drawn in 
with the ivory tongs to form the point of a pyramid. 
After them every petal in each succeeding row in a 
flower is drawn up with the tongs so as to fall over the 
first like tiles on a roof, and when the whole are “ up ” 
the back of the petals is only seen, and the flower is all 
of one tint; and, without knowing the difference, the 
examine them I thought there were many new kinds, ! 
but alter a couple of hours I became so well acquainted 
with the altered tints that I could tell the newest of 
them in appearance to be but the best of our old 
Chrysanthemums; in fact, nature gave the best tints 
to the back of the petals, and without dressing them up 
or incurving them we lose most of their beauty. Hence 
the run for incurved Chrysanthemums. 
When a flower is stiff in the neck or has a large eye 
there is another expedient to incurve it properly. The j 
stalks of all the flowers are put through small wooden | 
funnels, and the small end or leg of the funnel is passed 
through the hole in the show stand into water glasses 
to keep the flowers fresh. Now, if you draw the stalk of 
a stubborn flower a little tighter through the tube, the 
bottom of the flower presses harder on the sides of the 
funnel, and that draws up the petals into a cone as 
cleverly as any mechanical movement in engineering. 
Therefore, as there is no secret about the matter, and as 
the same kinds of flowers are exhibited on the plants 
in their natural forms and colours by the same parties, 
I do not see any objection at all to this kind of dressing. 
Just look at the difference between Betty Martin and 
Safly Marabout in hoops, feathers, tinkling bells, and 
tassels, and does not the dressing make all the difference 
in the world? I have no patience with so much cant 
and hypocrisy against dressing, whilst there is not a man 
amongst us whose life is worth six months’ purchase 
who does not like to see a lady and a flower in full dress. 
It is true the Dahlia growers have not yet brought up 
their plants and natural flowers to the exhibitions; but 
we are coming round that way. 
The flowers that are most prized at Stoke Newington 
for exhibiting on the plants are Defiance and Vesta for 
whites; Annie Salter and Pluto for yellows; Christine , 
Pilot , and Phidias for blush ; Mount Etna and Madame 
Camerson for two shades of reddish yellow; and Albin is 
their best purple. These were all the shades in their 
pot plants, and I think their experience is as good an 
index to the easiest managed plants as that of the ex¬ 
hibitors of collections of stove and greenhouse plants, 
therefore a sure guide to begin with. 
I took another turn to test their preference for colour, 
and, beginning with the multiplication table, as the 
simplest form they had twice two in purple ; seven 
times seven in three shades of blushes as above; five 
times five in yellow; the same in white, and also in 
reddish yellow, but more inclined to the lighter tint of 
Mount Etna than to the darker yellows. 
The Pompones were all of the older kinds in pots. 
Cedo Nulli was their best white. It is white, and an 
Anemone flower indoors in pots, but not either out in the 
borders, where it comes quite up in the centre, and every 
petal is heavily tipped with purple. I never see it in a 
pot without feeling sorry for it, as it is the finest of all 
the light Pompones in free soil. Bob and Brilliant 
were the best dark purples, and llequiqui the best blue 
purple or plum colour. Drin Brin was the best yellow ; 
hut there is a better yellow, and several as good, as I 
shall show next week. Sainte Thais was the best chestnut 
brown. Duruflet the best rose or carmine rose, a deeper 
tint than that of Surprise in the open air. Autumna 
the best Spanish brown. Helene the best light rose; and 
Model was the best white, though not a perfect white. 
In cutflowers the following were the greatest favourites, 
as all the collections had more or less of them :—Queen 
of Englaud, Beauty, Themis, Goliah, Nonpareil, Pluto, 
Anaxo, Dupont de l’Eure, King, Trilby, Albin, Arigena, 
Alfred Salter, Hermione, Madame Andry, Pio Nono, 
Annie Salter, L’Emir, Madame Lebois. 
The largest flower was Themis , a fine rosy blush. 
