THE COTTAGE GAEDENEE AND COUNTS? GENTLEMAN, November 15, 1859. 
Avives before you cast blame on tbe genders of the 
Chrysanthemum growers. 
The best collection of trained Pompones, six in number, 
was from Mr. Wiggins, gardener to E. Beck, Esq., as 
usual, and they certainly were most magnificently done, 
and no mistake. They were over four feet across, every 
one of them, and as flat on the surface as a dining-table, 
and in one sheet of even-surface bloom, and very Avell set 
for effect. Indeed, all the pot plants are now set far 
better than Avas lately the case; but the setting of cut 
flowers, in all branches of floristry, set the rides for 
effect at utter defiance. The kinds were— Bob , Cedo 
Nulli, Helene, Ste. Thais, Durejlet, and General Can- 
robert. Also, single specimens of Helene, Cedo Nulli, 
and Aurora Borealis, which had first prizes each, and 
richly deserved them. 
The second-prize collection was from Mr. Ward, gar¬ 
dener to W. Fowler, Esq., Tottenham Green, and they 
Avere neck and neck with the first, and, of course, the 
first had the longest neck, and won the day. Mr. Ward 
had Cedo Nulli, Mustapha, Trophe, Eequiqui, General 
Canrobert, and Durejlet. The latter was longer open 
than Mr. Wiggins’s Durejlet, and all the gayer for that. 
This lot was admirably well set; for it is very difficult to 
set these and Pelargoniums off on two or three stages 
one above the other. 
A third prize to Mr. Candy, gardener to E. Saunder- 
son, Esq., Wimbledon Park. These also were of enor¬ 
mous size, and splendidly trained. Bob, Brilliant, 
Helene, Cedo Nulli, and Eequiqui were magnificent. 
Over and above these there were from twenty to thirty 
yards of other flat-trained Pompones, the larger number 
of which were the property of the Crystal Palace Com¬ 
pany. But it is just “love’s labour lost ” for the Company 
to train doAvn squat plants at all; there is nothing to 
learn on that plan, or to teach either, which may not be 
learned better from such scientific hands as are at the 
work already. The collections of the Crystal Palace ran 
over three hundred feet, or more, of triple stages, and 
at every length of ten feet, in the centre row, stood up a 
standard plant. The surface below the standards being 
of large kinds and Pompones mixed, and on moderate 
plants partially trained, as for a country conservatory. 
The whole effect Avas grand, novel, and picturesque. There 
were also some few pyramids in their training, and there 
was a perfect pyramid of Cedo Nulli, from three to four feet 
high, and under two feet across the bottom on the top of 
the pot, from Mr. W. Morgan, Lincolns-in-Fields, in the 
heart of London, which had, and deserved, a first prize. 
Mr. Morgan had also an elegant match pair of standards 
of Vesta. 
For single specimens of Pompones in eight-inch pots 
Mr. Shrimpton, gardener to J. Doxat, Esq., had the first 
prize with a Cedo Nulli. Mr. George, Hope Lane, had a 
first prize for a single specimen of Christine, a fine bush; 
he had also a second prize in six large kinds in eleven- 
inch pots, Mr. Oubridge being first in that class: the 
latter had Dejiance, Progne (fine crimson), Christine, 
Pilot, Vesta, and Annie Salter. Mr. George had Queen of 
England, Aregina, Plutus, Annie Salter, Madam Camer- 
son, and Christine. Mr. Hatch, gardener to P. Johnson, 
Esq., Stoke Newington, had a third prize with Chevalier 
Dumege, Madam Camerson, Insigne (not .Havelock), 
Christine, Annie Salter, and another. 
Mr. Foster, of Shacklewell, in the nursery class, com¬ 
peted here Avith Mr. Merry, up at Stamford Hill; a good 
race in a good cause. Mr. Merry was the second best 
lawyer on my side when they had the row about “ that 
ther gent” long ago. Mr. Forsyth first with Annie 
Salter, Defiance, Pilot, Vesta, Auguste Mie, and some 
French general. Mr. Merry— Voltaire, Chevalier Du¬ 
mege, Christine, and Beaute du Nord, a half-large dark- 
red kind; and a fourth prize was given to Mr. Bennet, 
of Upper Tulse Hill, for another six, which were too 
long in the legs for the present day. But Mr. Oubridge 
and Mr. Ward had a second and third prize for a single 
Phidias and a single Pilot, as fine specimens of skill in 
growing. 
But the grand battle was with the cut flowers, in the 
highest style of size, growth, and dressing. The day 
opened with 24-pounders ; and Arthur Wortley, Esq., of 
Stoke Newington, pounded away with his twenty-four 
“ cuts ” as if at the rifle-ground at the bottom of the 
garden. Beautiful they were indeed, and so were most 
of them. He and they had them in three rows. Now 
mark these as the best of all for cut blooms, as the New- 
ingtonians beat the globe in that race. He began with 
Dupont de VEure, Plutus, Themis, Aristee, Defiance, 
Alfred Salter, Hermione, Pio Nono, Queen of England, 
Madame Andry, Glory (a fine new one), Marechal Duroc, 
(ditto), Nonpareil, Curtius Quintus, Aimee Feriere, 
Christophe Colomb, Yellow Eormosum, Arc cn del. Princess 
Maria, Eormosum, General Negrier, Lysias, and Goliath, 
the largest of all the whites. 
The second prize for twenty-four was well and ably con¬ 
tested by E. Saunderson, Esq., .Regent's Park, who began 
with Madame Miellez, and went on Avith Arc en del, 
Beauty, Pio Nono, Plutus, Madame Le Bois, Campestronii, 
Christophe Colomb, Themis, Dupont de VEure, Trilby, Miss 
Kate, Lysias, Nonpareil, Insigne, Ge?n, Aregina, Anaxo, 
Madame Andry, Cassy, Hermione, Goliath, and Eaymond. 
Mr. Oubridge and Mr. Ward were third and fourtn. 
Among the nurserymen, Mr. Bird was triumphantly 
first; Mr. Merry up after him ; then Mr. Wilkinson and 
Mr. Forsyth; but it will suffice to give the names from 
Mr. Bird, he being the great bird of Jove in that line in the 
east. He had Princess Maria, Pictorum Boseum, BeaiUy, 
Themis, Aregina, Novelty, Anaxo, Nonpareil, Mad,ame 
Andry, Plutas, Christophe Colomb, Virgil, Marechal 
Duroc, Hermione, Eaymond, Goliath, Formosa, Duke, 
Yellow Formosa, Pio Nono, Yellow Perfection, Albin, 
Trilby, and Dupont de V Eure ; and in another place 
he set up a gratuitous contribution, ten yards long and 
about eighteen inches wide, in capital letters made 
of large Chrysanthemums in cut blooms. The same 
letters were also put down in chalk— God Protect the 
Slaa t e —the best telling thing I ever saw against the way 
florists persist in placing cut blooms against the rules of 
effect. He also had collections of Themis, Nonpareil, and 
Plutus; also smaller collections of mixed kinds, and a 
bunch of single shoots, or tops of Avhole plants, Avith one 
bloom on each, to show how large the flowers come when 
one only is allowed. Just in the opposite way, two 
plants from Mr. Hatch, gardener to P. Johnson, Esq., 
Stoke Newington, were to show how large the plants 
may be grown, and how many hundreds of bloom each 
will carry. One plant of Adonis was six feet by eight feet, 
and one of Christine was little less ; and both had first 
prizes. Mr. Hatch w r as well up in other steps lower down. 
In the class of twelve cut blooms, Mr. Saunderson 
was first; Mr. Oubridge second; Mr. Arthur Wortley 
third; and Mr. Saunderson fourth; and in sixes, Mr. 
Saunderson was first and fourth; Mr. Arthur Wortley 
second ; Mr. George third; and an extra to Mr. Monk, 
gardener to J. Heath, Esq., Balham Hill. 
Mr. Salter exhibited “ seedlings and other new kinds, 
raised by Mr. Clark, natural flowers, not dressed.” Four 
or five of these kinds were raised by Mr. Clark. They were 
named Alarm, General Hardinge, Favourite, Wonder¬ 
ful, the best crimson yet raised; Belmont and Arthur 
Wortley, a globular bronze; Bouquet des Fleurs, a large, 
flat, Indian-red, tipped with gold; Emperor, a large, 
Anemone, lilac-blush ; and Mrs. W. Holborn, named after 
“ Annie Salter,” who has just changed her name in matri¬ 
monial alliance with the lucky W. Holborn, Esq. This 
is a white, incurved flower of great beauty. 
In new Pompones, Mr. Salter exhibited Christiana, 
Augusta, Miranda, Destruction, Snow Flake, Emily, and 
Zara, kinds which I must examine some day. 
There was a fine collection of t\venty-four kinds of 
