688 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
July 2, 1892. 
period over which the shows range. 
Doubtless one or two good exhibitions 
satisfy most people, especially if the 
weather be hot and the atmosphere 
redolent of Rose perfume. A great reform 
is needed in the ventilation of Rose show 
tents in hot weather, for both flowers and 
their admirers suffer severely when the 
atmosphere is close and heated. 
Gardeners’ Gathering.— At length 
* we are able to announce that a real 
gathering of gardeners for social and festive 
purposes has been arranged to take place 
in London, at the Great International 
Horticultural Exhibition at Earl’s Court, 
in August next. Last week we were 
enabled shortly to announce that a new 
and considerable Fruit Show would be 
held at Earl’s Court on August 26th and 
27th, and which it will doubtless be noted 
is a distinct addition to the series of shows 
previously announced. It is generally 
believed that this show will be instru¬ 
mental in bringing together a large number 
of horticulturists, and as the proposed 
dinner is fixed for the early hour of five 
o’clock, all who may desire to do so can 
enjoy to the full the al fresco charms of the 
beautiful grounds after the gathering. 
As there will be ample room for some 
three hundred diners, the gathering pro¬ 
mises to be one of unusual extent and 
interest. But when it is asked what is the 
special object of this dinner, we would 
reply that apart from its inevitably social 
aspect, which must be of a pleasant nature, 
it is proposed to utilise it in advocacy of 
the claims of the Gardeners’ Royal 
Benevolent Institution, the Gardeners’ 
Orphan Fund, and the United Horticul¬ 
tural Provident and Benefit Society ; but 
there will be no collection or other jarring 
incident. 
The dinner will take place on August 
26th, the first day of the show, thus meet¬ 
ing the wishes of the provincial gardeners 
and visitors admirably. Those of our 
readers who can turn to The Gardening 
World of May 14th, will there note our 
warm advocacy of such a gathering as we 
have indicated in association with the 
proposed International Frujt Show on the 
Thames Embankment. That show is 
adjourned till next year, but the dinner 
will not be so, as we have been able to 
show. We think the gathering will be a 
remarkably popular one, and especially so 
as it has been arranged that che price of 
the tickets shall suit gardeners’ pockets. 
elling Flowers at Rose Shows.— 
The complaint of our esteemed cor¬ 
respondent of last week, Mr. Bruce Findlay, 
of Manchester, with respect to the trouble 
which grows out of the practice of selling 
surplus Rose blooms before a Rose show 
is closed, is a matter which will doubtless 
receive due attention. The practice has 
not been found troublesome in some places, 
but it has undoubtedly become a nuisance 
in others. Generally, so far as our experi¬ 
ence has gone southwards, the purchasing 
public have not had access to the show 
ground until after the staging was complete, 
and the boxes with their surplus contents 
stored away, so that whatever the contents 
might be, a demand could net be created 
by the sight of them. The most that we 
have seen so far has been the giving of a 
bunch or two of the surplus blooms to 
friends by exhibitors during the afternoon, 
but even that practice, unobjectionable as 
it may seem, should be sternly repressed, 
in view of the fact, as thus represented by 
Mr. Findlay, that it leads on the part ofthe 
public to an expectation that but for 
certain assumed favouritism they too could 
purchase surplus flowers also. We do not 
affirm that amateur Rose growers are in¬ 
capable of selling surplus flowers at shows, 
but we are certain that it is not the rule. 
The practice rather attaches to the 
employees of the trade growers, who 
being compelled to take with them a con¬ 
siderable numberof surplusblooms to guard 
against possible collapses, have full leave 
to dispose of these flowers after their show 
flowers are staged, and who find in this 
sale some little pecuniary help towards 
personal expenses. 
It seems hard doubtless that such flowers 
may not be sold outside the tents as soon 
as the staging is completed, but in the 
interest of good order we are absolutely of 
opinion that under no circumstances should 
sales of this kind be tolerated between the 
opening of the show to the public and the 
time at which all exhibits may be removed. 
he Director of Kew on Trees in 
Parks and Gardens. —It will still be 
within the recollection of many of our 
readers, no doubt, that during the past 
winter Mr. Thiselton Dyer, of Kew 7 , Avrote 
a letter to the Middlesex County Council, 
which body had asked his advice with 
respect to the probable value or otherwise 
of ordinary lectures on Horticulture as 
teaching elements. In that letter Mr. Dyer 
replied in a very deprecatory spirit, which 
called forth from various able horticultural 
lecturersmuch adverse comment and strong 
condemnation. Remembering the fact so 
well Ave Avere naturally somewhat interested 
to see hoAV or in Avhat way Mr. Dyer,'whose 
great knowledge and capacity no one 
questions, would deal Avith the subject of 
his proposed lecture to the Fellows of the 
Royal Horticultural Society at the last 
meeting. 
The subject of the lecture Avas “ The 
Management of Trees in Parks and 
Gardens,” and of course the matter Avas 
ably dealt Avith, yet Avith clearness and 
simplicity, aided by a few outline sketches 
on a blackboard. To our mind Ave sarv 
before us, in imagination if not in reality, 
one of the County Council lecturers, avIio 
proved to be such earnest, ardent 
missionaries to the more uncultured classes 
in the counties in the cause of horticulture 
during the past Avinter. Indeed had Ave 
not been fully familiar Avith everything 
preceding Ave might have thought that one 
of the gentlemen to whom we have referred 
Avas either rehearsing a coming winter 
lecture or repeating an old one, so very 
like in all its parts Avas the performance. 
Of course the ordinary County Council 
lecturer rarely touches on such topics as 
trees in parks and gardens in the sense 
that Mr. Dyer so admirably did, but in 
dealing Avith fruit trees old and young, he is 
called upon to develop almost the same 
ideas and offer the same suggestions as fell 
from the Director of Kew. Now that this 
gentleman’s audience Avere bolh pleased 
and instructed Avas apparent, but then the 
very same resulted in the case of the 
A 7 arious horticultural lecturers, only Mr. 
Dyer did not know it Avhen he attempted 
to Avct blanket their operations. Clearly 
it is impossible for Mr. Dyer or any¬ 
one else now to assume that sound horti¬ 
cultural knowledge cannot be taught by 
lecturers, and it is very satisfactory to 
learn that County Councils are already 
preparing their schemes Avith that object 
in vierv for next Avinter. It is true that all 
lecturers do not possess the same 
admirable reasoning and argumentative 
powers as Mr. Dyer, nor the same facility 
of expression, but they all do their best to 
impart sound and useful information, and 
even the Director of Kew can do no more. 
Her Royal Highn-ss the Duchess of Edinburgh, with 
the Princesses Marie and Victoria, accompanied by 
Prince Ferdinand of Roumania, honoured Mr. 
William Bull's Orchid exhibition at 536, King's 
Road, Chelsea, with a visit on Monday last. 
The Bedford Horticultural Society's ninth annual 
exhibition will take place on the 13th inst. Tne 
society offers special prizes for Roses, and schedules 
can be obtained from Mr. J. G. Verey, Bedford. 
The Barnstaple ChrysanthemumShowAvill beheld on 
November 1st and 2nd. Schedules may be obtained 
from Mr. Edwin J. Butt, High Street, Barnstaple. 
Potato Sales. —About 1,000 acres of Early Potatos 
were sold by auction in the Girvan district, Scotland, 
last week, and realised from £22 to .£35 per acre. 
Mr. George Hall, formerly gardener for several 
years to the late Lord de Tabley, Tabley House, 
Cheshire, has been engaged to succeed Mr. Knox as 
gardener to the Earl of St. Germans, Port Eliot, 
St. Germans, Cornwall. Mr. Knox, who is retiring 
o* 
has held the post for upwards of twenty years. 
Sir Trevor Lawrence, Bart., the President of the 
Royal Horticultural Society, who is not seeking re- 
election as M.P. for the Reigate Division of Surrey, 
has accepted the treasurership of St. Bartholomew's 
Hospital, which Sir Sydney Waterlow will shortly 
resign. 
The National Pink Society, Northern Section.— The 
exhibition of Pinks announced to take place in the 
Botanical Gardens, Old Trafford, Manchester, on 
July 16, is postponed until July 22, when the 
exhibition of Roses, also announced for the earlier 
date, will be held, it being found necessary to 
postpone the fixture for a week. 
The Gardeners’Orphan Fund.— At the meeting of 
the committee held on the 24th ult , the following 
special receipts during the month were announced :_ 
Mr. Plerbst, £2 2s.; Hotel Metropole £2 2s.; 
Mr. G. W. Cummings (collecting box), £1 ; 
and Messrs. B. S. Williams & Son (collecting box), 
13s. gd. The remainder of the business was of a 
merely routine character. 
A Conference of Delegates of Gardeners' Associa¬ 
tions will be held at Tunbridge Wells on Wednesday 
next, July 6th, under the auspices of the local Gar¬ 
deners’ Association, of which Mr. F. Earley is presi¬ 
dent, and Mr. D. G. Cornwell, secretary. From 
the programme we learn that cheap tickets will be 
issued to Tunbridge Wells from London, Maidstone, 
Hastings, Brighton, and all stations on the London 
and Brighton and South Eastern Railways. Luncheon 
will be provided at the Friendly Societies’ Institute 
at 12 o'clock. 'The conference of delegates and 
friends will be held at 1 o'clock, but the nature of the 
subject or subjects to be discussed is not stated. 
After the conference visits will be paid to the local 
nurseries and other points of interest. At 6.30 dinner 
will be served in the large hall of the institute, at 
which the Mayor of Tunbridge Wells will preside ; 
and at S 30 a smoking concert will bring the day's 
proceedings to a close. 
The Rose Show and Floral Fete held at the Man¬ 
sion House on Friday of last week, and which was 
organised by the Lady Mayoress in aid of the Royal 
Hospital for Children and Women in the Waterloo 
Bridge Road, was a brilliant social and financial 
success. Never perhaps before were the saloon and 
Egyptian Hall so lavishly or so beautifully decorated 
with flowers, or so closely packed with visitors, 
mainly ladies, for so many hours together; and with 
so many charming stallholders, we were not sur¬ 
prised to hear that sales were brisk and prices satis¬ 
factory. The fete was opened at half-past two by 
H.R.H. Princess Christian, who was accompanied 
by her daughter, Princess Victoria of Schleswig- 
Holstein. Her Royal Highness expressed much 
admiration of the beautifully arranged flowers, and 
especially noticed the beautiful garlands of shaded 
Roses which, surmounted by a crown also carried out 
in Roses, hung above Mrs. Sheriff Foster's stall. The 
greater number of the stalls Avere in the Egyptian 
Hall, where the large mirrors greatly aided the 
effect, but the crush was so great that a close in¬ 
spection of all was impossible. Those, however, of 
the Lady Mayoress, Lady Bective, Lady Monckton, 
Mrs. Frank Grim wood, the heroine of Manipur, Mrs. 
Sheriff Foster, and Mrs. Alfred Aste were singularly 
pleasing and effective. 
