Nov. 22nd, 1884. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
179 
“ Gardening is the purest of human pleasures, and the greatest 
refreshment to the spirit of man.”—B acon. 
Cjje #itrknrag Wmrlfr. 
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22nd, 1884. 
The Chrysanthemum Shows. — Ere this 
appears in print the season of Chrysanthemum 
Exhibitions will be over for another year, the 
competitions will all hare been fought, and 
gains and losses counted. There can be no 
doubt but that many somewhat ambitious 
growers have met with disappointments, whilst 
the quietly confident have been fairly success¬ 
ful; and this fact serves to show that in the 
culture of Chrysanthemums, as in other deeds, 
there is no royal road to success. Without 
doubt the best growers and the best blooms and 
plants will win. Perhaps some of our more 
distant growers have learned a lesson because 
nothing is easier than for a man whose position 
is somewhat retired, and whom circumstances 
isolate from other growers, to jump hastily to 
the conclusion that his exhibits are the best, 
and that he is invincible. Confidence is all very 
well when we are sure with good reason, but 
over-confidence is a dangerous element in any 
grower’s character, and the sooner he gets rid 
of that the better for his future labours. 
But whilst the gay and giddy round of shows 
has been without doubt pleasantly profitable to 
many, and to not a few others eminently instruc¬ 
tive for future efforts, it has been a season of 
exceeding labour to those who, in a vain 
effort to chronicle the doings at these shows, 
have found the work one of great difficulty, 
and often disappointing monotony. Shows have 
not only followed each other in rapid succession, 
but have come in clusters, falling simultaneously, 
so that it has been possible for no single man to 
keep pace with them. And then when seen, if 
not the shows in bulk, at least the exhibits have 
been from show to show marvellously like each 
other, so that the only variations to be found 
were that in some the exhibits were a little 
better, in others a little worse. But the evil, 
for such it is, does not end there. We find 
shows increasing fast all over the kingdom, and 
perforce all falling within a short period of some 
fourteen days ! 
It is the great misfortune of the Chrysanthemum 
that it can wait for no one. Its best season is so 
limited in range of time that we must show it 
then or not at all. If it were like the Bose, 
that permits its finest flowers to be seen for a 
month at least, the fecundity of shows might be 
better endured, but with only a few days of best 
bloom the fecundity is becoming bewildering. 
But the public may or may not visit all shows; 
that is optional. It is not so with readers of 
gardening papers, which are so largely filled 
with reports of shows at this season of the year, 
and which must give these reports in extenso if 
reputations are to be maintained. How much 
readers find one report to read like another, 
simply because such is the product of exhibiting. 
Growers will grow only those kinds which 
produce the finest show blooms, and these kinds 
appear and re-appear not only constantly in the 
same show, but in all shows. Exhibiting flowers 
and the culture to that end, very much resembles 
the fatting of pigs or oxen for the butcher, they 
are grown only to be slaughtered. Shows become 
the holocausts of thousands of glorious flowers, 
which grown, tended, cultured with wondrous 
patience and care for a whole year, are the 
moment they have reached perfection cut and 
set up in a box for the pleasure of the pmblic 
for a couple of days, then, perchance drooping in 
petal, disappear for ever. That is a sad ending 
after all for so much of beauty, but it is the 
outcome of all exhibitions, whether of Chry¬ 
santhemums or other flowers. 
To Londoners, we are sure, some means of 
checking the excessive number of these autumn 
shows would be a relief. Ho doubt there is 
some enthusiasm behind the shows, but there is 
also very much of pounds, shillings, and pence. 
We are exhibitors too much for selfish reasons. 
Perhaps we ought to be grateful that even for 
selfish purposes men will undertake such labour 
and striveto create such splendid objects of beauty 
as are found in exhibition flowers. With questions 
of that kind, however, it is not our purpose 
further to deal. We would rather ask whether 
it is not possible to provide some means by which, 
not one or two, but several societies would group 
themselves into one for temporary show purposes 
and, securing a central habitation, hold one 
monster show at one and the same time ? Why 
should not the National, Kingston, Putney, 
Bichmond, Stoke Newington, and several other 
committees unite their forces to produce one 
grand central exhibition, which should remain 
open four days, and should thus be made instru¬ 
mental in bringing together all the best growers 
of the day in one grand competition P 
Failing such an act of unity, and we know too 
much of the spirit of localization which influences 
local bodies, is it not possible to create a really 
National Show on so grand a scale that it shall 
attract to itself all the best gardeners and the 
most beautiful exhibits of the year ? A show of 
this kind must not be held in a place hampered 
with associations of dubious morality and where 
many first-class growers dare not compete. 
There seems no better place for such National 
Exhibition than the spacious arcades at South 
Kensington. We must, however, leave the con¬ 
sideration of the subject to those who can, 
perhaps, do something to render it practical. 
Winter-blooming Zonal Pelargoniums.— 
Going the round of the autumn shows, wc have 
just here and there, and unfortunately here 
and there only, found encouragement given to 
winter-blooming Zonal Pelargoniums as sub¬ 
sidiary subjects for exhibition. In a few cases 
moderate prizes have brought capital plants full 
of bloom, and as fresh and beautiful as in July. 
Charming and well-grown, however, as these 
plants are, we may well doubt whether their 
cultivation as large specimens is desirable at this 
time of the year. In the summer plants of these 
Pelargoniums, however big, will thrive well in the 
open-air, but in early winter they must have 
house room, and those specimens that range from 
30 ins. to 36 ins. through, even if ever so finely 
flowered, are somewhat troublesome, especially if 
space be limited. What is far better than 
half-a-dozen of big plants giving only as many 
colours, is a group of, say, two dozen plants in 
32-sized pots, the plants neat, clean, and robust, and 
carrying each several trusses of fine rich-coloured 
blooms. The group should, if consisting of 
twenty-four plants include not less than a dozen 
kinds, and the awards should be made for display, 
variety, and general good quality in bloom, 
foliage and growth. A few such groups dotted 
about here and there at our late autumn shows 
would be singularly pi easing, and they would prove 
not less useful and meritorious at home. Let it 
be understood, too, that Zonal Pelargoniums will 
bloom as freely now as in summer. 
Pumpkins again. —We had thought that the 
biggest of these vegetable monsters were those 
seen recently at the Health Exhibition, when 
specimens of some 156 lbs. were shown. The 
other clay, however, we alighted upon a gigantic 
Pumpkin of the Mammoth Squash type, roundish, 
of capital form, yellow of flesh, and finely netted, 
that carried down 160 lbs. How such a big 
fellow was obtained, what amount of space was 
required for the plant which bore it, what amount 
of manure was given, and what other aids in the 
shape of liquid stimulants were added, nothing is 
known ; but the product of such a huge mass of 
vegetable flesh by one plant almost excites our 
wonder and admiration. Of course it is now 
known that Pumpkins are chiefly used to make 
pies that are, with considerable stretch of the 
imagination, supposed to be as nice as Apple 
pies, but the general belief was that these monsters 
were very much employed to decorate the shops 
of the greengrocers, and attract very much as 
prize pigs attract admiring customers. We now 
learn that a much more profitable use is found by 
the greengrocers, that indeed they cut up their 
Pumpkins without remorse and dispense them in 
slices to purchasers at 2d. per lb. Whether thus 
purchased for the making of pies, or for the 
making of a dish for the ordinary dinner course, 
we cannot say. At any rate, it is now shown that 
a gigantic Pumpkin may be of some more value 
than even a white elephant. 
The Allotment Question is coming rapidly 
to the front. At a conference of members of the 
Farmers’ Alliance held on Tuesday at the Holborn 
Bestaurant, Mr. W. E. Bear read an able paper 
on the Agricultural Crisis. Among the “ only 
immediate remedies ” worth a moment’s con¬ 
sideration, he mentioned the desirableness of 
“ some scheme by which land in plots and small 
farms may be placed within reach of industrious 
and frugal labourers.” If some such opportunities 
could be found for the employment of “ idle 
hands ” there would be a greater preponderance 
of “industrious and frugal labourers.” We are 
glad to observe, however, that farmers who have 
hitherto shown a coolness and lack of sympathy 
in the movement are coming round. No class of 
men could give the cause more valuable help. 
And nothing could be done towards attaching 
the more intelligent and skilful of the labourers 
to the land more effectually than the plan he 
suggests. 
-- 
Gumming Boses. —A florist of many years 
experience writes :—“ The protest on the part of 
the Leek Bose Society against the practice of 
gumming Boses has brought so many testimonies 
from leading exhibitors against the practice, as to 
raise the whole question of dressing and manipu¬ 
lating flowers for the exhibition table. If it is 
allowable to gum the blossoms of Pelargoniums, 
why not of Boses? It is well known that the 
flowers of large-flowered or show Pelargoniums 
are gummed on specimens sent for exhibition, 
and were it not done one-half of them would fall 
ere the show day was over. In the case of 
Carnation, Picotee and Pink, dressing by skilful 
operators is carried to such an extent as to 
entirely change the character of the flowers; this 
is done by re-arranging and removing defective 
petals, sometimes considerably reducing the 
natural size of the flowers. The Dahlia can be 
greatly improved by dressing—by removing 
damaged petals, by rounding off others, a skilful 
dresser can take a flower deficient in outline and 
so improve upon its symmetry as to make it 
difficult to swear to it. Pansies can be flattened 
into shape by placing weights upon the flowers. 
“A spike of a Gladiolus that feathers to the 
sides can have the flowers tied to a front, and 
