July 11, 1963. 
fHE Gardening World 
GENERAL NOTICES. 
We would earnestly urge secretaries of societies to notify us as far in advance as possible as to dates of meetings, shows, etc. We desire to do all In our power to have these 
quately represented in the columns of The Gardening World. 
We respectfully request our readers, when they write to persons or firms advertising in this paper, to mention that their advertisement was seen in Thb Gardening World . 
y will thereby not only oblige this paper, but the advertisers. 
MOTTO FOR THE WEEK: 
“ There be more heartsease in a garden than Pansies ever grew in it .”—-Old Adage. 
Veekly Prize 
FOR 
Short Articles. 
The Proprietors of The Gardening World 
ill give a cash prize of Ten Shillings for 
[E BEST PARAGRAPH, or SHORT ARTICLE, sent 
. readers during the week. The Editor’s 
dgment must be considered final, and he will 
i at liberty to use any of the contributions 
nt in. The paragraph, or article, mtjst not 
iCEED one column in length, but the value, 
ither than the length, of the article will be 
msidered in making the award. Competitors 
lay send in items’ of news or comments on 
ews; HINTS OF PRACTICAL INTEREST to gar- 
eners or growers of plants, fruits, or flowers; 
lccessful methods of propagating plants 
sually considered difficult; or contributions 
N ANY SUBJECT COMING WITHIN THE SPHERE 
f gardening proper. Letters should be 
ddressed to The Editor, marked “ Competi- 
:on,” and posted not later than Friday night 
) ensure insertion in the issue of next week. 
The following Coloured 
>lates have appeared :— 
March 14.— NEW CHINESE PRIMULAS. 
March28.— TEA ROSE “ CHAMELEON.” 
j April 4.— COLEUS THYRSOIDEUS. 
April 18.— CESTRUM SMITHII. 
( April 25.— JAPANESE PIGMY TREE. 
May 23.—Coloured Plate of SAXIFRAGA 
RISEBACHII and A GROUP OF ALO 
ASIAS. 
( May 30.—Coloured Plate of DENDROBIUM 
IOBILE ROTUNDIFLORUM and D.n. 
JOB1LIUS. 
lune 6.—Monochrome plate of CALADIUMS. 
June 20.—Monochrome Plate of ZENOB1 
PECIOSA PULVERULENTA. 
l^y T^Colcured Plate of APHELANDRA 
URANTIACA ROEZLII. 
Back numbers may be obtained from the 
ablishers, price 2£d. post free. 
With the PRESENT ISSUE we present a 
ICUM 6 P ^ ° f 0RNITH0GALUM ARA- 
NEXT WEEK we shall present a Mono- 
LANT ?late ° AUSTRALIAN PITCHER 
Views and Reviews. 
Roses at the Temple Gardens. 
The battle of the Roses has once more 
been enacted in the Temple Gardens, on the 
Thames^ Embankment, and whatever mis¬ 
givings there might have been, in the minds 
of the promoters of the show a week or two 
previous to the event, there can be no doubt 
that the Roses turned out better than anyone 
could have expected. There would seem to 
have been some anticipation of empty 
benches, for a number of nurserymen were 
invited to bring something to eke out a dis¬ 
play in; the tents. The nurserymen re¬ 
sponded loyally, and their exhibits did soure^ 
thing towards adding to the display by till¬ 
ing a number of the side benches. It cannot 
be said that these exhibits, good as they 
were, in any way constituted the centre of 
the display. The Roses brought up for com¬ 
petition pure and simple made a display 
that could hardly have been anticipated 
twenty years, ago. 
The flat benches of Rose® in boxes that 
constituted the chief part of the display in 
bygone years have- been largely augmented 
and even surpassed as a display pure and 
simple by the splendid exhibits of garden 
Rose®, by groups of them set up with their 
own foliage 1 , and by the floral decorations, 
which are now of a kind that could hardly 
have been made; by the hybrid perpetuals 
and Tea Roses of two decades ago. The 
garden Rose, taken a.s> a whole, in whatever 
way employed, we consider the; finest feature 
of the exhibition. They admit of arrange¬ 
ment in such a way that takes off the for¬ 
mality and monotony that mere cut blooms 
staged directly on boards would hardly be 
likely to produce. What we; chiefly regret 
concerning these Rose shows is that they are 
mere glimpses; of beauty, often, happening 
at a time; when other duties prevent one 
from giving a detailed inspection., which is 
necessary to make one acquainted with the 
various successes; and failures of the year ex¬ 
hibited by the individual varieties. New 
Roses are not a large feature in any year, 
but they come' up in sufficient numbers to 
require a. considerable amount of inspection 
in order to record their capabilities and their 
value for any given purpose. There is just 
one point we should like to' bring before the 
notice of the exhibitors themselves. The 
labels are not, at all placed at a. suitable 
angle for reading by the general public, be¬ 
cause, when on© is sufficiently close to see 
the name, he or she must bend down very 
much in order to see the writing. That is 
not at all convenient, when the show is 
crowded by people. We noted a large 
number of visitors in, this inconvenient posi¬ 
tion making an attempt to transcribe the 
names to their notebooks. 
If we were to single out the leading 
features of this; year’s exhibition, we should 
say they were the garden Roses 1 , including 
all that might be placed under that name, 
and tlie predominance of hybrid perpetuals 
in, the stands. This year hitherto has not 
been a,t all favourable to Tea Roses, either 
with regard to the size of the blooms, their 
colour, or perfection of form. Concerning 
the old types, we should say that these were 
decidedly weak, compared with former ex¬ 
hibitions. There were splendid individual 
blooms, no doubt, and such may be found 
any year, but in most respects this favourite 
old class was not up to its average merit. 
When one has inspected the premier 
blooms it is a fair criterion to consider that, 
be has seen the very best of the three re¬ 
spective' races; for which medals are given. 
The best hybrid perpetual in both the nur¬ 
serymen’s and amateurs’ classes was Mrs. 
John Laing. In almost any season this Rose 
will furnish good blooms,’ even under adverse 
conditions', and seems to come to the front 
on frequent occasions, unless the particular- 
nature of the season is favourable to some 
particular variety that only turns up first- 
class occasionally. The finest Tea, in the 
show was Mrs. Edward Mawley, and it, cer¬ 
tainly was a, magnificent bloom, though there 
were many others' in the show that fell very 
much behind this one, both in size and form. 
We may remind our readers that a Gold 
Medal was awarded this variety by the 
National Rose Society in 1899 ; since this 
we have frequently seen it turn up in fine 
