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REFLECTIONS FROM 
THE FLOWER SHOWS 
The New York International and The National at Cleveland 
Attract a Hundred and Fifty Thousand Garden Enthusiasts 
HE coming of two great spring Flower Shows with a separation 
of only a week from the closing ofthe first in New Yorkand the 
opening of the second in Cleveland brings them into close 
relationship with each other, and comparisons are inevitable. 
New York had the advantage of permanent establishment. 
It was the eleventh successive show in the series and it had the further 
eclat of the metropolitan association and of being within easy reach of 
large groups of population who are seemingly more and more interested 
in gardening affairs each succeeding year—There were 100,000 visitors 
this year. 
The Cleveland event drew an attendance of 50,000 and was the sixth 
National Flower Show to be conducted under the National Flower Show 
Committee of the Society of American Florists and Ornamental Horti¬ 
culturists. Previous cities visited in this series and in order are Chi¬ 
cago, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Indianapolis. The National 
Flower Show moves from city to city with the object of stimulating 
local interest and in the hope of leaving behind it such results as will 
stimulate the community in local horticultural activities in subsequent 
years. Thus indeed it was that the New York Show was established. The 
permanent annual results have not been manifested so definitely else¬ 
where. 1 
Creating a Unified Effect 
HIS year’s Cleveland Show surpassed in perfection of detail, in 
arrangement, in spectacular display, and had a lively support of 
the local horticultural interests of all kinds. 
Gradually a great change has taken place in the appeal that is made 
to the general public through the medium of a flower show. Not so 
many years ago the exhibits were staged for the technician and the 
classes of the schedules were drawn up entirely on the basis of cultural 
superiority of sixes or dozens or twenty-fives or whatever it might have 
been of plants or cut flowers with a few groups of plants of varying 
character arranged in conventional mass effect. More spectacular 
presentation has become ascendent, culminating in the magnificent 
picture presented on the floor of the Cleveland auditorium. 
In order to secure a comprehensive and unified result the services 
of a competent landscape architect were engaged to supervise the 
arrangements, and Mr. A. D. Taylor’scontribution in thisrespect should 
not pass unrecorded for its unifying influence was distinctly felt. The 
flower pattern of the exhibits viewed together as a whole from the 
balcony was a picture of transcendent beauty, balance, and harmony. 
On the stage against the horizon of graduated blue Mr. Roland’s 
Acacias made a lively piece of atmosphere that lured the visitor 
the moment he stepped through the entrance door. Nothing could 
have been finer than the combination of the splendid material 
and the appropriate setting. The exhibits on the floor areas were in 
the form of “gardens” that have supplanted the old-time exhibits in 
serried ranks. This is the great change in the modern standard of 
flower show display. 
The materials are used in arrangements that simulate, so far as the 
seasonal conditions and artificial circumstances will permit, something 
of what might be found the other seasons in the actual outdoors. Of 
course, the whole thing is artificial, inevitably so, whether we have bulb 
gardens crowded to excess with forced bulbs that would normallv bloom 
weeks apart or naturalistic rock-work effects planted with forced shrubs 
and herbaceous plants the like of which can never be seen together 
in the outdoors under natural conditions. As a matter of fact, these 
gardens are suggestive merely; they are not reproductions of actualities. 
Seemingly, however, this fact has not generally penetrated the minds 
of all the judges upon whom fall the onerous duties of adjudicating the 
relative merits of the various displays. Possibly no group of judges 
would ever give a universally approved opinion. 
For our part we confess to a complete mystification on the decisions 
of both the New York and the Cleveland Shows. But can it be 
helped so long as the schedules do not define exactly what is required? 
It is perhaps unfair to the exhibitors themselves to permit a formal 
arrangement of bulbs in one place, a lawn effect of shrubbery borders 
and garden vistas in another, and rockery construction in yet a third, 
to be pitted and balanced one against the other. The preference must 
inevitably be given to the one exhibit that most nearly touches the type 
of garden the individual judge is most interested in. Just as well put 
up a horse, a chicken, and a clock, and ask “Which is the most useful?” 
From our point of view in the serviceable application to those who 
would read this magazine there were two exhibits among the Cleveland 
“gardens” that had especial educative value, that carried a message in 
garden design and utilization of plant material: 
(1) Knoble Bros. Co. staged an exhibit of a thousand square feet, the 
allotted space being only seventeen feet wide, that was a masterful 
demonstration of the possibility of a pictorial and workable garden that 
could be put into any suburban plot or typical city lot. It was a 
gardener’s garden, a place where any new fancied plant could be intro¬ 
duced without upsetting the balance or destroying the harmony of the 
whole. It was a garden of a sinuous winding border; the central lawn 
space having stepping-stones leading to a little pool beyond which the 
ground rose a few feet from a shaded retreat with an appropriate garden 
seat. Accent points were given here and there by the use of upright 
Yews, etc. One single Silver Birch gave a light and elegant touch to 
the foreground of the little pool and rockery. 
(2) Conceived on a grander scale for a larger place was the magnificent 
rock-work exhibit of the Wayside Gardens. It was staged on a practic¬ 
able scale and everything was in full size—no delusions or deceptions as 
to perspectives, and the rich amount of plant material used was a 
revelation in possibilities, providing a forcing house is available. This 
was an evenly balanced unilateral plan with a deep arched grotto in the 
center and perhaps its exact symmetry hurt the naturalistic minds 
of some of the judges. At all events this fine demonstration and 
educational exhibit was completely passed over in the awards. 
Let it be here submitted that the National Flower Show Com¬ 
mittee should take definite steps toward proper labelling of the indi¬ 
vidual plants in the exhibition, if the object of that committee, as we 
suppose to be the case, is truly educational—if it is to carry an edu¬ 
cational message to the public instead of mere entertainment. Spec¬ 
tacular, chromatic arrangements of line and mass undoubtedly have 
a transient appeal to the senses and they entertain for the moment, but 
they do not carry the message of the garden any deeper. They leave 
very little actual impression and no instruction. 
Bobbink & Atkins met this valiantly in their rock garden exhibit in 
New York in having a legible number attached to each plant used in 
the rock garden and the name on a check list in the foreground so that 
all who would might read. 
Some Noteworthy Entries at Cleveland 
O F THE other “gardens” at Cleveland, the majority were arrange¬ 
ments in the conventional type of forced bulbs or of forced Roses. 
One with a diminutive house front produced an illusion of reality 
that was indeed charming. These were all pretty pictures, but they 
had not much beyond that. 
Two exhibits of flowering plants from two local private gardens are 
worthy of note. Mrs. F. F. Prentiss contributed a pictorial mass of 
forced shrubs, Azaleas, Rhododendrons, Cherry, Dogwood, etc. in rich 
variety and of fine quality, arranged somewhat formally around the cen¬ 
tral miniature lawn on which was a MacMonnies’ Piping Pan in bronze. 
From Mr. F. E. Drury’s garden came a group of greenhouse flowering 
plants of fine cultural quality, Primroses, Daffodils, and the like. 
The Independence Nurseries contributed a water garden, and the 
Garden Lover’s Club a woodland glade and pool thickly planted with 
Narcissus and Forget-me-not. It carried its message convincingly. 
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