an 
_ Dec. l, 1903 a tees 
MOUNT LOFTY GARDENERS’ 
ASSOCIATION. 
HONORARY SHOW. 
When the love of gardening carries suffi- 
cient enthusiasm to enable gardeners to 
come together and hold a competition for 
the pure pleasure of it there is something 
very refreshing about it. Indeed, it is 
just the same difference between the close, 
stifling air of a city and the pure air of 
the mountains. In the city people live a 
struggling existence for gain, money being 
the measure of every standard of excel- 
lence, and the shows, perforce of circum- 
stances, partake of this standard. Ex- 
cellent it may be, but the spirit of it is 
shockingly mercenary, and the results of 
the exhibition frequently very bitter. Be 
all this at it may, it is unavoidable, as the 
show would not be worth seeing without 
the professional element. The Mount 
Lofty gardeners are professional and 
amateur happily combined to make a 
genuine success. However impossible 
this may be in a city, it is not so in the 
country. There the humble cottage gar- 
dener, with his two or three exhibits, 
takes a prize against the professional gar- 
dener, whose time and labor are paid for 
by a wealthy magnate, and the spirit of 
rivalry between the two is just as keen as 
though the prize were a sum of money, 
and the feeling of emulation a thousand 
times vetter. The object of ambition is 
the highest excellence in cultivation, and 
the virtues of the exhibits are discussed 
with a view to know something more 
about the vusiness of cultivation. 
Thus much by way of commendation of 
an honorary show, and we sincerely hope 
that the Mount Lofty gardeners will con- 
tinue with the same splendid enterprise 
that has characterised their efforts for so 
many years. In view of this, it is in- 
tensely gratifying to know that this year’s 
show was the best ever held in the dis- 
trict. This opinion must be modified in 
xegard to tne exhibits, although the plea 
of adverse weather will hold good by way 
of extenuation. 
Tue Roszs. 
Where flowers are grown in the open 
the weather of a day or two before the 
date of exhibition makes just the dif- 
ference between a good show and an indif- 
ferent one, and no amount of care wiil 
make up the equation. It was not sur- 
rising, therefore, however disappointing, 
to find the bulk of the Roses coming below 
the standard of a November Rose Show. 
The first casual inspection of the exhibits 
gave an unfavorable impression, because 
the visitor expects to see so much excel- 
lence in everything at Mount Lofty. 
Generally speaking, the visitor is abun- 
dantly satisfied, but the exhibits on this 
occasion required more than a casual ob- 
-servation to see their good points, although 
they were there, and many of them. A: 
bad day’s weather may fault a bloom for 
‘show purposes, and put it out of court, 
but the bloom may, nevertheless, carry all 
‘the points of form and color that go to 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
Vase of Roses. 
