October  18,  1900. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER, 
363 
produces  exhibition  blooms  on  the  first  crown  bud.  I'riumph  is  a  new 
sport  from  Mods.  Chenon  de  Lecbe.  The  blooms  are  of  a  bronze  colour 
with  a  yellow  reverse.  Tephoris  is  a  bright  earlv  yellow,  one  of 
Calvat’s  novelties,  and  promises  to  be  good.  Exmouth  Gem  is  an 
excellent  deep  dark  crimson. 
Among  the  best  white  blooms  which  were  on  view  at  the  Aquarium 
were  Mutual  Friend,  Mrs.  White  Popham,  Emily  Silsbury,  Gustave 
Henry,  Simplicity,  Miss  Alice  Byron,  F.  Molyneux,  Mrs.  J.  Lewis, 
Nell  e  Pockett,  Lady  Ellen  Clarke,  Lady  Crawshaw,  and  Lady 
Northcote.  Some  good  yellows  were  Ella  Curtis,  J.  E.  Upton, 
Modesto,  Sir  H.  Kitchener,  Madame  Von  Andre,  sulphur  ;  President 
Nonin,  Mons.  Fatzer,  Miss  E.  Pilkington,  Oceana,  R.  Hocper  Pearson, 
and  Phoebus.  The  dark  colours,  red,  crimson,  carmine,  were  finely 
represented  in  T.  Carrington,  Henry  Week.',  Pride  of  Madford,  Iserette, 
Reginald  Godfrey,  Lionel  Humphrey,  and  Helen  Shrimpton. — E. 
Early  Flowering  Decorative  Varieties  at  the  Aquarium. 
Naturally  the  greatest  amount  of  interest  centres  in  the 
November  exhibition  at  the  Aquarium,  Westminster,  when  the 
cream  of  the  best  exhibition  varieties  are  to  be  seen.  The  October 
exhibition  recently  held  was,  however,  extremely  interesting,  not  only 
for  the  display  of  large  early  blooms  of  Japanese  varieties,  some  new 
and  some  old,  but  also  for  a  very  complete  and  interesting  display  of 
early  flowering  outdoor  varieties.  These  are  very  pleasing  and  effective 
for  cutting  for  decoration,  and  a  collection,  according  to  the  demand  for 
them,  ought  to  be  grown  by  all  who  like  the  small  free  flowering 
varieties  of  early  Japanese  an  !  Pompons.  Several  Arms  exhibited 
good  collections  of  these  early  outdoor  blooms,  setting  them  up  in 
large  1  ose  bunches,  so  that  the  general  effect  of  each  could  be  clearly 
seen. 
Some  of  the  best  varieties  among  the  Japanese  were  Alfred  Droz, 
canary  yellow  ;  Bronze  Prince,  bronzy  yellow  with  chestnut  red  tips  ; 
Coral  Queen,  a  most  attractive  variety  of  a  beautiful  coral  colour, 
rather  uncommon  ;  Crimson  Queen,  which  flowers  well  in  October ; 
Edie  Wright,  light  pink;  Edith  Syratt,  a  free  flowering  dwarf  pink; 
Harvest  Home,  red  with  gold  tips ;  Lemon  Queen,  bright  yellow  ; 
Madame  Marie  Masse,  lilac  mauve;  Crimson  Marie  Masse,  a  beautiful 
crimson  sport  from  Madame  Marie  Masse,  this  is  free  flowering  like  the 
parent;  Nellie  Brown,  the  reddish-orange  sport  from  Ryecroft  Glory, 
yellow ;  Maria,  similar  colour  to  Progne,  which  is  a  small  late  reflexed 
variety ;  Miss  L.  Stevens,  blush  white,  small  compact  blooms, 
extremely  neat  and  effective;  Notaire  Groz,  lilac  mauve  or  pink; 
President  Lefevre,  blush  pink;  Sam  Barlow,  salmon  pink;  White 
Grunerwald,  white ;  and  Zephyr  Lionet,  bronze  on  a  yellow  ground, 
a  pretty  variety.  Madame  C.  Desgranges  is  such  a  well  known  white 
Japanese  that  there  seems  no  need  to  mention  it,  but  it  was  staged 
in  the  competitive  groups  and  helped  the  chief  prizewinners  in  the 
classes  for  early  flowering  varieties. 
The  early  Pompons,  though  bearing  very  small  flowers,  are 
wonderfully  pretty  and  neat,  the  petals  being  c  early  cut  and  regular. 
Arranged  with  the  looser  flowers  of  the  Japanese  t}  pes  they  form  a 
nice  contrast.  Anastasia  is  an  exceedingly  good  light  purple.  Blushing 
Bride  is  rose  lilac,  while  Bronze  Blushing  Bride  is  a  sport  from  the 
preceding.  Canari  is  pale  yellow  ;  Golden  Fleece,  a  clear  yellow,  and 
Flora,  a  golden  yellow.  Madame  E.  Lefort,  orange  and  amber,  is  a 
really  pretty  variety,  and  many  bunches  of  it  were  shown.  La  Petite 
Marie,  a  small  but  prett}' white,  was  not  largely  represented.  Little 
Bob  is  bright  crimson,  a  good  old  variety,  as  also  is  Lyon,  a  fair  sized 
Pompon,  rosy  purple.  Martinmas,  blush  pink,  and  Bronze  Martinmas. 
Mr.  Selley,  rosy  lilac,  Piercy’s  Seedling,  bronze,  are  all  good.  Rtse 
Wells,  a  deep  pink,  is  a  dwarf  grower.  A  very  attractive  group  of 
this  variety  in  pots  edged  with  La  Petite  Marie,  and  backed  with 
several  other  varieties,  was  a  pleasing  and  refreshing  feature.  The 
remaining  Pompons  were  Strathmeath,  rosy  pink ;  Toreador,  reddish 
bronze ;  White  Lady,  and  White  St.  Grouts. 
Attention  may  well  be  directed  to  two  excellent  sports  from  Lady 
Fitzwygram,  both  of  which  are  yellow  and  similar  in  size — namely, 
Primrose  Queen  and  Mrs.  J.  Williams.  The  latter  variety  gained  an 
award  of  merit  from  the  Floral  Committee  of  the  R.H.S.  A  group  of 
both  these  varieties  was  formed  at  the  Aquarium,  and  they  made  an 
excellent  display,  the  plants  being  dwarf  and  well  grown,  and  the 
flowers  of  good  decorative  size.  Another  variety,  a'splendid  bronze,  is 
named  Ettie  Mitchell.  It  is  one  of  Godfrey’s  seedlings,  and  will 
doubtless  prove  useful.  Edith  Benyon,  lavender,  is  a  new  1900 
seedling  of  Jones’.— E.  D.  S. 
A  Seasonable  Hint. 
Every  attention  must  be  paid  to  those  plants  that  are  to  yield 
large  flowers.  The  majority  must  be  under  cover,  and  the  remainder 
placed  where  they  can  he  protected  or  lifted  inside  in  case  of  frost. 
Early  frosts  often  compel  the  housing  of  these  plants  to  take  place 
before  it  would  otherwise  be  necessary,  the  thermometer  having 
already  fallen  below  the  freezing  point.  The  very  light  frosts  do  not 
appear  to  do  harm,  but  they  do  the  plants  no  good,  and  protection 
from  such  influences  should  be  provided.  When  the  plants  are 
housed  be  careful  not  to  crowd  them,  for  it  is  important  to  preserve 
their  lower  foliage  until  the  last.  The  preservation  of  the  foliage 
insures  the  activity  of  the  roots,  which  must  be  also  assisted  by  top- 
dressing  and  judicious  feeding.  Admit  abundance  of  air  at  first,  and 
avoid  unduly  exciting  the  plants,  or  the  flower  buds  will  come 
forward  too  rapidly  to  insure  their  being  of  good  size  and  perfect 
form. — A.  G. 
Incurved  Chryeanthemums  for  Exhibition. 
Except  for  show  purposes  this  type  of  the  Chrysanthemum  is  not 
particularly  useful  now  that  there  is  such  a  diversity  of  shapes  among 
the  Japanese.  The  latter,  however,  when  they  do  partake  of  the 
globular  foim,  are  not  to  be  compared  to  the  former  in  one  respect — 
that  is,  smoothness.  Of  late  years  there  has  been,  perhaps,  too  much 
mixing  of  the  classes,  and  it  is  difficult  to  say  whether  or  no  some  of 
the  recognised  incurved  flowers  really  belong  to  that  group  ;  but  now, 
as  formerly,  depth,  outline,  and  absence  of  roughness  are  the  qualities 
to  be  sought  if  prizes  are  to  be  won. 
Flat  incurved  specimens  are  not  at, all  desirable,  and  the  grower 
should  aim  at  getting  them  as  near  in  measurement  of  depth  and 
width  as  is  possible  by  good  culture.  One  of  the  chief  things  to  aid 
this  is  well-ripened  wood.  That  of  a  soft,  big,  sappy  nature,  is  sure  to 
produce  blooms  not  up  to  our  ideal,  so  that  overfeeding  is  not  advisable. 
If  the  growth  is  now  in  the  condition  indicated,  and  the  pots  are  well 
filled  with  roots,  there  is  no  reason  why,  with  the  proper  treatment, 
satisfactory  flowers  should  not  follow.  One  thing  this  type  of  the 
Chrysanthemum  does  not  respond  to  is  fire  heat ;  that  is  to  say, 
enough  only  may  be  applied  to  keep  damp  out  of  the  greenhouses. 
Nor  must  these  be  closed  from  air.  A  close  atmosphere  tends  to  make 
the  florets  reflex,  and  over-ahundant  warmth  takes  away  the  substance 
of  the  same. 
Exhibitors  have  many  schemes  in  trying  to  obtain  the  desired 
form,  one  of  which  is  to  train  the  stems  up  to  the  front  of  the  houses, 
so  that  the  blooms  may  hang.  In  this  way  it  is  thought  the  florets 
are  more  likely  to  be  forced  into  shape.  We,  however,  do  not  favour 
such  a  plan,  because  the  light  of  the  glass  has  a  tendency  to  draw  the 
flower  stem,  and  in  fact  make  the  whole  bloom  one-sided.  We  like  to 
tie  each  flower  in  an  upright  direction,  so  stiff  that  the  florets  fall 
evenly  all  round.  By  doing  this  there  is  plenty  of  room  given  to  the 
hundreds  of  florets  of  an  incurved  bloom  to  expand,  and  we  thus  aid 
the  quality  of  depth. 
Then  it  is  well  to  go  over  each  promising  flower  almost  daily,  and 
with  twetzers  take  away  short,  quilled,  or  hadly  formed  petals.  It 
often  happens  that  a  great  number  more  form  than  can  properly 
extend.  For  instance,  that  fine  type  C.  H.  Curtis  is  one  which  may 
be  much  improved  in  this  way ;  in  fact,  nearly  all  of  the  present  day 
sorts  require  this  manipulation.  If  the  wotk  be  done  from  the 
beginning,  there  is  little  need  of  assistance  when  the  bloom  is  fully 
expanded.  It  often  happens,  too,  in  the  case  of  incurved  Chrys¬ 
anthemum  blooms,  that  when  they  are  half  open  a  big  tuft  of  florets 
forms  in  the  centre — some  wanting  to  go  one  way,  and  some  another. 
We  may  pull  out  all  those  pointing  in  an  outward  direction  with 
much  benefit  to  the  flower.  This  taking  away  should  be  done  clean, 
for  decaying  parts  quickly  spread. 
Sunshine  again  has  a  tendency  to  make  the  florets  reflex,  and  so 
has  securing  early  buds,  at  least  with  most  varieties.  I  remember  a 
grower  asking  the  advice  of  a  trader  who  distributed  a  fine  new 
incurved  variety,  which  was  splendidly  shaped  on  late-formed  buds,  but 
a  loose  “  Jap.”-like  shape  from  early  ones.  The  advice  was  to  show 
it  as  a  Japanese  if  it  came  like  one,  and  if  an  incurved  exhibit  it  as 
such.  But  to-day,  we  fear,  with  lists  of  sorts  that  may  be  put  up  as 
incurved  only,  such  a  way  out  of  the  difficulty  would  lead  to  further 
trouble.  Yet  one  might  name  many  so-called  incurved  varieties  that 
do  so  differ  in  character  developed  from  different  buds.  Even  that 
type  which  was  for  years  the  ideal  one — the  Empress  of  India  form — 
did  not  always  produce  incurving  flowers. 
The  grower  should  aim  at  getting  the  blooms  fully  out  whilst  yet 
on  the  plant  and  in  the  glass  structure.  We  have  known  exhibitors 
who  have  become  anxious  about  the  date  of  a  show,  fearing  the  flowers 
would  not  last,  putting  them  still  undeveloped  in  a  dark  shed  to  retard 
them.  This  is  a  mistake,  as  they  will  not  finish  the  centre  ]  etals 
properly,  and  thus  an  important  point  is  lost.  Let  the  bloom  be  fully 
out  before  trying  to  retard  it.  Alter  that  period  most  sorts  may  be 
kept  a  week  or  ten  days  quite  fresh  if  placed  in  the  dark,  plant  and 
all,  and  the  latter  should  not  be  watered  unless  the  foliage  flags. 
In  setting  up  incurved  blooms  another  point  should  not  be  lost 
sight  of,  that  is,  well  grown  blooms  look  better  if  staged  fairly  high 
on  the  board.  The  base  of  the  flowers  on  the  lower  line  ought  to  be 
quite  clear  of  the  stand,  the  second  row  high  enough  to  show  the 
lower  portion  of  the  blooms,  and  the  back  row  similarly  high.  To 
place  them  flat  is  to  show  them  to  the  least  advantage. — Specialist. 
