GLADIOLUS SOCIETY COMPETITION

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25129, 10 March 1947, Page 2

GLADIOLUS SOCIETY COMPETITION

QUALITY AT FINAL SHOW

Many distinctive blooms of unusually high quality were exhibited when the final series in the competition for the Mrs W. R. Toon Memorial Shield was held by the New Zealand Gladiolus Society at Mr Toon’s St. Martin’s gardens. The competition had extended over five weeks and the quality was consistently high. The premier bloom was Strathnaver, a mammoth white raised in South Australia and grown by B. G. Tait. Opening eight florets seven inches and a quarter across, two buds opening and seven showing colour, this gladiolus carried altogether 25 buds. The colour was chaste and the placement formal, but the one defect was some lack of balance. As the< flower was grown from a one-inch corm, the deficiency at the top was excusable. Another prominent white in the show was Nelly Stewart, grown by its breeder. Dr. A. C. McKillop, who, with a late patch of gladioli in his garden, made his first appearance on the show bench this 'season. Nelly Stewart, of whicq ( two spikes were shown, won the premiership at the Horticultural Society’s show on Thursday and Friday, but Strathnaver was an -exceptional bloom. Three spikes of Dr. Prior, shown by G. Stubley, were also perfectly grown. The premier bloom in the amateur classes was Ethel Cave, shown by Mrs C. Lew, with eight florets open, two opening, and seven showing colour. The main exhibitor in the amateur classes, however, was H. Blackburn, who was awarded at the Horticultural Society’s show a preliminary award of merit for his seedling, White Cascade, a white with a cream throat turning to icy white when in a vase. It was obtained by crossing J. H. Lewis on to Albatross. For the first time for a long while, L. V. Farthing - , secretary of the New Zealand Gladiolus Society, competed, showing three exhibition spikes in the novice class, in which the premier bloom award was made to a Pfitzer’s Masterpiece, shown by Mrs K. Palmer, of Kaiapoi. The awards, the judge being Mr T. de Latour, were:— Exhibition Classes.—Open: G. Stubley, one first: B. G. Tait, one first, two seconds: Dr. A. C. McKillop, one first; G. Roberts, one second. Amateur: Mrs C. Lew, one first; H. Blackburn, two firsts, two seconds, three thirds: J. Hitchings, one second, one third. Novice: L. V. Farthing, one first; Mrs K. Palmer, one first, one second. Decorative.—Open: N. Bum, one first, one second, one third; Dr. A. C. McKillop, two firsts; A. H. Beaumont, one third. Amateur: G. Wakeham, one first; Mrs Lew, one second.