Rose Show Tomorrow

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31222, 21 November 1966, Page 18

Rose Show Tomorrow

The Canterbury Horticultural Society’s annual rose show will be held in the HorticiAtural Hall tomorrow and Wednesday. Entries close today. Of the six flower shows held each year by the society the rose show invariably creates the greatest public interest. Mid-November is the season which is richest in variety, substance and colour.

Members of the Canterbury Rose Society, . which cooperates with the Horticultural Society each year for the show, are confident that entries in the competitive

classes this year will exceed those of other years. Two new classes have been introduced. The class for six exhibition roses staged in a box with foliage and moss background will give visitors an opportunity to study the classical type erf exhibition rose at its best The other innovation is a class not previously seen in Canterbury. It consists of a display of roses, any types and varieties, contained in nine vases of blooms. The section is open to all individuals, societies, garden clubs and organisations, and

entries are expected from some North Island societies. The “special classes,” open only to members of the National Rose Society, should be particularly keenly contested as a trial run for the National Rose Show in Invercargill three days later. Two North Island nurseries are mounting displays of newer roses, some of them varieties not yet seen in Christchurch. Further interest will be aroused by a display of blooms which is expected to arrive from a leading New South Wales nursery.

The rose society is numerically the strongest of the local specialist horticultural societies. Its 350 members are the main force of exhibitors in the rose section of the show. The society will man an information bureau which is intended to give useful advice and information on roses and their problems to the public. In observance of its twenty-first anniversary the society will hold a special Rose Sunday on December 11, with a service at the Durham Street Methodist Church. Two new trophies have been given to mark the occasion. Mr J. Watling, a foundation member and patron since 1961, has given a trophy for the member’s garden which best demonstrates the essential part played by roses in providing a completely balanced garden. The other trophy is for the display of nine vases of blooms.