Floral Display Praised

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31628, 14 March 1968, Page 5

Floral Display Praised

The Canterbury Horticultural Society’s sponsored display in the Horticultural Hall was well balanced, of superb quality, and with a pleasing avoidance of emphasis on such gimmicks as fountains and sculptures, the director of the Royal Horticultural Society’s garden at Wisley, Surrey (Mr F. P. Knight) said when he officially opened the display yesterday.

He said he had been in Christchurch for only two hours but he was looking forward to seeing its gardens and blooms.

The display has been arranged in conjunction with the Pan Pacific Arts Festival and has “New Zealand-Made” as its theme.

Mr Knight, who has been on a lecture tour in New Zealand seince February 17, will give the first M. R. Barnett Memorial Lecture tomorrow evening. It will be on the training of student-gardeners at Edinburgh, Kew and Wisley. His invitation to come to New Zealand was given jointly by the Institute of Park Administration, the Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture, and the Pukeiti Rhododendron Trust. In an interview later, Mr Knight said trends in floral displays were so slow moving they were scarcely noticeable, but they were definitely towards more open arrangements. More thought was being put into them, and they had a lighter touch than those of 20 years ago.

He said there was less crowding of arrangements. Where once the consideration was adding one more bloom, the trend now was to use one less.

During his North Island visit he was interested to see exotic plants grown only under glass in England growing side by side with such hardy trees as birch, oak antj chestnuts. New Zealand’s bush was evergreen, whereas the wild plants of England were deciduous. As he travelled further south the climate approached that of his own country, and he saw the kind of plants and trees he was accustomed to. Many New Zealand trees were to be seen on the west coast of England where they seemed particularly suited to the salt air conditions.