HORTICULTURE

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 21, 26 January 1931, Page 11

HORTICULTURE

CONFERENCE WEEK

FIRST NATIONAL SHOW

The Grand National Horticultural Week, to be opened to-morrow at 10 a.m., in the Dominion Farmers' Institute, will be the first of its kind to be held in New Zealand, A civic ■welcome will be given to the representatives of the- three conferences (horticultural trades, Institute of Horticulture, and the parks superintendents) by the Mayor, Mr. G. A. Troup, and the conference will bo officially opened by the Prime Minister, or, in*his absence, by the Hon. ,T. G. Cobbe.

The importance of these conferences, not only to Wellington, but also to the Dominion, cannot be over-rated. The ground to be covered is wide, embracing aesthetic horticulture, the civic boautification of cities and towns, and the economic; development of our fruit industry and other phases of commercial horticulture,1 research into, such matters as culture, manures, varieties, root stocks, seed and bud selection, et".

Tire three conferences will be followed on Wednesday evening by a public lecture ou botanic gardens to be given by Mr. R. B. Olliver, the Director of the Dominion Museum. On Thursday and Friday, the first National .Flower Show will be staged, when novelties and; specimens of great beauty and some rare specimens will be staged under the. auspices of the Wellington ami Lower Hutt Horticultural Societies.

The Lodor Cup, at present held by Messrs. Duncan and Davies, Ltd., New Plymouth, will be on view at all public functions during tho conference, "rid also at the flower show. This cup, which is for the best collection of New Zealand native plants and flowers, is competed for annually. The next competition will be at the jubilee flower show' in Punedin, held during February, and in the following year at Wellington.

Tho following delegates have arrived for Horticultural Week: Mr. V. C. Davies, president New . Zealand Horticultural Trades Association (N,ew Plymouth); Mr. M. Matheson, president of the Seedsmen's Association; Mr. H. Bennett, the. chairman of the Otago Council of the Horticultural Trades Association; Mr. J. N. M'Leod (who is accompanied by Mrs. M'Leod), chairman, of tho Canterbury Council of the H.T.A.; Mr. E. Hoskings, vice-chair-man of the Auckland Horticultural Trades Association Council; Mr. .David Tauno-ek, of'Dunedin, and secretary of the Parks Superintendents' Association, Conference; Mr. George A. Green, secretary of the Horticultural Trades Association and organiser for the New Zealand Institute of. Horticulture; Mr. E. Hale (and Mrs. Halo), of Masterton, and Mr. N. R. Thomas, secretary, Auckland Institute of Horticulture Council.

Amongst tho floral and fruit novelties which are coming forward for the Show is a gigantic head (with 9 spikes) of bloom of the rare "Banksia Grandis," from Western Australia, grown by ■Messrs. Duncan and Davies in New Plymouth; a fine lot of tho iiew hybrid Calla grown by Miss Whitely, of Otahuhu; a, wonderful, display of the latest dahlias and gladioli and phlox and spireas; also a collection of grape fruit and sweet oranges and ■ lemons from Auckland.