HUTT VALLEY NEWS

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 144, 21 June 1938, Page 14

HUTT VALLEY NEWS

HORTICULTURAL TRAVELOGUE

(From "The Post's" Representative.) No happier company could be found last night than the enthusiastic garden lovers, who, inured to all vagaries of weather, came in force through the downpour of rain to listen to Mrs. Knox Gilmer's address at the meeting of the Lower Hutt Horticultural Society's Garden Circle. Speaking on "A Horticulturist's Trip Abroad," Mrs. Gilmer said she set out with definite views in her mind to see for herself the advancement in horticulture and the development in forestry in the New World and the Old. Travelling through the United States, she was impressed with the arresting evidence of "park and reserve mindedness" in the American people, with President Roosevelt in the van of progress for a great national drive to form parks everywhere. As the great arterial roads, leading in all directions from New York City, are constructed, two-year-old trees up to twenty feet in height which have been specially grown for this purpose, are brought on "tree-lorries" and planted immediately, with the result that an extensive park springs into being overnight. 'With a national greeting of "Say it with flowers," the florists shops all over the States do an enormous trade in cut blooms, and to meet the ever-increasing demand, airliners from as far afield as Florida and California, bring their floral freight in special compartments regulated to an even temperature. That New York, city of skyscrapers, has lost none of its "flowerhunger" is apparent in the beautiful and costly roof-gardens and in the care-fully-tended and prized groups of trees tucked into every available corner. The International Society's annual show, a scene of enchantment and magnitude, owes its success in the main to the happy combination of amateur and commercial exhibitors, and Mrs. Gilmer strongly supported the idea that; no horticultural society can live or] progress without the co-operation of J the nurserymen of its district. Every] club in the States, and there werei thousands of women's clubs —had a garden circle, and next year a party of these enthusiasts woulfl visit New Zealand for the sole purpose of seeing the gardens of the country. America was the most progressive in horticultural outlook of any land that the speaker visited, and the most efficiently organised in this respect.

The first sight that greeted Mrs. Gilmer in England was the primroses that grew in every railroad cutting and at the approach to every tunnel. These were watched over by railway employees and formed one of the most attractive natural sights of the English spring. She, went on to give a full account of the spring show in London, at which Mr. H. J. Poole, of Lower Hutt, was awarded the coveted Barr Medal for daffodil culture. He thus became the first person outside the British Isles to receive this outstanding honour in thirty years of its award. The arrangement of the exhibits was particularly effective, the tiers of perfect blooms, clearly labelled, being thrown into striking prominence against a background of black velvet. Returning from a comprehensive visit jto Holland and Belgium, which latter country was cornering the Continental trade in flowering shrubs, the speaker told of the vans of tulips and bulbs I coming to London from the Lincolnshire fields, Scilly Isles, and Devonshire, which had now recaptured the bulb trade formerly almost entirely controlled by Holland. After a vivid description of the rose show, the great Chelsea Flower Show, the wonderful floral decorations of the Coronation, and Mr. Leo Rothschild's amazing collection of five hundred acres of rhododendrons, Mrs. Gilmer touched briefly on forestry in Norway, Sweden, and Germany, and referred to the beautiful floodlit parks of Denmark, where opera, band music, and dancing are enjoyed in the open among trees, flowers, waterfalls, and lights. Returning to matters at hand, she concluded by inviting the co-operation of all for the national show of 1940. "Now is the time for getting ready," she said, "and preparing to show our best to our visitors from abroad attending the

Exhibition. The soil, the climate, and everything is in our favour, and I wish you all good going for the coming season."

Proposed by Mr. S. J. Cook, a vot* of thanks to the speaker was carried with acclamation.