CHRYSANTHEMUMS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXV, Issue 9430, 3 June 1891, Page 3

CHRYSANTHEMUMS.

(From the Canterbury Times.)

It seems only the other evening—bo. rapid is the passing of the yeans—that, a! few enthusiasts met in a room of Jbn»j Clarendon Hotel to talk flowers. Thai enthusiasts did not constitute a mutual] admiration society, by any means; fori their discussions on all matters pertaining , to the floral world wore wont to oe keenly! critical, and their comments on submitted; specimens were sometimes caustic to a] degree. But their talk on this particulari occasion was of the flower of China andj Japan, and there were expressed ideas,! more or less hazy, of a chrysanthemum] show in the future. The specimen blooms j brought together that evening by individual members of the coterie were held! to be reasonably good; though perhaps: there was not one so largo aa the old English twopenny piece. There was the inoep-| tiou, however, of the Chrysanthemum. I Shows of the Christchurch Ploral andl Horticultural Society. Later on there! came a great impetus. A. canny Scottish j gardener at Oamarn sent to one of the j exhibitions a collection of blooms each as no one here had eves ■ dreamed of] producing. Such form did they present,; such size and substance, each purity and; richness of colour, that chrysanthemums forthwith became “ the rage ” in, that season of the year when autumn leaved are falling. As time went oh, local growers crept up to the standard which Mr Forsyth had established, and eventually began to pass it. The show of 1891 came, round, and lo! a new impetus, greater than the first. | It was an Ashburton grower this time,.; who came, exhibited largely, and in] friendly rivalry vanquished his' opponents, all along the lines of colour in the Odd-1 fellows’ Hall. Douce man, that Mr Porter.; His upbringing must have had a good deal] of the “ far north ” about it. For when, he exhibited some fruit once, and eome-i body sympathised with him in that—being, located out on the tussock at Ashburton—] he could not hope to exhibit flowers, he quickly replied: “ I may bring along a few 1 flowers, some day.” He brought them.

The Christchurch Society has scored A big success: big from the spectacular stand-. point, big financially. But it cannot, must not, be content. Let us have, next year, a chrysanthemum fate, as nearly after the.' manner of the clever, artistic, flower-loving Japs, as reasonably may be. They have. been trying something of this sort in' Melbourne, under the auspices of the Victorian Horticultural Society, and they seem to have achieved a gratifying measure > of success. One exhibitor made a glorious ~ display, which included no fewer than four hundred varieties; another had a hundred' and forty, another sixty-eight. Evidently there is one respect in which the Melbourne folk are happier than we: nurserymen and amateurs combine to make their flower-shows successful, and they have found out the truth and wisdom of the adage that “Nothing succeeds like success.” What Shirley Hibbetd aptly styles speculative gardenvig came into play at this show: there was a “ most interesting group ’’ of twenty - four seedling chrysanthemums. Tho feature, however, to which we think attention should be particularly directed, with a, view to the gratification of future gatherings of the people in Christchurch; is the artistic one. For example, the Melbourne Committee was enabled to offer a special prize for " a bowl of chrysanthemums, with foliage, artistically arranged.” Three ladies of cultivated taste were tha judges. “ The first prize winner was Mrs O'Connor, of Preston, in whose bowl was nothing but that noblest of Japanese chrysanthemums, Edwin Molyneux. The effect of the deep maroon and gold of the flower itself was heightened by a setting of glowing maple, russet blackberry, and yellow vine leaves. Dr Daly, of Gisborne, who won the second prize, made tho handsome orange bronze Source d'Or a feature of his bowl, backed up with a few of the deeper chromes, while the foliage was maple of several varieties, two kinds of Virginia creeper, and the curiously-marked Borberis.” The decorations of the hall included an arch ■o£ chrysanthemums, and vases wherein were disposed two or three choice blooms. In a Japanese household they understand perfectly the effect to bo obtained from a single flower in a suitable vase. It will not be hard for the Christchurch Committee, stimulated by the reputation recently won, to adopt such measures as will tend to make their displaya. increasingly attractive.