GARDEN NOTES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIII, Issue 10600, 8 March 1895, Page 3

GARDEN NOTES.

(Canterbury Times .) Very little interest was taken in the Christchurch Horticultural Society’s show last week, though ia some departments, particularly dahlias, apples and vegetables the exhibition was really first-class. Mr T. Abbott’s exhibit of ninety-six distinct dahlias was the moat striking feature in the whole Gallery. All sections of tbs dahlia family wore represented,' and not only were the blooms beautiful but their arrangement was an object lesson to exhibitors. In the competing classes Mr D. Craw was very successful, and most of hill blooms wore remarkably fine. ■ Hin cactus dahlias wore particularly good. He had, however, to give way to Mr B. Milne in the special class. t Though the time of the rosea is past Messrs Ross and Leighton showed an excellent and well-arranged collection of blooms. Mr F. C. East’s collections of stove and greenhouse plants and ferns were very admirable displays in their respective sections. A finer display of coleus than those exhibited by Mr R. E. M. Evans has not been made here. The plants were well grown and the colours excellently developed. Mr S. Anstey, as usual, was a liberal exhibitor of pot plants. What the show would be like without these displays is too awful to contemplate. The grapes from Mr A. E. G. Rhodes’s vinery were splendid. Apples, as already remarked, were very fine, though there was less competition than is generally seen at this show. Probably the high, winds ia January bad something to do with the absence of some former exhibitors. Exhibitors still follow the objectionable practice of polishing the apples, which detracts from their appearance, and should be prohibited. The plums were chiefly noticeable for the manner in which they were judged, the same plum. Pond’s seedling, being given prizes in both the dessert and the culinary sections, and being placed over real dessert plums. This' occurred in both open and amateur classes. In the culinary class the award was quite correct, but in the dessert class the plum should not have received an award, as, though it can be eaten uncooked, it is uot a dessert kind. Considering the improvement in tha tomatoes of commerce of late years thedisplay of this vegetable-fruit was disappointing.. Clark’s Perfection was the successful variety ia nearly every case.: This is a local seedling, emooth, of good colour and size, and, judging by the clusters shown, a good cropper. It resembles in all chief characteristics that excellent variety Kay’s Prolific. , lu a very good class of onions was an exhibit of Blackly’s Giant—a recentlyintroduced variety—large, of excellent quality and very mild flavour. Two ,o£ these onions weighed 21b 2oz and lib 14oz. and measured in circumference 17fin and 16ain respectively. They were grown at Woolston by Mr •H. Shoebrtdge, late Curator of Launceston Botanical Gardens, and received a h.c. Great Britain alone imported last year from foreign countries nearly £6,000,000 worth of fruit, while New South Wales contributed only a little over £1000; Victoria, £1570 ; South Australis, £1441; Queensland, £23; New Zealand, £3o6s and Tasmania, £61,367.