Annuals for Exhibition

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23157, 1 October 1938, Page 10 (Supplement)

Annuals for Exhibition

there are few flowers more easily grown than annuals, show classes for them are, as often, as not, filled with blooms that do not convey a good impression. Perhaps the ease with which they can be grown is responsible to somo extent, for there is a tendency to assume it sufficient to merely take the best blooms there happen to be. Unless some .attempt is made to produce blooms of real quality such exhibits can never stand a chance. Annuals, given care and attention, can be improved to just the same extent as any other flower. It is all a matter of specialised cultivation. A wise selection of varieties can go a long way toward figuring ill the award list. Many of the showiest annuals for garden decoration are of little use as cut flowers. Numbers of these are ruled out at once on account of the fact that they cannot be cut with a sufficient length of stem. Others again are too short lived to be of any real use, and there are quite a number which will only open their flowers in full sunshine. There is, however, a real wealth of suitable material from which to choose. If, say, nine varieties are grown, the grower should be certain of being able to furnish the usual six kinds for collections. It is never safe to grow just the number required; ahvays allow a margin for safety. As a rule sweet peas, and sometimes stocks and asters are barred from collections of annuals, these being provided for in separate classes. Schedules should be read with care to make sure of this point, and it is as well to bear in mind that many

Producing, Blooms of Real Quality

plants, although grown as annuals, are really perennials. Many growers/will be amused at the thought that they would make a mistake of this nature, but it is .no uncommon' thing to see antirrhinums included in collections of annuals. Yet another point of importance is whether the class is confined to hardy annuals open, to both hardy and half-hardy kinds. In the former instance it is wise to err on the safe side, and - choose -those kinds about which there can be no doubt.