Chrysanthemums.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7180, 3 June 1891, Page 1

Chrysanthemums.

(Prom the Canterbury Timci.) It seems only the other evening— bo rapid is the pasuing of the years— that a few enthusiasts met in a room of the Clarendon Hotel to talk flowers. The enthusiasts did not constitute a mutual admiration society, by any means ; for their discussions on all matters pertaining to the floral world were wont to be keenly critical, and their comments on submitted specimens were sometimes caustic to a degree. But their talk on this particular occasion was of the flower of China and Japan, and there were expressed ideas, more or less hazy, of a chrysanthemum show in the future. The specimen blooms brought together that evening by individual members of the coterie were held to be reasonably good ; though perhaps there was not one so large a3 the old English twopenny piece. There was the inception, however, of the Chrysanthemum Shows of the Christchurch Floral and Horticultural Society. Later on there came a great impetus. A canny Scottish gardener at Oainaru Bent to one of the exhibitions a collection of blooma such as no one here had ever dreamed of producing. Such form did they present, such size and subatance, such purity and richness of colour, that chrysanthemums forthwith became " the rage " in that season of the year when autumn leaves are falling. As time went on, 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 linen of colour in the Oddfellowß* Hall. Douce man, that Mr Porter. His upbringing must have had a good deal of the " far north " about it. For when be exhibited some fruit once, and somebody sympathised with him in that — being located out on the tussock at Ashburton — be could not hope to exhibit flowers, he juickly replied : " I may bring along a few dowers, some day." He brought them. The Christchurch Society has scored a big success : big from the spectacular standpoint, big financially. But it cannot, must not, be content. Let us have, next year, a chrysanthemum f£te, 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 aeein 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 thau 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 Hibberd aptly styles speculative gardening came into play at thiß show : there was a " most interesting group " of twenty - four seedling chrysanthemums. The feature, however, to which we think attention should bo particularly directed, with a view to the gratification of future gather- , ings of the people in Christohurch. 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 the judges. "The first prize winner was Mrs O'Connor, of Preston, in whose bowl was nothing but that noblest of Japanese chrysanthemums, Edwin Molyncux. 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 Becond prize, made the handsome orange bronze Source dOr 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 Berberis." The decorations of the hall included an arch of chrysanthemums, and vasea wherein were disposed two or three choice blooms. In a Japanese household they understand perfectly the effect to be 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 displays increasingly attractive. ' ■ ■ . . . .