THE NATIONAL SWEET PEA SOCIETY OF NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIV, Issue 21, 25 May 1910, Page 41

THE NATIONAL SWEET PEA SOCIETY OF NEW ZEALAND.

It' will be interesting to know which tlass in the National will be tire championship class. I cannot quite understand the five championships, unless we have to compete in the lot, as they do in .Stratford, and the competitor securing the most point's will be the champion; (but I think our directors are all right, and they will see a way out. I hope, too, that some rules will appear in the Schedule for the guidance of competitors, (giving them something definite t'o aim at. I'or instance, is any foliage to be used, tor is the same kind of foliage to be used for each class to make that class uniform? and are the. classes to be judged ton the merits of the sweet peas only ©r does gypsophilla count as well? Now, about the professional staging.

Is professional aid to be allowed in (staging, and does staging win or the best bloom? . Artistic arrangement, 1 know, goes a long way to show the blooms off, but if artistic arrangement as to count no professional aid should be allowed, and all staging should be done in the hall. 1 would suggest' to the management that all the judging should be by points, find taking the vases separately, say: 3 points for form, 3 for colour, 3 for cultivation, 3 for length of 'stem. 1 mean by form the shape of the blooms. For instance, The King is not tis good form as King Edward; because the blooms are too “Hoppy,’’ and, again, it is not so evenly placed on, the stems, and in consequence will not get the full points for form. Now, for colour. A bright, fresh bloom, clean in colour, no spots, and an evenness of colour in each bloom throughout the vase, and a lavender or maroon or blue or cream, or any colour that shows th# same colour in standard should score more than those showing a slightly different colour in standards and wings, unless they are bicolour. Cultivation means size of blooms and number of blooms on a spike. Three blooms should stand for more points than two blooms, and four blooms more than three, and five more than four, providing the size is there. It is absurd

to think that if an exhibit with fours and another with fours and threes, that the fours don’t win in cultivation.

- Now, having considered the vases separately, we will take them as a whole, and here we can give more points. Twelve points to be the maximum for the most distinct varieties and the best range of colours, from a white to a dark maroon. I think that should do away with so many pinks in a collection, and for this distinction the points should range from one to twelve, six points to be the maximum for the blending of colours throughout the exhibit. Length of stem from one to three points, as in form and colour and cultivation, and even giving J a point or J point. I would like to hear what the other growers have to sav about this. ’ C. TREVETHICK.