WOMEN GARDENERS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1492, 15 July 1912, Page 3

WOMEN GARDENERS.

The International Flower.Show, in the grounds jpf the Chelsea Hospital, has provided IMndon with a new sensation. There have been wonderful flower shows in the past, but never before has it been possible to wander amid orchids, valued at anything from .£500,000 to ,£l,ooo,ooff. When the interest in the orchid-house waned, there were the rambler roses, the sweet peas, the begonias, the fruit from British Columbia, and the apples from Australia. Tho latter were housed in a pretty tent decoraveil with large wall paintings of Australian scenery by Fred. Leist, an Australian artist. Londoners, to the number of 40,000 a day, have flocked to Chelsea. The great flower show has drawn attention to horticulture as.an occupation for women. There are more opportunities for learning the science of gardening thoroughly in England than might be expected. The Royal Botanic Society has a school, and there are half a dozen other fully-equipped schools at such places as Reading, Swanley, Shidley, Castle, Hitchiu, and Finchley, where the Imperial School of British Horticulture has its headquarters. The fees at the resident colleges cost from a year and upwards, but the best of teaching can be, obtained at the Botanic Society's , School for .£2O, .£ls, and .£lO for the three years of tho course. Mony women trained at these colleges secure employment as gardening mistresses at secondary schools. Some women, too. are making good incomes by taking jobbing contracts. , The garden of a jjewly-bnilt liouse, for example, may require planning and planting. A lady gardener is paid as much as 7s. Oil. and 10s. a day. In these times, when every mother is oppressed with the problem of what to do with her girls, any, suggestion is valuable. The International Flower Show proves that the science of gardening is sufficient to occupy tho most agile bruin and hand, masculine or feinin- \ illo.