AT THE TEMPLE FLOWER SHOW.

Otago Witness, Issue 2896, 15 September 1909, Page 82

AT THE TEMPLE FLOWER SHOW.

Bt E. P. Pmintys

"Barring Ascot, there is not a finer sight in all England than the Temple" flower show," say those srho have been everywhere and seen everything And, looking at the picturesque scene the show represents, one is almost inclined to agree imagine the high-railed Temple Gar.den*, with their oentuiry-moweu lawns, la/ci*^ on the historic Ttian^es. Behind, a gr^oay background, the Temple Chambers, »»d the grim old Temple Church, j one of the old'ast, if not the oldest, in J Jinglaod. Below are pitched the huge • marquees, in which are exhibited picked \ flowers irom the most famous nurseries, i while on the uncovered lawns between th© ! teats are set out bsaiked roses, great tubs lof carnations, ~ and azaleas • ana beautiful J shrubs, both natural on growth and I trimmed into the shape of some animal, in the Dutch fashion, all arranged by landscape gardectirs of artistic instinct and renown. Amid them axe dainty "tea tables, around wihich sit the most charming women in England, in the freshest of "spring toilettes, for they seem !to try to rival the flowers. Inside are ! horticulturists and flower-lovers ; outside, J beauti«6 and millionaires, dukes and I princesses — even kings and queens, for all the world congregates at the Temple show on the too brief days on which it is open. ' As for the huge tents themselves, they are a wonderful sight. Every hue and shade seems massed in the position which suits it best. Range on range of tulips, for instance, are tiered above yet other tulips, white and cream and yellow, bronze brown, mauve, and from the faintest of pinks to the most vivid scarlet imaginable. Some are striped, some are plain — the well-named chameleon, of indescribable colour ; the curious Marginata, white, with just a margin of magenta. Some are yellow-«dged with green, and vice versa ; but surely the triumph of them all is la tulipe noir, a beautiful, great flower, almost looking as though cut from black satin. It is in exquisite contrast to the brilliant, shaggy-looking, well-named "parrots." Then, come lilies of every kind, the little "vallies" grown in pyramids a yard or more high ; juums, " shaded from creamy white to lemon ar.d even orange, a -new* plant looking like the frail skeleton of an Easter lily And then 'the fragile iris, lavender anc l purple (almost red and white), with yellow >r grey centres. One was of a creamy tone, but so speckled' and 'veined with n delicate traowy that the whole effect is brown with a rich chocolate centre. But it is round -the orchid shrine that most worshippers do congregate, so they are usually installed in, the largest tent, massed avobe ferns and below palms, a phantasy of delicate hues, well eet off by the darker green around them. The sensation of the year in this direction was undoubtedly the curious gTesn> petalled, black-hearte<J. orchid which is Hugh Low f s triumph. Can anything rival their subdued pinks and * vivid mauves? you wonder as you look at the quivering sprays of fragile flowers, almost butterfly-like in response to the quiver of the air made by the thousands who pass before them. Opposite stand the trees of azaleas, flame-coloured, and such shades that no one cam describe them. And then the gorgeous amaryllia, with leaves" half a yard long — green erges, yellow with brown, rugged leaves and smooth leaves, leaves like satin and leaves like velvet J some comic, with their curly pig's tail- • like protuberances at one end. I Some exhibitors have heightened ths effect of their stalls by backgrounds. The long-stemmed delicacy of the sweet peas, for instance, is flung oiii against black velvet, which contrasts splendidly -with their apple blossom shades, mauve, pink, white, dark purple, vivid scarlet, crimson, flame, blushing Nell Gwynne, and the unnameable colours 'which increase ami are produced in greater variety every "yeaT. The effect of the flowers is'heightened by, their delicate greenery and the .appealing little tendrils which stretch out gracefully from the shelter of great vases. In and out among the peas are Japanese maples, a miniature copy of the Canadian tree, with ruddy-hued, delicate, fingerhke leaves. But oh, the scent of it all, and the gorgeous gleams of sunlight seen through the flapping openings in" the tents. Perhaps a gleam will fall across a shaded garden of heliotrope : imagine heliotrope in treee as well as in pots. Some of it was actually tiained intc standards, as were also the fuchsias which fell in gieat pa.rasol-like masses, ard looked so glorious that it -was hard to turn from them even to branching sprays of honevsucklo and three-toned lilac ! The wistaria, too. formed a picture on its own account, it- pure nnd lavender flung "out by <rorgeou- masses of rhododendron*, pink behind, yellow before — a gorgeous wealth -A colour But for sheer biilliancy- as well as delicacy perhaps the poppies would be hard to beat. Som* co huge that a single bloom would almost serve for a fashionable hat ; some so dainty that they looked like fairy flowers'. And round them all, in ajid out among the stalls, an always pressing stream of exquisitelydressed psople perpetually drawn onward, now by the trailing clematis, or the fragrance of the dainty trees of Japonica. or by wonderful roses. Eores in huohes and roses in standards, yellow and pink and red and white, climbing up and : hangimg down, parasols of roses, .-howers of roses, but always beautiful. Or per haps it will he 'the cirnation* aroun-1 1 which thp thi-ons is thk-ke^t. Hitrh over J the heads of the throng they hang— great

baskets of the lovely-soented things — huge pink madmaisons, measuring inches across, odd old-worl3, mauve-tinted "Mikados" ; others lemon yellow, white, or scarlet, or vivid crimson. The rockeries and "Alpine Gardens" have their oliantele of admirers too, and here are ferns and plaints growing on and among great boulders that have been transplanted and restacked in copy of , Nature. Some are plants known only to the learned, white flowers, blue flowers, even tiny iris growing among the stones and chips, lichen, too, showing ! what a wondrous thing of beauty it can be. And among all the wealth of colour and the fragrant, varied scents sounds I the laughter of women, the ruetle of ' their dresses, the friendly greetings, for hsr« friends meet friendb who last have separated a thousand leagues from London. The world wends its way to the Tempi* Gardens these too brief days, and there drinks tea beneath the trees where once tilted crusading knights.

LONDON, July 31