CHELSEA FLOWER SHOW
ONE of the best things about the Chelsea Flower Show is that its title exactly defines its function ; it is a show of flowers. Vegetables hardly-intrude, and even flowering shrubs, in spite of the present fashion which finds a supreme virtue in their permanence, keep in the background. This year the Royal Horticultural Society's show is suitably bigger and richer than ever, and if visitors to Britain want to see the domestic side o,f this country at its best they might well wander across the river from the Festival to this magnificent spectacle—the annual culmination pf the hopes and ambitions of millions of small amateur gardeners. For these amateurs the important parts of the show are those that can be related to their back patches ; accordingly it is the flowers in the marquee that arouse more fervent interest than the temporary gardens outside, with their weedless perfection and impeccable elegance. (An exception must be made in favour of the small demonstration garden for a prefabricated house, organised by the W.V.S.) To single out separate exhibits in a show of this size is invidious. All that can be done is to notice the trends of fashion, and to see that at present the widest gap between the accepted and the possible standards of achievement is in such ubiquitous plants as irises, delphiniums and the whole dianthus family.
E. C. H.
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