Exhibiting Fuchsias
Only recently a writer in the Gardener’s Chronicle was found deploring that exhibitors of Fuchsia depend so much on old plants, and so little on young ones grown on into exhibition size. The great objection to be urged against old is, that, when put in the exhibition tent, they are so poorly clothed with foliage and carry few flowers. To have fuchsias of large size, the grower must commence with the framework of a cut back plant, but when these are properly grown – as they are in some parts of Wiltshire for show purposes – they are really magnificent objects.
At the annual exhibition of the Trowbridge Horticultural Society, held on the 21st August, some plants of Fuchsias were staged six to seven feet in height, and so clothed with foliage that not a branch could be seen, and over-lying the foliage was a dense covering of flowers. these plants were in some instances four and five years old, but they were grown as Fuchsias should be and deserved to be cultivated. The exhibitor was Mr. James Lye, gardener to the Hon. Mrs. Hay, Clyffe Hall, Market Lavington, Wilts.
The above transcription is from ‘The Floral Magazine‘, 1878.
Dean, R. (September 1878). The Floral Magazine; Figures and Descriptions of the Choicest New Flowers for the Garden, Stove, or Conservatory. London: L. Reeve & Co..