The Sun.
London, England, 1862-06-12 00:00:00

ROYAL HORTICULTURAL GARDENS.

The second fete of the season was celebrated at
these gardens yesterday by visitors walking about
during the brief lapses that intervened between
the showers of rain. It was Chiswick weather,
without the Chiswick accessories of shady walks and
luxuriant trees. If it is really meant that these
gardens are to retain the public favour with which
they started last year, a little more must be done in
the way of planting them with shrubs and flowers.
At present these so-called gardens are a mere suc-
cession of lawns and terraces, throughout the whole
extent of which scarcely a flower is to be
found. Some banks of rhododendrons have been
planted at the southern end, but when once the
visitor has passed these no other blooms are to be
seen till he enters the conservatory at the other
side, where there are certainly flowers enough of
the rarest and most beautiful kinds. Surely, when
the society has Mr. Eyles for their chief manager
of the gardens, they ought to bo able to accomplish
anything in the way of out-door flowers. Last
year every one was willing enough to admit the
excuse for the want of them in the fact that all
the parterres were only hurriedly finished a day
or so before the opening, but the interval that has
elapsed since has afforded ample time for planting
at least a few rose trees, lilacs, or any flowering
shrubs that would make the name of garden
appear somewhat less misplaced than it does now.
Beds of bottle-green glass, red tile, or crushed
slate, are well enough in winter to supply with
colours the place of flowers that cannot bloom, but
something more than these stony deceptions is re-
quired at Midsummer. Yesterday, the " show" was
arranged under the arcades at each side of the
gardens, for the hideous tents that blocked the
windows of the refreshment rooms, having been
found neither wind nor water proof, were very
wisely not used on this occasion. The exhibition
of flowers by no means came up to that superb
display shown in the first fete. In fact, as a
flower show it was much beneath the average
standard. The best plants were shown in the con-
servatory, where they were grouped together
with the most admirable good taste, so that the
effect of the general show in this department was
exceedingly beautiful. The stove and greenhouse
specimens were very good, but there was not
much in the others to call for special remark.
Great curiosity was evinced to see the rare flowers
of the hand tree, which was shown yesterday in
the conservatory in full bloom, the first time that it
has ever flowered in this country, in spite of all the
care and skill that have been brought to bear to
force it into blossom. The flowers very closely re-
semble the shape of the human hand, and from this
the shrub takes its name. One of the best, and cer-
tainly the most interesting sections of the exhibition,
was the competition to gain Sir Wentworth Dilke's
special prizes for fruit and flower decoration for the
dinner-table. There were an immense number of
candidates for this honour, three-fourths of whom
plagiarised more or less upon Mr, March's beautiful
designs, which took the prize last summer, and even
that which gained the first on this occasion only
differed in the arrangement of its flowers, the glass
stand being almost precisely similar to those
shown by Dobson and Pearce in the Exhibition.
The second prize was given to Mrs. Pickering, a
sister of Mr. March, whose flowers were most
exquisitely arranged in the glass-handled baskets
in which Lady D. Neville gained the prize at the
first fete. The Messrs. Veitch took the first
and second prizes for the flowers arranged for the
drawing-room, no other competitors approaching
the quiet good taste of their specimens. Some
objects were sent in to this class which were simply
hideous—so bad, in fact, that one required to look
at them attentively to understand the process by
which good flowers could be made to look so utterly
unbecoming; while others were mere confused
bushes—everything uppermost, yet nothing seen.
One of the nearest approaches to prize-taking was
by Messrs. Elkington. Their flowers were short of
the mark in arrangement, but the silver and enamelled
vases in which they showed them were perfection,
though, of course, for these alone no awards could
be given. The display of roses was small, though
good considering how totally the insects have de-
stroyed these flowers this year. So, also, was
there a fair exhibition of plants of variegated
foliage. Only one of the great French fountains
has been set to work, or rather play; yesterday,
however, this endeavoured to make up for the want
of the assistance of its colleague by working with
such energy that no one could pass near it without
getting wet. Its drizzle at last became such a
nuisance, in addition to the rain, that it had to be
stopped entirely. If Durenne's fountain, close by
(which is still, we are sorry to say, unfinished),
behaves in a similar way, there will be no entering
the gardens from the Exhibition at all.