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Always take several spare blooms to the show, for some of those that were in good form at the time of leaving home may open quickly. Spares should always be slightly immature as a provision against conditions that favour rapid development.

In these days of speedy air transport, roses are carried long distances for sale or showing. The variation in blooming times of widely separated centres is now the greatest obstacle to an interstate rose show, at which exhibits from all Australian States and New Zealand could be staged. Roses have been picked three days before a show and carried two thousand miles by air from Perth to Melbourne to win championship honours. Flowers keep much better in planes than in cars or trains because of the cooler air at the high altitudes.

Since Melbourne is within a few hours of all the State capitals and New Zealand, it should be possible to hold an Australasian rose show there on a date suitable to all climates. It would need to be in the spring, since the time for autumn blooming varies too much. Such a show has been consistently advocated by Mr Charles Frost, of Perth, for several years.

"dressing" blooms

Some blooms will not be as widely opened as the exhibitor desires. Others will have opened a little unevenly, and be looser on one side than the other. The tight, immature bloom or the unopened petals on the one side of the other bloom can be corrected by gently unfurling the petals with a No. 8 sable-hair brush and dropping a small object down into the newly widened space. It should be pressed firmly still a little farther down with the brush. Green peas, beans, cotton-wool, and pellets made of paper are most commonly used; newspaper is the usual choice. The pellets should be large, varying from one-third to two-thirds of an inch in diameter; they are then easy to handle, to see, and to remove. They are not pressed down as far as smaller pellets, of course, but are, for that reason, as well as their greater size, less easily overlooked at staging time when they must all be removed. Newspaper can usually be crumpled into pellets so that unprinted paper is on the outside for use in dark blooms and dark print is visible on pellets for light blooms.

Uneven opening of roses may be due to rain or thrips, in which case the blooms need only gentle separating of the adhering petals with the brush. Since each petal normally folds back from the centre of the bloom, its edge curls to some extent. This characteristic is very much more pronounced in some varieties than in others, and as one helps a bloom to open this must always be remembered. Even a slight curling of the edge of the petal will greatly increase its rigidity and help it to remain as you have placed it, but your work must always be guided by the habitual form of the bloom of that variety. When the character of a rose has been altered by any form of manipulation it should lead to disqualification of that bloom. Really good roses need least attention with the brush. The petals of immature blooms can seldom be made to reflex well. Petals grow rapidly as they open, and a young bloom forced open not only looks immature but lacks normal size. If a bloom is very uneven it can seldom be made symmetrical.