Show THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE SUNDAY HORNING MARCH 22 1931 11 FLOWERS THAT BLOOM IN THE SPRINGTIME BELIEVE IT OR- NOT-By- Robert L Ripley All Sorts of ’Things Happen at a ' - Flower Show By WEABE HOLBROOK Interests of Junior The TN THE 1 Phoebe arid I always attend the flower show every year and bring home quantities of literature Junior Is a pet geranium He Is only 3 but he takes a pot and we are rather proud of him As one who used to write serious poetry for the college literary nlagazlne I retain a certain academic Interest In flowers AJ few horticultural references never did a poem any harm next to mythological allusions they are the best tricks In the poet's bag am out-I- n Even today-wh- en the country and no one la looking I sometimes pick a flower and meditate upon It In the true Wordsworthian manner But at a flower show It la different Most of the exhibits hava names like Pullman cars The exhibitors seem to think that a rose by any other name would smell a darn sight sweeter How can a poet work the early blooming Frau Karl Druechkt or the Rev F Page Roberts Into a sonnet7 And If you try to linger In meditation over a yeuow primrose (class B— booth 28) you are likely to get knocked through the ropes by a delegation of hedge fanciers traveling In reverse For In the landscape are gardening section there exalways a number of large hibits which are Intended to be viewed In perspective and unless you watch out you will be bowled over by stout ladles who are backing up and trying to Imagine now that mm wm in the z RNiSCOPytrtEOBlBLlOPSyCHOCRysTALLOSCIOAE rogeneTHLiomeTeoroausTrohieroanTHropoichTho -- PyROSIDEROCAPNOMyOALECTRyOOPHlOBOlANOPEGOHyDR ORHABDOC R ITHOALEU RO ALPH iTOHALOMOLV BDOCLEROBE i LOAXINOC05ClMODACTyLlOGEOLlTHOPE5SOPSEPHOCATOPT ROTEPHRAONEIROCHIROONycHOOACryLOARlTHSTJCHOONOG K E LO SCOG ASTroGyROCER OB - f r LETon OCE NO S CAPULIMANIAC long-stemm- ed clipped yew would look In the side yard at Metuchen There Is also danger of backing too far yourself and landing among the water llllles in the ornamental pool across the aisle Personally I prefer a flower bed without bath The - ratio of visitors at flower shows seems to be about ten women and two little girls to one man The men it n — to all appearances are as enthusiastic as the women Tst about them there is that unmistakable but indefinable air which can be described only 11 “taken" This Is especially obvious when one of them Is urged by his feminine companions to smell a flower If the flower grows close to the ground so that the Inhaling process necessitates a narclssus-llk- I s N ef C he will sometimes Even under the most favorable circumstances he will do little more than sniff once It takes the ladles to render homage to the goddess Flora When Inhaling they can close their eyes and assume an enraptured expression worthy of a wall calenre-fla- tly n H if dar I have seen an elderly sniff her way an entire flower show from Abeltas to Zinnias without missing a booth The chief drawback to going to a flower show with someone Is the lost motion Involved In keeping together One would think that Phoebe and X after five years of it would have developed some kind of teamwork But we haven’t Our progress through the crowded aisles resembles an square dance we spend as much time walking backward as forward First I forge ahead pointing with childish glee to a modernistic birdhouse or a cast iron flamingo only to discover that the lady whom I hare nudged In the ribs Is somebody I never saw before So I turn around treading on the alien corns of an old gentleman behind me and retrace my steps to the tulip section where Phoebe has paused to examine some bulbs A moment later Phoebe Is caught In the current of the crowd and swept on to the orchid paddock from which she halls me with shrill exhortations to come and dowager 1 through i i f ed This Litter arm and begins thumbing through the nursery advertisements) Husband (triumphantly' five minutes later)— Here it Is! Utter Stranger (uttering)— I beg your pardon? Husband (confused)— I—I beg your pardon! Utter Stranger—It’s quite all right Husband— The hell It isl (Exit Husband muttering In search of Wife) look Unfortunately we never see the same thing at the same time and there are constant alarms and excursions Sharing a Single catalog forms a certain bond between husband and wife but it is a very elastic one The routine ' procedure is as follows: Wife— O-o- h look at that onel What do you suppose it Is? Husband — Gosh! I dunno Wife— You’re taller than I am Can you see what the’ tag says? over Husband (peering shoulders of people in front and twisting head ' sideways) —It's se) Wife— What? Husband (who never was very good at Latin)— I can’t see from here Wife— Well the exhibit is number 298 Why don't you look it up In the catalog? takes catalog (Husband from pocket put hat under was DOWERED fRWTlY W(EWfcMf ' An Ideal flower show would be one In which the spectators sit In comfortable chairs while the exhibits pass before them on conveyor belts But this would cramp the style of the chronic blossom sniffers —unless they could develop noses Jike elepharits’ trunks Before I went to my first flower show my ignorance of horticultural affairs was appalling I knew nothing of mulching dormant spraying humus compost etc When Uncle Nahum (the- one with came to the visit and pay us a week-en- d stayed two months I couldn't understand why Phoebe referred to him as the Herbaceous Boarder To me flowers were merely something that you telegraphed when you couldn’t think of anything to say But I've learned a lot since then At the show last week I made only one faux pas and that was when I called Phoq- - slde-whlske- rs) be’s attention to what appeared to be a lovely lavender hydrangea among the flowering shrubs "It’s hydrangea panlculata!” cried She Phoebe delightedly leaned forward to smell it but as she did bo the hydrangea panlculata shot up and biffed her violently on the nose It proved to be a on the bonnet of an old lady who had bent down to examine the roots of one of the flowering shrubs Ordinarily however I can distinguish millinery from the real thing at a glance and it is only a sense of duty to Junior that sends me to horticultural exhibitions nowadays A flower show has a double effect upon the average apartment dweller It begins by arousing In him a nostalgic or perhaps atavistic longing for the open spaces He lingers for at least ten minutes over the first floral display be comes to and resolves to save the real estate section of next Sunday’s paper for the price of a year's rent he could make a down payment on a luxurious suburban home yrtth a big back yard He moves slowly from booth to booth for the next half-hoexamining each exhibit carefully with an almost possessive air But gradually his progress through the teeming aisles quickens his in- spectlogs grow oorg superfl- - i I Explanation of Last Sunday’s Cartoon ALEXANDRE DUMAS— Alexandre Dumas the (1803-187the most' prolific as well as the most popular French romanticist wrote 1200 hooks between' 1830 and 1870 at the rate of a hook every elder deco-ratio- n 12 0) days for 40 years The great Frenchman whose genius and brilliant imagination are the admiration of the whole civilized world was probably the fastest longhand “copyist” who ever lived In addition to his tremendous literary output he wrote about 12000 letters ARCHDUCHESS ISABEL OF THE NETHERLANDS— Archduchess 'Claire Eugenie Isabel of was the daughter of Philip II Austria (1566-163of Spain and Elizabeth of France ‘She obtained the sovereignty of The Netherlands as a wedding present from her father As Ostende rebelled against her rule she besieged it in person to bring 3) ' ur -- clal And at the end of two hours he begins to feel that he wouldn't care If he never saw another flower His old brick-an- d - concrete environment seems not so bad after all He decides not to break his lease I have noticed that whenever Phoebe and I go to a flower ghow we always end up at the display of garden furniture — th portable summer houses the gayly striped chairs and benches We try them "Just to see If they’re as comfortable as they look’’ So we sit there luxuriating In a state of blissful relaxation until some footsore flower fancier taps us on the shoulder and says "Move it to terms It was during that siege that she made the vow never to change- her linen until the fortress was captured As a result the determined archduchess succeeded in creating a new : color the “conleur Isabelle !' - - THE DOG UKA1SEK Bill" WAS SENTENCED TO DEATH— Early hi the spring of 1929 a dog owned by Mrs Henri J Gay of -- Mount Sterling Kentucky was tried in the county court and sentenced to death An appeal was made to the circuit court where he- was again tried and sentenced to death but after an appeal to the Kentucky court of appeals (the highest court in Kentucky) the death sentence was set aside for the reasod that the law under which the dog was tried was faulty (Copyright 1931 King Features Syndicate Inc) over!” ' - Then we gather up our armfuls of garden - literature and stagger home with the consciousness of having done the right thing by Junior The literature Is entertaining and frequently instructive But none of this Information has any direct bearing upon Junior It is all In the realm ’ as ol our cerned pure theory as geranium Like pet moat of the who attend flower ple would I appreciate fat Is con- peo- shows a few and practical Instruentitled “How to Keep Cigaret Stubs Out of the simple ctions Window-Box- ” real tment That Is the problem of the aparhouse horticulturist : & |