246 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. 



DAHLIAS. 

 Mrs. D. HUNTLEY, Appleton. 



The dahlia was discovered by Baron Humboldt, on the sandy- 

 plains of Mexico, many thousand feet above the level of the sea. 

 "He gathered the seeds, and sent them to the Professor of Botany 

 at the Royal Garden of Madrid, who flowered the first plant in 1789, 

 to which he gave the name of Dahlia pinnata, in honor of Dahl, a 

 Swedish botanist, a pupil of Linnseus." Other writers have 

 called it Georgine, after Georgi, a Russian botanist, but the origi- 

 nal name is the one by which it is now so widely known. The 

 dahlia was then only a single flower, grown from seed, and only 

 the shades of purple and crimson were seen. " The first double 

 dahlia was sent from Stuttgart to Mons. Von Otto, who raised 

 one similar in the royal garden at Berlin in 1809," and after 

 patient labor for more than ten years, he could show only six 

 double kinds. It is difficult to imagine what would have been his 

 delight, if he could have seen during those years of experiment, 

 the thousands of exquisite dahlias which are now grown by gar- 

 deners and florists, in this and other lands. Now we can select from 

 the choicest lists, at a trifling cost, and in a few weeks we have far 

 more beautiful flowers than those which then gladdened the sight of 

 the botanist, after years of anxious expectation. 



The winter care of dahlias is usually somewhat difficult, but if 

 the tubers are fully ripe they will do well in any dry place, secure 

 from frost; if not ripe they are very unreliable. 



The roots should be dug in the fall before the ground freezes, 

 leaving a few inches of the stalk by which to handle the tubers; 

 after drying a day or two in the sunshine, they should be stored for 

 winter. For many years past we have wintered them in a dark 

 closet in an upper room, in boxes or barrels, without sand or any 

 covering whatever, and have invariably found them sprouted in 

 April. (Those wintered in cellars will be fully a month later.) 

 The clusters of tubers should then be put in boxes of earth in a 

 room that will not freeze, and when the sprouts are two or three 

 inches high, transplant to other boxes, or the open garden, if the 

 weather will permit. If treated in this manner, they will invaria- 

 bly commence blooming the last of June, and with proper care, 



