THE FLOKAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 45 



the plant will come as strong, tender, and well blanched, as if grown 

 in the usual manner out-of-doors, and with one quarter the labour. 

 In the following spring the roots are cut over, for the crowns break 

 up very strong ; and much attention in thinning them is necessary, 

 for if more than two or three heads are left to each, they will crowd 

 and spoil each other ; whereas, if this is attended to, and the surface 

 kept hoed deep, with the application of manure-water during their 

 growing season, a supply of good strong crowns will be produced 

 for next year's forcing. This is the system I practise, and consider 

 myself amply repaid in the result for the little extra trouble I have 

 taken. H. S. 



CULTIVATION OF THE DAHLIA. 



HE month of February may be considered as the com- 

 mencement of the dahlia-growers' operations ; the 

 roots are then drawn from their resting-place, and after 

 being carefully examined, all traces of rottenness re- 

 moved, and the labels made right, they are either potted 

 and plunged into a gentle hot-bed, or placed in the heat without any 

 other preparation. As soon as the new shoots have grown from two 

 to three inches in length, they are taken off with a sharp knife, the 

 heel or base of the cutting pared square, and then placed by itself, 

 with its name, into a small pot filled with sand, leaf-mould, and 

 loam. Each cutting as it is potted should receive a gentle watering, 

 and be immediately returned to the hot-bed, taking special care to 

 shade them from the sun until they are rooted. Sometimes, with 

 scarce sorts, the young plants have their tops taken off, and every 

 bit of a shoot which rises from the old tubers is also struck, a 

 practice that nothing but the natural desire to " make the most 

 of a good thing '' can excuse, as it entails weak, unhealthy plants, 

 which cannot possibly produce fine flowers. The amateur who 

 grows only for the sake of really handsome blooms, should not 

 allow this desire to extend beyond just the strongest shoots, or 

 disappointment will inevitably ensue ; and these, when struck, should 

 be encouraged to grow by frequent shifting, and every other means, 

 that when the season arrives for consigning them to the open 

 garden, he may not only find healthy, but truly vigorous plants for 

 the purpose. Between the periods mentioned, and over which this 

 re-potting and stimulative regimen extends, the plants should be 

 gradually inured to the action of the sun and air, that they may 

 receive no check on the final remove ; for nothing can be more 

 unreasonable than to expect that, after being confined, as is too 

 frequently the case, in a little pot for three months, and until its 

 roots have been interwoven to a complete solid body, such plants 

 Bhould proceed with the rapidity and vigour of one to which attention 

 has been given, and consequently has all its energies in an active, 

 healthy state; so also it is equally wrong to defer the propagation 

 until the last minute, and then as soon as a single root or perhaps 



February. 



