on'obtaining an early bloom of dahlias. 9 



I will now briefly detail a method I adopted to obtain a few early 

 blooms of Dahlias. Tt is no doubt known to most of your readers, 

 but the precise effects may not have been observed by all. The past 

 season was exactly the one to make them obvious. 



Two beds, A and B, containing twelve Dahlias each, were planted 

 the last week in May in an exposed situation. The ground roots 

 had been previously placed on a gentle heat, and slightly covered 

 with rotten tan, in which they had made an abundance of fibrous 

 roots, and shoots eight or ten inches in length. These roots were 

 split or quartered with one shoot to each piece of tuber, and in this 

 state were planted. On the same day, and immediately beside them, 

 two beds, C and D, were planted with strong rooted plants from 

 cuttings struck in pots in the usual way. They were all treated 

 alike, the superfluous shoots being displaced by picking out when 

 quite young, which saves cutting away vigorous shoots, and almost 

 supersedes the use of the knife in pruning. 



On the 1st of July the plants were measured : the average height 

 in beds A and B was three feet ; those in C and D two feet. In 

 A and B, three plants had one expanded bloom each, and eleven 

 showing colour; in C and D none. On the 10th of August the 

 following memorandum was made :-Plants in A and B all blown ; 

 of the twenty-four plants, fourteen had not less than eight blooms, 

 several had twelve blooms on a plant ; average height five feet; one 

 or two had reached six feet. Those in C and D, eight had one bloom 

 expanded, eight showed colour, eight nothing ; height three to four 



feet. 



The probability is, (for it was not noted down at the time,) that 

 the a-gre-ate number of blossoms and expanding buds on A and B 

 was upwards of two hundred ; those of C and D sixteen. The quality 

 of the flowers throughout the season was about on a par. 



Nov. 10, 1840. Took up the roots, and found the tubers in A and 

 B much more plump, and nearly as large again as those in C and D. 

 These are the different results arising from the planting parts of roots 

 and plants raised from cuttings ; and the extreme simplicity of the 

 former plan, and its not being attended with more than half the 

 trouble, commends it to the attention of amateurs desirous of having 

 their Dahlias bloom early in the season. Of course it can only be 

 adopted with sorts of which dry roots are possessed. 



