OBSERVATIONS ON PRIZE DAHLIAS. 219 



ARTICLE II. 



OBSERVATIONS ON PRIZE DAHLIAS. 



BY E. 



In a recent number of the Gardener's Chronicle, page 437, appears 

 the following extract from a letter circulated by Mr. J. R. Pearson, 

 and addressed to the Nottingham Floral and Horticultural Society, 

 upon the mode in which Prize Dahlias are treated previous to an 

 exhibition : — 



" But I am desirous of proving that the whole system of growing 

 and showing Dahlias is deceptive. How many persons have ordered 

 quantities of Dahlias from exhibited specimens, and when they have 

 planted them in good rich soil, and tied them up to a neat stake, 

 expected to have had flowers like those they saw at the show, and 

 instead of having blooms in the shape of half a globe, have had flat, 

 ordinary-looking flowers ! They were not aware that the plants from 

 which the blooms were cut for the show had, ever since they were in 

 large bud, been watered with a strong solution of manure and blood, 

 stripped of half their shoots, buds, and foliage, the flowers covered 

 over with pots and glasses to preserve the back petals till the centre 

 ones had time to grow up, and that the plant had, by these means, 

 been rendered such an object, that it would disgrace a kitchen garden ; 

 that after this, the bloom had been cut and placed in a cellar, in air- 

 tight boxes ; and that when it was ready for inspection it was almost as 

 artificial as if it had been made of wax. Will a gentleman who has 

 been disappointed in this manner be any more satisfied, when told, that, 

 by surrounding his plants next year with stakes, boards, and glasses, 

 till they look like scarecrows, and by watering them with a solution, 

 which will effectually correct the too delightful fragrance of his other 

 flowers, he may perhaps get as good a bloom as the one he saw ?" 



These remarks, which can scarcely " be considered a fair exposi- 

 tion of the manner in which prize Dahlias are prepared for show," 

 I should not have thought it necessary to answer, had it not been that, 

 in a subsequent number, page 517, another individual comes forward 

 and asserts that " they contain but too true a description of the ap- 

 pearance of the prize Dahlias ; that they are not to be tolerated even 

 in a kitchen garden when bedecked as they usually are, except that 

 one in the centre of each square might serve the purpose, as it deserves 

 the name, of a scarecrow." 



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