248 OBSERVATIONS ON PRIZE DAHLIAS. 



riance of the plant should weaken its resources for the flowering 

 season ; by no means do I touch a leaf that can be saved, as the 

 nourishment it supplies is far greater than it consumes. Our labour 

 is not yet concluded ; one thing more as to the pruning is requisite 

 and indispensable ; I leave no more buds than each foot-stalk is well 

 able to support. It will surely never be asserted that a judicious 

 pruning of the shoots and thinning of the buds tends to disfigure a 

 plant. On the contrary, it is one amongst other things which will 

 enable the plant to throw out its foot-stalks well above the foliage, 

 and which, freeing it from the superabundance of wood which con- 

 ceals and destroys the blooms, cannot but improve its general appear- 

 ance. How inelegant is a short stunted plant growing in the form of 

 a Peony, and wanting that stately appearance which pruning and 

 high cultivation will give ! Mr. Pearson next complains of " the 

 flowers being covered with pots and glasses, to preserve the back 

 petals till the centre ones have time to grow up, and of the plant 

 being by these means rendered such an object that it would disgrace 

 a kitchen garden f and after this of the " bloom being cut off, and 

 placed in a cellar in air-tight boxes, and that when it is ready for 

 exhibition it was almost as artificial as if it had been made of wax." 



In all remarks upon systems of Floriculture, care should be taken 

 that we do not throw obstacles in the way of that delightful pursuit, 

 but that we endeavour, by bringing our experience to bear upon any 

 branch of it, to give the public the benefit of that experience, and, if 

 possible, in place of any particular system of treatment to which we 

 object, to suggest any change we may consider an improvement. If 

 the writers of the remarks I have quoted above had entertained that 

 opinion, and, when they condemned the present mode of treatment, 

 had told us how we could get rid of the shades and at the same time 

 grow blooms of corresponding merit, all the Dahlia growers in the 

 kingdom would rejoice ; but I think it will scarcely be denied by those 

 who aim at competition that shades are indispensable. Individuals 

 may be content to grow Dahlias in an unprotected state, and if the 

 appearance from the window of their drawing-room be all that is 

 sought for, they would defeat the object they have in view by the 

 introduction of the shade ; but it is in vain for persons who adopt 

 that treatment to compete at an exhibition with the prize grower, who 

 knows full well that it is as extravagant a hope as it would be for 

 himself to attempt to grow Pines on the open ground, or to strip his 



