ON THE CULTUilK OF THE DAHLIA, 5 



garden, tbey arc something like moderate sized thorn bushes for size. 

 Previous to planting, I have the ground very well manured and trenched 

 to the bottom. In planting, I place the tallest growing sorts for the 

 back row or north side of the border, and the lesser sorts are regulated 

 proportiouably . The heiglit of the sorts I have, I mark down annually, 

 and being each year planted and treated alike, I am never disappointed 

 of having a uniform arrangement. The distance I plant apart is, for 

 those sorts which grow with me eight feet high, ten feet apart; six feet 

 high, seven feet six apart, and so in proportion all the rest. I water 

 well in dry weather. The method I adopt in securing the plants from 

 being broken by the wind, is to have one support at the upright stem of 

 the plant, and afterwards as the laterals advance, to place six or eight 

 strong stakes at equal distances around it ; to them the branches are re- 

 gularly secured. 



Towards the close of the flowering season, 1 have a few inches deep 

 of soil spread over the roots close up to the stem of the plant, and for 

 about one foot around it ; this prevents sudden frosts from damaging the 

 crown of the roots, which sometimes by the wind moving the plant, an 

 opening is caused at the stem and the irost has access to the root, and if 

 the eyes at that part be damaged by frost, all the other part of the root, 

 however sound it may be, is useless, and will not push shoots the follow- 

 ing season. I do not plant more than two years on the same piece of 

 ground, or if promiscuously in borders with other flowers, I vary the 

 place every season. I find them so much more inclined to bloom freely 

 and run less into foliage when planted in fresh soil. 



Jn taking up the roots, I do it when the weather is dry, and leave all 

 tite soil to them that J possibly can. I have them carefully taken into a 

 back shed where there are fires ; they are placed on shelves and thus 

 gradually dry. The retaining of the soil with the roots is of importance 

 to their preservation, as it keeps them i^lunip and sound. I have not 

 had one perish that has been so treated for the last len years. With 

 small roots it is sometimes difficult to keep the soil to them. However, 

 such f pot in moderate dry soil, and place them upon the shelves with 

 the others. Before I adopted this method of retaining soil with the 

 roots, I found that small roots which had not very short and plump 

 tubers when left exposed, dried and shrivelled so much at the junction 

 of the tubers to the main trunk or stem, that numbers of the roots pe- 

 rished. By retaining the soil, a great number of fibrous roots are left 

 undisturbed, and that with the circumstance of the moisture of the soil 

 GRADUALLY drying up, the roots are regularly brought to a state of repose. 



At the linir of jilanliiig the roots in the frame, in February, I shake 



