THE DAHLIA AS A SHOW FLOWER. 



taken place in the show and fancy dahlia 

 in the last 25 years is in the outline, 

 well shaped petal and perfect centre, the 

 flowers of the present day requiring lit- 

 tle or no dressing in comparison to the 

 time it took 30 years since to prepare a 

 stand of dahlias for exhibition. 



Iniprovement in Habit. — The improve- 

 ment in the flower has also had some 

 effect on the habit, and the show var- 

 ieties of the present day are not nearly 

 so tall in habit as those grown 25 years 

 since. 



Potting. — I might say a few words as 

 to the preparation of the plant to pro- 

 duce show flowers, although the subject 

 has been described in another paper 

 under the heading of cultivation The 

 plants intended to plant out to produce 

 show flowers, should be potted from the 

 small five inch pots (in the early part of 

 May) into 4 inch, and placed in a cold 

 frame until planted out early in June. 



Nearly all the varieties make strong 

 plants, and succeed well if grown from 

 cutting, but a few varieties such as Ben- 

 digo, Mrs. Foster, Burgundy, Herbert 

 Turner, etc , which are very double, or 

 are apt to come with green centres, are 

 better grown from pot roots, or old 

 divided ground roots. 



Planting. — The plants should be 

 planted five feet apart ; if in a border, 

 arranging for the tallest flowerst at the 

 back. After the ground has been squar- 

 ed out, dig holes about two feet square 

 and the same depth into each hole put 

 a spadeful of light potting shed or other 

 soil mixed with a little manure— this is to 

 give the plant a start — break up the soil 

 taken out of the hole before returning it, 

 and after the plant is planted lightly 

 tread when replacing it A light stick 

 will hold the plant for a few days, and 

 when planting is finished put a stout 

 stake four to five feet high to each plant, 

 and tie the stem of the plant to the 



stake rather loosely to allow for the stem 

 to swell in due course. As soon as the 

 main stem throws out laterals, add four 

 smallerstakes to secure the side branches, 

 to keep them well tied so that plenty of 

 light and air are admitted to the plants 

 during growth. 



Disbudding and Thinning. — There is 

 no general rule to disbudding. Every 

 variety has to be studied in this respect ; 

 to commence to disbud some coarse 

 growing varieties, such as Champion 

 RoUo, Royal Queen, etc., as soon as the 

 buds appear would make the flowers 

 coarse the whole season, whilst all vari- 

 eties should be sparingly disbudded at 

 first, by taking only one bud away, and 

 then within three weeks of the exhibi- 

 tion the grower can choose the bud 

 which is perfect, and will be likely to be 

 in flower about the date of the exhibi- 

 tion, and remove all the other buds. 

 Should the \-ariety be a thin and small 

 flower, then remove all the side shoots 

 down from the bud to the stem ; but 

 should the variety be inclined to become 

 coarse, only thin sparingly until a week 

 or so before the show. 



Watering. — This is most essential to 

 show a dahlia, the plant should never be 

 allowed to be dry at the root from the 

 time of the planting, and I think I 

 might here state that after the plants 

 have been staked and tied out, the sur- 

 face of the soil should be forked over, 

 and the plants top dressed with a good 

 dressing of stable manure ; this will keep 

 the roots moist, and encourage the roots 

 to the surface to feed. Should the 

 weather be hot and dry the plants 

 should be sprinkled over head every 

 night in addition to the watering at the 

 roots which at first should not be exces- 

 sive, but sufficient to keep them moist 

 and growing. Heavy watering should 

 be commenced three weeks before.the 

 exhibition, as the plants will_^be suffi- 



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