148 The Flower Garden [Chapter 



convenient, and sufficient sand added to cover them. 

 They must not be planted out until all danger of 

 frost is past and the nights are warm, and they should 

 then be handled very carefully to avoid injuring the 

 tender roots. Give them a soil of muck or heavily 

 manured loam and abundance of water. The most 

 convenient place for starting bulbs of all kinds is 

 a warm upstairs room, over a kitchen or elsewhere, 

 with a south or west light. A wide shelf may be ar- 

 ranged under the windows and one's entire supply of 

 bulbs started there in pots and baskets out of the way. 

 Seeds of flowers and vegetables may also be started 

 there to advantage. 



Dahlias are best started in the baskets of sand, 

 putting the bunches in whole, with the crown just be- 

 low the surface of the sand. When they have 

 sprouted and the weather is warm they should be re- 

 moved from the sand and carefully divided. A num- 

 ber of tubers will have failed to start, while others 

 will have thrown several shoots. If the number of 

 plants is not sufficient more may be secured by graft- 

 ing part of the green shoots into the dormant toes. 

 Remove a shoot, cut the end to a wedge shape, re- 

 move a corresponding wedge from the crown of a 

 toe and insert the shoot; it should rest in the toe an 

 inch or more and be placed in the ground at once 

 drawing the earth around it snugly that the scion 

 may be in no danger of separating from the toe be- 

 fore it has formed a union. Only one shoot should 



