190 SATURDAY IN MY GARDEN 



The old tubers can then be divided, as shown in Figures 4 and 5 of 

 Diagram 20, and the piece of root potted up, and grown on in the 

 window of a room facing south. 



It has long been a common practice to divide the old stools, 

 and plant them direct in the open ground late in the spring. The 

 division must be done carefully. It is a mistake to suppose that 

 each tuber if detached from the stem will produce a new plant. 

 All the eyes from which growth can start are clustered at the 

 crown of the old stem. To the practised eye they are plainly 

 visible, but if there is any doubt about it, it is a good plan to make 

 a vertical cut through the stem and divide the tubers in two or 

 more sections. The resulting divisions may then be planted in 

 well-manured and deeply-dug ground, with the crown of the tubers 

 four inches below the surface. This fairly deep planting will 

 ensure that no precocious growth is made until all danger of late 

 frosts is over. Probably the divided dahlia will throw up many 

 shoots at the outset. In that case the weakest of them should be 

 thinned out, otherwise the flowers will be few in number and poor 

 in quality. 



About the middle of May it will all depend upon the state of 

 the weather young dahlias that have been struck from cuttings 

 or raised from seed will require to be placed in a cold frame. Here 

 they should be hardened off by keeping the lights raised at every 

 available opportunity until they are ready for planting out in the 

 first or second week in June. 



The dahlia requires plenty of room, and therefore, while not 

 discarding it altogether for the purposes of the mixed border, I 

 find that it pays to devote a bed of considerable size exclusively 

 to its cultivation. The soil is well prepared beforehand. Very 

 soon after the last clump of tubers has been lifted in the autumn 

 the ground is deeply dug, and the surface left rough during the 

 winter, so that the atmosphere may do its part in fertilising and 

 sweetening the soil. In March the ground is again dug over and 

 broken up, and at the same tune a good quantity of rich stable 

 manure is incorporated with the soil. A week or so before plant- 

 ing-out time circular holes two feet in diameter and eighteen 



