ON DAHLIAS 161 



own protectors. In choosing flowers for exhibition, 

 select those of symmetrical shape, the florets over- 

 lapping evenly, and open right to the centre. A flower 

 which displays a hard green centre, or a hollow one, 

 is defective. A show-board for twelve Show or Fancy 

 Dahlias should be two feet long (left to right), eighteen 

 inches wide (back to front), nine inches high at the back, 

 and three in front. It should be perforated with holes 

 large enough to admit the zinc water tubes which hold 

 the flowers, and they may be set equidistant in three 

 rows. A stand for twelve Cactus should be a little 

 larger twenty-six inches long, and nineteen and a half 

 wide. Cactus Dahlias are often shown in bunches of 

 six blooms each, on a stand sixty inches long, twenty- 

 seven inches wide, eighteen inches high at the back, and 

 six inches in front ; also in vases. Single and Pompon 

 Dahlias are usually shown in bunches of ten blooms 

 each on a stand. Twelve varieties would require a 

 stand forty-eight inches long by twenty-seven wide, and 

 the same height as the stands for Cactus varieties. 



Garden Dahlias. As garden plants the Paeony- 

 flowered and Pompon Dahlias are superior to the 

 large double and Cactus-flowered varieties. The former 

 is a modern section, and lovers of the prim Show and 

 Fancy varieties look askance at it, because the flowers 

 are very large and irregular in form. The expert calls 

 them coarse. However, the stems are strong enough to 

 lift the flowers right above the leaves, and as the blooms 

 are not only of considerable size and brilliant in colour, 

 but are borne in clusters, the plants make a bold and 

 telling display. At a short distance the imperfect shape 

 of the flowers is not sufficiently noticeable to be re- 

 marked even by a trained eye. The Paeony Dahlias are 

 undoubtedly fine garden plants, and they will grow in 



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