IO THE DAHLIA. 



florists stock of cut flowers during their season, and thousands of blooms are 

 used daily for bouquets, designs and decorations, many times at a higher 

 price than paid for roses. 



There is really no other flower that will give so much pleasure for so 

 little care and expense. It combines more good qualities than any other 

 flower grown in the open garden, where it can be had in perfection from 

 June until cut down by frost. The plant is a strong, robust grower and such 

 a gross feeder that it will grow in any kind of soil if given proper nutriment. 

 To illustrate how readily they will grow and bloom, where large clumps are 

 used, I will give an experience we had a few years ago. 



After planting our Dahlias and while cleaning up the cellar, I came 

 across some very large clumps that had been set aside ; finding that they 

 were mixed roots, and having planted all we wished, I ordered them to be 

 thrown on the waste pile, which was to be hauled away to help fill up a large 

 washout. I had intended to have this washout filled up at once, but we were 

 all busy and it went on until July, when, happening along one day, I saw 

 several beautiful blooms of the Dahlia ' ' Mrs. Dexter. ' ' To say I was sur- 

 prised is putting it mildly. Several loads of all kinds of rubbish had been 

 dumped right down on the hard, yellow subsoil bottom, and growing here 

 without any attention the plants were strong and vigorous, while the flowers 

 were as fine as I ever saw. It had been a wet season and as the shoots from 

 the large clumps w 7 ere so strong they came through nearly two feet of trash, 

 growing luxuriantly. 



While in the Dahlia can be found, not only every color, except blue, and 

 every intermediate shade and tint, from the softest to the richest, but the most 

 beautiful combinations of colors and marvelous blendings of shades and tints ; 

 yet it is this ease of culture, combined with its varied habits and adaptability 

 to conditions, that makes the plant most valuable and popular. The new 

 Tom Thumb varieties, both double and single, grow but twelve to eighteen 

 inches high, while Imperials and Arborea grow from twelve to fifteen feet 

 high. Between these two extremes are the dwarf, the semi-dwarf and 

 the .standard or tall varieties. The gardener can thus select varieties 

 of any height or habit desired for any special purpose, such as bedding, 

 massing or banking, for borders of any height, or for specimen plants for 

 the lawn. 



As a cut flower, whether for bouquets, decorations, or exhibition pur- 

 poses, the Dahlia is unsurpassed owing to the great diversity of form and 

 the brilliant lustre of the colors. In size they vary from the smallest of the 

 Pompon, growing but one-half inch across, to the largest of the Show and 

 Cactus varieties. Specimen blooms of the largest of these latter varieties 

 have been grown seven to nine inches in diameter, on stems three feet long. 

 Such is the history and a few of the main characteristics of a plant that has 



