ORNAMENTAL PLANTS. 



93 



tubers are always more difficult to preserve through win- 

 ter than those which are fully developed, therefore the 

 more vigorous the growth, and the longer the time given 

 for maturity, the better the results. 



The professional florist usually propagates the Dahlia 

 from cuttings, and by this method is able to produce a 

 large number from one set of tubers, while the ordinary 



Fig. 12. 



cultivator propagates them by dividing the stools and 

 tubers, always leaving one or more buds on each section. 

 If the tubers are forced into growth early in the spring, so 

 that the cuttings become well rooted by the time tha 

 weather will permit of their being planted into the open 

 ground, they will make good plants and produce fully de- 

 veloped tubers by autumn. But cuttings started late in 



