Cultivation of the Dahlia 37 



which they are to be placed, must to some extent 

 decide the methods of manuring to be adopted ; but 

 it may here be said that the over-manuring of Dahlia 

 ground is not an everyday occurrence. 



PLANTS 



For the purpose of this article I shall assume that 

 the propagation of the Dahlia ends and its real culti- 

 vation begins when the plants are transferred from 

 the small pots in which they have been rooted to the 

 larger -sized ones, which, under ordinary treatment, 

 should supply their wants until the planting-out season 

 comes round. At the same time it will be readily 

 admitted that an important part of the culture has 

 already taken place at the earlier period treated of in 

 the previous chapter on "Propagation," and that stout 

 healthily grown plants are always to be preferred to 

 weakly ones as a foundation whereon to build success. 



As the necessary preliminary to the cooking of 

 a hare is the catching of the same, so the necessary 

 preliminary to training up Dahlias in the way in 

 which they should grow is the purchasing or other- 

 wise procuring of the plants. In the good old days 

 of Dahlia growing, when the Cactus and single-flowered 

 varieties were unheard of, the custom of the trade was 

 to send out plants in pots, by rail or other convenient 

 method, during the first week in May. Even now this 

 deeply-rooted system dies hard. The advent of the 

 Parcel Post, however, has struck a heavy blow at many 

 old customs, and in no case, perhaps, has created such 

 a revolution as in the work of the Nurseryman and 

 Florist. The would-be cultivator should first fix 



