Cultivation of the Dahlia 4 1 



is exclusively devoted to Dahlias, a reasonable arrange- 

 ment is to allow a distance of five feet from row to 

 to row, and four feet from plant to plant. Those with 

 limited accommodation, however, need not be alarmed 

 at this. The writer has known a case where the plants 

 were grown in a double line, two feet apart each way, 

 and, moreover, the grower of them was very hard to 

 beat. 



A course which has much to recommend it is the 

 laying out of the ground in beds five or six feet wide, 

 with paths one and a half feet or so in width. By this 

 means two rows of plants can be grown in the bed, 

 two feet or more apart each way, while each row can 

 be reached from the path an advantage in wet 

 weather when the treading of the soil is so injurious. 



Whatever distances are adopted, have the stakes 

 in their places when the planting day comes round. 

 Thus the danger of injuring the roots in inserting 

 them will be avoided, and the plants will have the 

 benefit of their support at once. 



Then, given the right time of year, a suitable day, 

 and the ground in good condition, the plants may be 

 transferred to their new sphere. Where wide planting 

 is practised, it is advisable rather to dig a good-sized 

 hole and fill it with compost where each plant is to 

 go than to manure the soil generally. Turn the plant 

 out <of the pot, taking care to preserve the ball of 

 earth intact, place it among the compost, as near to the 

 stake as possible, and tie with a piece of raffia or 

 other like material. 



Dahlia plants vary so much in height that it is 

 advisable, when they are grown in quantity and in 

 a breadth by themselves, to have the taller growers 



