



HE GARDENERS' 



CHRONICLE 



[March 16, 1912. 



new members, as in the year ipio, only 50 have been 

 added Doubtless the exceptional circumstances in 

 which' all Friendly Societies were placed last year, 

 owin* to the Government Insurance Bill, account for 

 this Forty-five members have lapsed, 25 from the 

 higher scale and 20 from the lower; 20 members have 

 gone abroad, 6 have died, and 2 have passed the age 

 of 70 years. p 



The total amount paid out to the nominees oi de- 

 ceased members was £248 12s. 4 d. In regard to the 

 lapsed members, though their numbers are consider- 

 able, the percentage is certainly not higher than in 

 any similar society. 



The total amount of sick pay to benefit members 

 during the year was £507 12s., being £53 8s. 6d. less 

 than in the previous year, and over ^63 less than 



in 1909. 



Seven hundred and eighty-seven members are pay- 

 ing on the higher scale, and 571 on the lower, lnree 

 members have transferred from the lower to the higher 

 scale Twenty-eight members have taken advantage 

 of Rule xviii., par. 3, which enables those who have 

 reached the age of Oo to withdraw " twice the amount 

 credited to their account as interest in the previous 

 year." By such withdrawals they are furnished with 

 a ready means for the payment of their subscriptions. 



The repeated suggestions to the effect that members 

 who are recovering from an illness should take ad- 

 vantage of the provisions of the Convalescent Fund 

 have been better acted upon in 1911 than in some pre- 

 vious years. The amount of assistance from this fund 

 was £io, being 18s. more than the subscriptions 

 N. N. Sherwood, Esq., founder of this fund, contributed 

 5 guineas as usual. 



Subscriptions to the Benevolent Fund amounted to 

 /220 17s., and the payments therefrom to £90 its. 6d., 

 the latter amount including the sums regularly paid 

 to several members over 70 years of age, as well as 

 a few grants made to members or members widows 

 in great distress. 



The total management charges amounted to 

 £222 7 s. 6d., as against £222 9 s. 7 d. in 1910. and 

 £ l9S us. iod. in 1909 New ledgers and entry books 

 have had to be purchased during the year. 



NATIONAL DAHLIA. 



CONFERENCE ON DAHLIAS. 



March 8.— The third annual conference of the 

 above Society was held at Carr's Restaurant, 

 Strand, on this date. The President, Mr. George 

 Gordon, occupied the chair, and in his opening 

 remarks referred to the work of the Society and 

 the need for encouraging the advancement of all 

 type* of the flower for garden decoration. He 

 called on Mr. G. Davidson to read a paper, ex- 

 tracts from which will be found below, on 

 the cultivation of Dahlias in a town garden. 



With the possible exception of the Carnation, 

 said Mr. Davidson, there is no flower more 

 suited for growing in the suburbs, either 

 for exhibition purposes or for the decora- 

 tion of the garden than the Dahlia, which 

 can be grown well on practically any soil, pro- 

 vided it is properly prepared. Aspect cannot be 

 altered, but, unless the garden is entirely shaded, 

 Dahlias of one section or another can be success- 

 fully grown. Trees are the greatest drawbacks to 

 their cultivation. 



On one side of my garden is a 

 row'oFwillows, which flourish amazingly in the 

 wet soil. I soon decided that the Pompon Dahlia 

 was most likely to succeed ; therefore, after cutting 

 away as many of the large, overhanging branches 

 of the Willows as I could, I proceeded to get out 

 as many of the tree roots as possible, the whole 

 piece of ground being thoroughly broken up to a 

 depth of 2 feet or more. The Dahlias grew with 

 partial success only. I managed to get plenty of 

 exhibition blooms from those placed farthest from 

 the trees, but those from plants nearest the trunks 

 came with bad centres or showed open centres, in 

 spite of continual watering and feeding. Th- 

 trees took practically all the moisture, while 

 under the Dahlias the ground was dry. 



The next vear I tried a slightly different 

 plan : after digging the ground thoroughly, which 

 in the meantime was quite full of \\ lllow roots, 

 I inserted a 6-inch pot in the soil nearly - *~ 

 the rim. This was placed close to the 

 before planting, so as not to damage the roots, 

 and was filled two or three times in the evening, 

 and about three times a week, with water, in 

 addition to the ordinary waterings. The plan 

 was quite successful. 



I placed nearest the trees those Pompons 

 which naturally produce rather large blooms, 

 and, therefore, there is not the same difficulty in 

 getting them small enough for the shows as when 



grown in good soil. . 



A number of amateurs experience a difficulty 

 in getting certain varieties sufficiently small tor 

 the^early exhibitions. This may be obviated by 

 growing from old tubers, which will give an 

 earlier and large display of blooms of the right 

 size . 



I can generally depend on the following 

 varieties to give * me good exhibition flowers: 

 Adelaide, Phoabe, Cyril, Little Bugler Nerissa, 

 Queen of Whites, Daisy and Montague Wootton 



Though it is possible to get good blooms of 

 both the Pompon and single Dahlia, when grown 

 under trees, provided the latter are not so large 

 as to exclude too much light and air, I have never 

 succeeded in getting the show and Cactus varie- 

 ties to do well in this position. The blooms can 

 be got large enough, but they invariably lack 

 substance and deoth. It is, therefore, necessary 

 to have a piece of ground as free as possible from 



tree roots. . , ru«*«- 



The great objection to growing the Cactus 



Dahlia in small gardens is the large amount of 

 room the plants occupy. Though they require 

 more ground than the other varieties, they can 

 be grown— at any rate for exhibition— in a much 

 smaller space than is generally advocated. 



My plot is 12 feet wide from path to fence: 

 this area is divided into 5-feet beds, with U foot 

 between them. Eight plants are put in a bed m 



tw r o row r s. , ii i_i 



The greatest trouble is to prevent the blooms 



getting damaged by the wind through coming in 

 contact with neighbouring plants. This may be 

 prevented by tying the stems of the blooms to 

 Bamboo canes, placed at intervals around each 

 plant. One advantage of close planting is that 

 olooms may be more readily protected from the 

 vagaries of the weather by judicious tying. I tan- 

 nine out the laterals has to be done severely so 

 as to allow the plants to get all the air possible. 



From a decorative point of view, close plant- 

 in" cannot be recommended, as the plants make 

 too much growth. I consider that the gardener 

 with a limited amount of space will find it more 

 satisfactory to grow* the singles and Pompons, 

 as they not only require less room, but give a 

 far more plentiful supply of blooms than the 

 majority of Cactus Dahlias. . 



It will be found that Dahlias, more especially 

 the Cactus varieties, grow taller in the suburban 

 garden than in the country ; taller stakes should, 

 therefore, be used, or there will be danger ot the 

 plants being broken by autumn gales. 



I have also noticed that they are generally 

 later in blooming. If a bud does not appear 

 about the beginning of July, I pinch out the 

 centre of the plant, and, when necessary, apply 

 a few light doses of nitrate of soda, which causes 

 the side shoots to start away vigorously, and 

 plenty of bloom is available by show time. 



Insects, including earwigs, slugs and cater- 

 pillars, will probably trouble the suburban gar- 

 dener Apart from 'the usual traps, hunting for 

 the pests after dark with the help of a lantern 

 is necessary, otherwise the best blooms are sure 



to be damaged. 



Dust and soot, especially if the garden is 

 near to a railway, will soon ruin the light-coloured 

 blooms if thev are not protected by some means. 

 For this purpose I use shades of transparent 

 waterproof paper, fixed on wire frames." 



A discussion followed the reading of the paper, 

 and Mr. S. Mortimer said that, wherever possible, 

 the Dahlia should be planted 4 feet apart in each 

 direction. 



up to 



stake 



Decorative, Pjsony-flowered and Collarette 



Dahlias. 



Mr. J. B. Riding next read a paper on " Deco- 

 rative, Pseony-flowered and Collarette Dahlias, 

 from which we extract the following paragraphs : 



Until last autumn neither the National Dahlia 

 Society nor the Royal Horticultural Society, said 

 Mr. Riding, had granted an award to the Collar- 

 ette or giant Decorative varieties, but about three 

 sorts of the Collarette type and one giant Deco- 

 rative sort received awards. Up to the present 

 neither of these societies has granted an award 

 to a Pseony -flowered variety. 



Taking the sections in their order of intro- 

 duction to this country, we come to that nonde- 

 script class known as Decorative Dahlias, a sec- 

 tion that cannot be placed in any of our recog- 

 nised divisions of the flower. So far as I can 

 remember they followed closely on the introduc- 

 tion of D. Juarezii, and were first of all cent out 

 as Cactus varieties. I am alluding to such old 

 varieties as Constance, Henry Patrick, Harry 

 Freeman, Mrs. George Reid, Maid of Kent, and 

 Honoria. As Cactus Dahlias improved in form, 

 these round-petalled sorts were used only for 

 decorative purposes, and, although so old now, 

 they are still "grown with the same object in 

 view, but for some years, when flowers of this 



type appeared in the seed-beds, they were cast on 

 the rubbish heap. It is only within the past ten 

 years that Dahlia growers have given them proper 

 attention. But now there are some really good 

 additions. Some of the most prominent varie- 

 ties at the present time are Deliee (clear 

 pink), Kaiserin Augusta Victoria, Princess 

 Juliana, Attraction, Loveliness, Ch. DucMt, 

 Gintry, Mme. Keller, Source de Feu, and Mme. 



A. Lumiere. 



I now come to another section or sub -sec- 

 tion, generally known as giant Decorative varie- 

 ties.' These are of Continental origin. They are 

 valuable for garden decoration, or producing fine 

 colour effects in borders, in front of shrubberies, 

 Rhododendron beds and similar places. But 

 they are not very useful for room decoration as 

 cut flowers, except in certain cases where the 

 space or receptacle is unusually large. They are, 

 in some instances, as large as Sunflowers, and 

 the effect they produce is gorgeous. They are 

 not recognised' as exhibition flowers, therefore it 

 is rare that we see them at flower shows. 

 For creating a mass of colour they are unsur- 

 passed. The best selection I can give are 

 Souvenir de G. Douzon, F. Grinstead, Le Grand 

 Maniton, Le Colosse, Yellow Colosse, Ph. Char- 

 met, Glory of Paris, Souvenir de M. Silvent, 

 Tener Alvarez, Le Triomphe, La France, Mons. 

 Gondcheaux, Mme. A. Nonin, Le Fils du Ciel, 

 Jeane Chamet, and Grand Due Alexis. # 



Varieties of the Paeony-flowered section came 

 from Holland in the first place as something 

 new, but these or similar kinds were known to 

 our own raisers. In 1904, I believe, a collection 

 came to me privately for trial, and I well remem- 

 ber my judgment on them, which was as fol- 

 lows—very pretty in the garden, but would not 

 find favour, as the blooms were altogether too 

 coarse. But luckily I did not destroy the stock, 

 and subsequent events proved that I had made a 

 mistake, for the Pseony Dahlia had come to stay, 

 not perhaps in its original form, for one can see 

 clearly vear after year most striking improve- 

 ments not only in the colours but in the form 

 of the flowers, and greatest of all, the advance 

 that has been made in the habit of the newer 

 plants, with their sturdy growth and fine stilt 

 stems. The Paeony-flowered Dahlia should be 

 regarded as a garden flower, and judged from an 

 exhibitor's standpoint. We take The Geisha or 

 Liberty as an ideal Pseony flower. , 



Varieties are now so numerous that it is im- 

 possible to mention all that I think are good. 

 I shall confine my list to a dozen ^ane ties- 

 Bertha von Suttner, Nora Lindsay, The Ueisna, 

 Holman Hunt, Liberty, South Pole, .Mrs. O. 

 Gordon, Mrs. J. B. Riding, Titian, Codsall Gem, 

 Merveille and Ruskin. . 



The Collarette Dahlia has been to the iron* 

 during the past two seasons, and no doubt ine 

 coming season will see it very much m evident e. 

 It is not a new type, as many people suppoe, 

 for it has been grown in this country at lew** 

 years, having been raised in 1899 and put in com 

 merce in 1901, but, like a good many other 

 plants, its worth was not recognised at Wst. 

 It seems that while our French and German 

 neighbours have been steadily improving this sec- 

 tion, we in this country have failed to recede 

 the merits of the flowers. In the auturn ot isw* 

 decided to form a large collection, so I P ur ^ e 

 almost every variety I could obtain * r ? m **T n 

 and Germany, and exhibited them in Un*m 

 and elsewhere in the following autumn, staging 

 them as decorative flowers and not show .pe 

 mens. They were favourably commented up 

 by the horticultural Press. The trade _Danla 

 specialists also began to »ee something 

 the type, with the result that last >ear 

 several of the leading Dahlia powers ma^ 

 features of them at the autumn shows, \ *u« 

 result that the Collarette as a type has .t 

 to stay. Most of the varieties are very 

 flowering, the plants have a good, stu ^ 

 habit, and throw their flowers well abo\e 

 foliage, while the cut blooms appear to last iu „ 

 in vases than those of the ordinary single i 



in vases tnan inose oi uic uiuiu« v - ^ fl wer 

 There are two distinct types, the round n 

 with slightly incurving florets, which is ot r r 

 origin, and the pointed type, or star-like io 

 which come from Germany. Then, again, 

 are distinct collars, the close °" e ' ^fi^e, 

 in the variety Maurice Rivoire, an . d / r n ^ aro nne 

 loose collar associated with the variety ' J> a .^ 

 Rothschild. No doubt we shall soon see ^ 

 provement both in range of colours an ^ 



At present I favour the round-flowered w* 



