114 WOOD AND GARDEN 



season, when rank leafage grows fast, one does not want 

 to be every other day tinkering at the Dahlias. 



Careful and strong staking they must always have, 

 not forgetting one central stake to secure the main 

 growth at first. It is best to drive this into the hole 

 made for the plant before placing the root, to avoid 

 the danger of sending the point of the stake through 

 the tender tubers. Its height out of the ground 

 should be about eighteen inches less than the expected 

 stature of the plant. As the Dahlia grows, there 

 should be at least three outer stakes at such distance 

 from the middle one as may suit the bulk and habit 

 of the plant ; and it is a good plan to have wooden 

 hoops to tie to these, so as to form a girdle round the 

 whole plant, and for tying out the outer branches. 

 The hoop should be only loosely fastened — best with 

 roomy loops of osier, so that it may be easUy shifted 

 up with the growth of the plant. We make the hoops 

 in the winter of long straight rent rods of Spanish 

 Chestnut, bending them while green round a tub, and 

 tying them with tarred twine or osier bands. They 

 last several years. All this care in staking the Dahlias 

 is labour well bestowed, for when autumn storms come 

 the wind has such a power of wrenching and twisting, 

 that unless the plant, now grown into a heavy mass 

 of succulent vegetation, is braced by firm fixing at the 

 sides, it is in danger of being broken off short just 

 above the ground, where its stem has become almost 

 woody, and therefore brittle, 



