The Whole Subject of Dahlia Culture 



A THOROUGH THRESHING OUT OF THE REASONS THAT MAKE FOR SUCCESS OR FAILURE IN THE 

 GROWING OF ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR OF GARDEN FLOWERS — THE BEST VARIETIES TO PLANT 



An Editorial Investigation 



WHAT is the trouble with the dahlia? That question has been asked again and again by growers of this marvelously 

 beautiful, and marvelously varied, flower. More especially has this been the case the last few years, when complaints of "too 

 much foliage: too few blossoms" have come from many a garden. 



Last September a representative of The Garden Magazine set out to get at the root of the matter. He visited the Dahlia 

 Show in New York and also several gardens that, in the aggregate, offered a comprehensive study of the growing of this flower on both 

 a large and a small scale. Everywhere he asked question after question. The result of his search for an answer to the query as 

 to what is the trouble with the dahlia may be summed up in two absolutely contradictory replies of one word each. "Everything," 

 said one contingent; "nothing," affirmed the other. 



Paradoxical as it may seem, both answers are quite correct. Everything is the matter with dahlias and, with like truth, nothing 

 is the matter with them. It all depends on whose dahlias they are. Thus the investigator saw some of the finest dahlias in all his 

 experience on that little flower pilgrimage and also he saw some of the very poorest. 



Where there was much trouble there was much running of the plant to leaf. Where there was no trouble care had been taken 

 not to have the soil too rich, the tubers had been well separated, and there had been rigid pruning. In other words — for here is 

 the net result of the investigation — there are three essentials of success with dahlias and they are all to be found in the preceding 

 sentence. 



These three great points cannot be too strongly emphasized. George L. Still man, the dahlia specialist, who grows some 400 

 varieties of this flower at Westerly, R. I., laid stress on all of them when he was interviewed at the Dahlia Show. He seemed rather 

 astonished to learn that there was any "trouble" with dahlias; he has none himself, he said. He suggests as a remedy for run- 

 ning to leaves the stripping off of not only some of the foliage but extra stalks; he would even sacrifice, if it was found to be necessary, 

 a few of the flower buds, as there will be bloom enough anyway. Mr. Stillman is a late planter, but only as a matter of convenience, 

 and for the same reason he does not separate the tubers until he is ready to put them in the ground. He plants June 1st, one "eye" 

 to a hill, four to six inches deep and lays the tuber down flat. He uses some cow manure on his land and occasionally a little fertilizer 

 in the hill, or row. 



Another professional grower said that he had grown dahlias successfully on the same piece of ground for seven consecutive years 

 without any manure at all. As he grows for roots, not flowers, however, his testimony is of less practical value to the home gar- 

 dener. In any event the effect of manure on the dahlia must be settled largely by individual experiment, as garden soils vary quite 

 as much as garden folk. An English observer of American dahlia conditions says that in England this flower is fed heavily; it even 

 can be planted on a manure heap. His observation of the lovely cactus-dahlia here is that it gives good blossoms early, miserable ones 



An ideal growth of dahlias, as seen in a Connecticut garden last year. The plants are seven feet high, vigorous, and laden with flowers 



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