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THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



327. The "decorative" flower has flat, broad 

 rays. It is intermediate in form between the show 

 and cactus types. Very useful as a cut flower 



growers do not stake a single plant. The 

 amateur need not do it either, if the garden 

 is open to plenty of air and the plants not 

 crowded together. 



WINTER STORAGE 



After the plants have been cut down by 

 frost in the fall, there is no need to hurry 

 over getting the roots out of the ground. Dig 

 them any time in November, and store them 

 in a warm, dry cellar. Kept on the floor of 

 a house cellar, where the furnace is in opera- 

 tion all the winter, buried by coal ashes, they 

 will have just the right amount of heat and 

 moisture necessary to keep them properly 

 for next spring, when they are to be carried 

 out doors again and put in a shady place till 

 planting time arrives. The advantages of 

 this late planting are relief from worry over 

 getting the roots into the ground in the early 

 spring when so many other details claim 

 attention ; and getting the best flowers in 

 early fall. I do not consider the dahlia as 

 a summer flower. 



SOME GOOD VARIETIES 



This list of varieties is recommended from 

 my own trials. There are hundreds of 

 others just as good, but I have been de- 

 lighted with the following: 



Show. — White, Blush, white-edged purple; 

 Pink, A. D. Livoni ; Yellow, Queen of 

 Yellows; Dark Red, Thos. White. 



Fancy. — Light, Penelope, white and lav- 

 ender ; Medium, Striped Banner, red 

 and white striped ; Dark, Frank Smith (some- 

 times tipped white). 



Cactus. — White, Winsome; Pink, Kriem- 

 hilde ; Yellow, Mrs. J. J. Crowe; Bright Red, 

 Standard Bearer; Dark, Matchless or Night. 



Decorative. — White, Perle de la tete d'or; 

 Pink, Mme. Van den Dael; Yellow, Clifford 

 W. Bruton; Red, Lyndhurst; Dark Red- 

 purple, Catherine Duer. 



Single. — Twentieth Century strain for very 

 large size, comes in a variety of colors. 

 There are single varieties of the cactus type, 

 but they are so very ineffective in the flower 



328. The "show" type. Formal, quilled; self colored 

 or darKer at tips. A "fancy" is lighter at tips. The 

 formal flower of the old florists 



that they are not recommended for general 

 cultivation by the amateur. 



Of the colorette type, which differs from 

 the plain singles in having an inner series 

 of short tubular florets, two or three 

 varieties are known, but none are worth 

 growing for their beauty. 



New Jersey. Leslie Hudson. 



FERTILIZERS 



How to Make and Use an All- 

 round Fertilizer 



HPHE most intelligent way to buy fertilizers 

 -*- is to buy the three elements separately 

 and mix them at home. This is impracticable 

 if you are in a hurry and know nothing of the 

 subject, and the average hired man will not 

 do a thorough job of mixing unless you stand 

 over him. 



If you don't want to study fertilizers, but 

 would like to do something more intelligent 

 than buy a mere brand, ask your seedsman for 

 some high-grade complete fertilizer that 

 comes as close as possible to one of these two 

 formulas. The chances are that he will send 

 you a brand anyhow, but you will have the 

 satisfaction of knowing that you are getting 

 a high-grade rather than a low-grade product. 

 When a man makes a living from the land 

 he buys fertilizers on such a big scale that he is 

 foolish not to study how to buy his ingredients 

 separately; but in the home garden the scale 

 of operations is so small that the amount of 

 money saved is inconsiderable. However, 

 the home gardener does not put a commercial 



329. The most popular and modern type, with 

 most brilliant colors, is the " cactus." Rays narrow, 

 pointed, edges rolled bacK 



value on his time spent in home work, and 

 fertilizers are an interesting study. 



The best all-round fertilizer for lawn and 

 garden use on all sorts of soils is one that 

 has nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash 

 available in the proportions of i, 2, 3. The 

 owner of a small garden need not bother 

 about having a whole lot of different special 

 fertilizers for different crops; even if he has 

 an acre of corn or an acre of potatoes, the 1,2, 

 3 formula is all right for every home purpose. 

 Another good formula for lawn and garden 

 is 2, 3, 4, which is a reduction of a little more 

 than 16 per cent, in the potash, and is a bet- 

 ter formula for quick-growing green crops like 

 cabbage or spinach, or even for grass. 



HIGH-GRADE VS. LOW-GRADE 



Use high-grade fertilizers. They seem 

 to cost more, but they are usually cheaper, 

 because the bulk is less and therefore you 

 save on freight and the labor necessary for 

 mixing and applying. 



Such are nitrate of soda and ammonium 

 nitrate, giving nitrogen; bone or dissolved 

 rock for phosphoric acid ; and the sulphate or 

 muriate for potash. All these have the real 

 food elements in such a form that the plants 

 can make use of them at once. The percentage 

 of the three elements present is not a sufficient 

 guide. You must know the percentage of 

 available plant food — i. e.. food that can be 

 used by the plant at once instead of being 

 slowly released in subsequent years. A ferti- 

 lizer may be high grade in quantity of food, 

 but low grade as regards availability, so the 

 mere analysis cannot be taken as an exact 

 guide, but, speaking broadly, a high-grade fer- 

 tilizer should have the essential plant foods 

 present in about these proportions : Nitrogen 

 10 to 14 per cent., phosphoric acid 20 per 

 cent., potash 40 to 50 per cent. 



A ready prepared mixture of substances 

 which will fulfil these requirements, and 

 which answers to the requirements already 

 stated, should be bought in hundred pound 

 lots for about $2.50. In buying fertilizers the 

 old rule that the best is the cheapest is well 

 illustrated — never buy cheap, bulky fertil- 



