98 PIGTOUIAL VRAGTIGAL BXTLB GROWING. 



is usually desirable to have tlie shades i.u position some twelve 

 or fifteen days prior to the date at which the flowers are required. 

 The utmost care mast be taken that the bloom does not move in the 

 protector, or the outer florets will be ruined by the friction. 



Dahlias for ^ Garden Adornment. — The brilliant effects that 

 can be produced in the garden by the different sections of the Dahlia 

 warrant the garden 3r in according the best attention in his power to 

 the plants. The miserable examples which are often seen are not 

 worthy the name of Dahlias, and have little or no resemblance 

 to thoroughly well grown plants. It is not to be supposed that the 

 gardener with his multifarious duties, or the amateur with his 

 varied loves and limited accommodation, can achieve the success 

 that crowns the efforts of the specialist ; nor would it be possible for 

 either ^ of these to imitate the elaborate details to which the 

 enthusiast subjects his plants : each must work according to his 

 conveniences, and it is quite certain that all the labour that can be 

 given to the Dahlia quarters will be most generously repaid in the 

 infinitely greater number of vastly superior flowers that the plants 

 wiil produce. 



As far as possible, the producer should adopt the suggestions that 

 have already been laid down for the development of exhibition 

 blooms, modifying the methods at any point where they are 

 too advanced or the conveniences at command will not permit of 

 their adoption. Many growers leave the stools in the ground from 

 one year's end to the other, but the system has little to recom- 

 mend it beyond its unquestioned simplicity. If the stools are well 

 covered with ashes or other suitable protective material, they will 

 pass unscathed through a winter of normal severity, and produce 

 an abundance of flowers in the following year, but these will lack 

 many things that go to the making of a really good Dahlia. 

 When this system is adopted the grower should reduce the number 

 of growths that push to about five, as these will bring almost as 

 many blooms as a greater number, and they will certainly be of 

 far better quality than when the plants are allowed to grow in 

 the guise of a thicket. It will be necessary, too, to apply even 

 more generous applications of liquid manure than when the plants 

 are put in fresh land, as the roots of the plants in the previous 

 season will have drawn out immense quantities of nutriment. 

 With a view to aiding in the feeding, it will be found advantageous 

 to remove a few inches of the top soil, putting in its place some 

 rich compost, or failing this using the depression thus made as a 

 saucer that will aid in conducting liquid nourishment directly down 

 to the roots. 



Those, and their name is legion, who replant the old stools every 

 year may improve matters very considerably by the reduction of 

 the number of growths, precisely as has been recommended in the 

 foregoing paragraphs. The stools ought to be removed from the 

 place of storage and put in slight warmth, so as to have them in 

 active progress before they reach the open quarters. In other 



