GEO WING DAHLIAS IN POTS. 



99 



respects the procedure may be on as nearly the lines laid down 

 for exhibition plants as ways and means will allow. Another course 

 may be followed, and wdth proper management it will give 

 wonderfully fine returns. This is to divide the stools into single 

 tubers, pot these in 5-inch pots of good compost, keep them in a 

 warm house with the soil always just moist, and when the time for 

 planting arrives put them out at a distance of 4 feet asunder in all 

 directions. If the soil has been made rich in the manner suggested, 

 and the plants are treated in all respects similarly to those from 

 cuttings, they will give blooms of almost equal merit, that may be 

 drawn upon for the show or be taken advantage of for garden 

 adornment alone. 



Dahlias in Pots. — One other phase of culture remains to be 

 dealt with, and this is the practice of growing a few plants 

 entirely in pots. Endeavours have been made of late years to 

 popularise this mode of treatment, but it cannot be said that the 

 results have proved very encouraging to the promoters. The fact 

 is that Dahlias are essentially garden flowers, and, though a certain 

 • number of people may care to have some plants for flowering 

 in their greenhouses, it is unlikely that they will ever have any 

 great vogue for this purpose. From the specimens one sees 

 occasionally, it is obvious that they resent in no slight manner 

 the restricted area in w^hich the roots are w^orking, and it seems to be 

 well-nigh impossible to keep the plants from becoming drawn and 

 carrying thin, pale foliage that does not look as if it could do much 

 service in the building up of fine blooms. 



In setting out to grow these plants in pots, the general principles 

 that govern their culture in the ordinary way may well be made to 

 apply. That is to say, there must be the same care in propagating 

 from firm cuttings in the spring, and the same incessant attention 

 to the plants from the time that they pass out of the 3-inch pots in 

 which the cuttings were inserted until they have produced their crop 

 of flowers. Because they are growing in pots must not be taken as 

 justifying forcing treatment, for this will be followed by almost 

 instant collapse. Bring the plants gradually forward until they are 

 practically at the point of flowering, when a very little persuasion 

 may be resorted to if it be absolutely necessary ; but even then it 

 will be accompanied by a modicum of risk. Watering must at all 

 periods be most carefully attended to, as it is imperative that the 

 plants be kept constantly, though slowly, moving onwards 

 Needless to say, with such gross feeding plants as Dahlias, it 

 will be essential to supply special food of the finest possible 

 quality, and in quantities increasing with the age and vigour of the 

 plants. 



At all stages the plants must be kept as near to the roof glass 

 of the structure in which they are growing as possible, so as to 

 reduce to a minimum the probability of legginess. If the leaves 

 are far from the glass, they become attenuated, and, as with other 

 plants, cannot perform their important functions in an adequate 



L.of C. 



