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VOL. LV.— No. 3,046. 



SATUEDAY, 3IAECH 16, 1912. 



THE 



GARDENERS 



MAGAZINE 



' r- 1 



NOTE OF THE WEEK 



5S 



Diversity in Dahlias. 



the area emljraced by their operations. interest from the fact tliat it dealt with a 



Dahlias are so well able to bear the un- question that imniediateh' oonoerns all 



favourable conditions that obtain in towns classes of cultivators and has been much 



as to thrive w^here few other flowering discussed during the past two or three 



In accordance with the new policy that plants will succeed, and with their aid the years. Within a quite recent period several 



was initiated with such eminently satisfac- owner of a garden of even modest dinien- 



tory results two years since, the National sions can have displays of flowei's that are 



Dahlia Society held a conference on the at once bright and attractive. He must, in 



Mth inst., at which papers of much interest the course of his practice, differentiate be- generally grown in British t^ardens for two 



to those who are concemed with the dahlia tween the pi-odiiction of blooms for exhibi- or more decades, cultivatoi^s have had some 



new types have been brought into promi- 

 nence, and, as they differ considerably in 

 character from those which have been 



and its cultivation were read 



iind discussed. 



The advan- 



tages 



of such conferences 

 cannot well be overestimated, 

 for they afford opportunities 

 that do not arise in any other 



for those who are in- 



way 



te rested 

 flower to 



in any p a r t icu 1 a r 

 meet and discuss 

 ]K)ints of practice, the rela- 

 tive merits of varieties under 

 various conditions^ the best 

 methods of presenting the 

 flowers to public notice, and 

 other matters of more or less 

 importance in connection 

 with their favourites. Such 

 ^ gatherings are invariably in- 

 teresting and useful, and the 

 <me to which reference is now 

 made was by no means the 

 least successful of the large 

 number at which we have had 

 tlte pleasure of being present. 

 Tlie audience, if hardly so 

 large as could have been 

 wished by those who are de- 

 sirous of further popularising 

 tlie dahlia as a garden flower, 

 consisted almost exclusively 

 of those who are specially 

 interested in dahlias, many of 

 them having travelled 

 siKlerable distances in 



be 



con- 

 their 

 The 



fiist of the two papers that 

 ^vere read dealt with the cul- 

 tivation of dahlias in town 

 gardens, a phase of culture 

 ^nat has not for many years 

 ;;^-'ved the attention it so well merits. 



a long pericKl these flowers were lai-gely 

 - '^Hvn m town gardens, especially on "the 

 '^'^tern side of the Metropolis, and many 

 '^1^ the stands of splendidly developed 

 Wooms that have come under our notice 

 the exhibitions of the more important 

 <»T the amateur floricultural societies that 

 tiom twenty to thirty years ago flourished 

 < u the north-eastern boundaries of the Citv 

 ot London. There are at the present tim^ 

 ^'^'''-y/^'^^teurs' societies in the Metro- 



euirof+f^ are wholly concerned with the wouiu oe aavisuuie j 

 h^u 1 1 imfortunatelv, little in countrv gardens, 



^ardot them and their activities outside tributed to the coi 



MR. WILLIAM HALL 



difficulty in determining the 

 position they should be as- 

 signed in any com pari son 

 that might be made between 

 them and the older tvpes. 

 That there shouhl have been 

 some differcn<*e in oj)inion as 

 to their relative merits is not 

 surprising. The first of the 

 ppeony - flowered varieties, 

 with their large and effec- 

 tively coloured blooms, that 

 were introduced to this coun- 

 try were so robust in growth 

 as to be of little value for de- 

 corative effect except in gar- 

 ileus other than those of large 

 size, and the blooms of the 

 Coll a r et te v a r iet i es d i ff e r ed 

 so greatly from those of the 

 other types that it was not 

 easy at first to accept them 

 without some question. Some 

 of the leading English raisers 

 have devoted considerable at- 

 tention to the improvement 

 of the habit of the pseony- 

 flowered varieties, and have 

 already achieved much suc- 

 cess in this respect, and ob- 

 tained manv new and beau- 

 tifu! varieties. Cultivators 

 1 1 a ve h eco m e acc u s t o m ed to 

 the blooms of the Collarette 

 varieties, with their frills of 

 short florets round the disk,. 



witli 



tavour. es])cciaily 

 valuable 



and now regard 



them 



muu-li 

 thev 



irarden. 



arr valuable in the 

 Several of them re- 



tion and for *nu-den decoration, and remem- oeived awards last season from l>oth the 

 berthat, owing to the actinic value of light '^.yal HortuMdtural Society and the Na, 



being less in towns than in the country, 

 stimuhitive manures must be sparingly 

 used. The reader of the paper on the cul- 

 tivation of dahlias dealt chiefly with the 

 production of blooms for competitive pur- 



■ee 



im mended 



t:()ual Dalilia Societv a fact of some im- 

 }K>rtance as showing that these two societies 

 are I'eady to recognise flowers of merit, how- 

 ever great may be the departuie from the 

 existing types. Much satisfaction was ex- 

 pressed at the conference tliat this should 

 have l>een done, it being now recognised 



tlie application of a much smaller quantity that to furtlier popularise the dahlia the 



of manure when the soil is being prepared creation ot new and distinct forms must be 



and liberally encouragtHl. Hitlierto, raisers 



would be advisable in the case of many soils 



necessary 



too 



XII voui.ti V The other paper con- views in making seU-ctions from thi>n .sf-ed 



tributed to the conference was of special ])eds, hut happily these views are rapidly 



