SINGLE AND DECORATIVE DAHLIAS. 



15 



sudden reversion was made a few years ago to the cultivation of 

 the lighter and more elegant Single Dahlia, which quickly became 

 very popular. The extreme facility with which Single Dahlias 

 may be raised from seed and flowered the same season caused 

 their culture to spread at once with immense rapidity, but ulti- 

 mately, no doubt, proved very inimical to their reputation; for many 

 gardeners, growing nothing but a few chance seedlings, which may 

 all have been worthless — of poor habit, perhaps, or producing 

 coarse, weak-stemmed flowers — nevertheless from these formed 

 their estimate of Single Dahlias as a class. It is never worth 

 while to grow bad varieties of any plant when good varieties 

 exist, and Dahlias, of course, to be seen at their best, must be as 

 carefully selected as any other flowers ; but it is incontestable 

 that the first-rate varieties of Single Dahlias which now exist 

 constitute a group of decorative garden plants which are hardly 

 surpassed for their brilliant and continuous display throughout 

 the late summer until cut off by autumn frosts. 



For producing a good decorative effect in the garden the 

 essential qualities, for Dahlias of any class, are an erect and bushy 

 habit of growth, freedom in flowering, and the possession of 

 abundant and well-coloured foliage. The flowers should be stiff- 

 stemmed, in order that they may be carried erect, and so well 

 displayed on the plant ; telling in colour ; and, if variegated at all, 

 whether striped, edged, or tipped, the variegation should be con- 

 stant and clearly defined. Where Dahlias are only required as 

 cut flowers, and that with comparatively short stalks, the quality 

 and disposition of the foliage are of course not very material, 

 and consequently raisers of Dahlias of the Show type have never 

 troubled themselves much about these points ; but their impor- 

 tance in regard to the production of a decorative effect in the 

 garden is very considerable. Plants are liable to look very 

 " lean" whose pairs of leaves occur only at long intervals upon 

 the stems ; and of the undesirability of pale yellowish foliage, 

 which unfortunately disfigures a good many varieties in all 

 classes, it is only necessary to grow the two well-known white 

 Decorative Dahlias, Constance and Henry Patrick, side by side, 

 to be assured. 



To ensure a brilliant display in the garden, the plants, what- 

 ever their class, must be well cultivated. They should be planted 

 in a border that has been well dug and manured ; they should be 



