24 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



If new and improved varieties are to be raised, we should 

 work from the very best only. 



The cultivation of the Show Dahlia is not difficult, though if 

 the object of the cultivator is to enter the lists in competition he 

 must be prepared to give a considerable amount of attention and 

 care to his plants. Skill is required in tying, disbudding, and 

 preparing his blooms for exhibition, but to my mind there are 

 few plants which repay more for the trouble expended on them 

 than the Dahlia. 



The well-known golden rules for successful cultivation are : 

 Grow your plants as large and sturdy as possible before planting 

 out. Plant out the first week of June in well-worked, heavily 

 manured soil. Keep down the slugs. Water when required, 

 and then do so thoroughly. Disbudding, which can only be 

 learned by practical experience, should be done judiciously. 

 Keep your shoots well tied upland secure the blooms from wind, 



Perhaps the only essential difference practised in the Salisbury 

 nurseries from most of the other Dahlia grounds is that we 

 never bag and never shade the blooms. 



If I am asked for the best varieties, I should refer to Mr. 

 Mawley's list (page 33), for you may depend upon it that most 

 of those exhibited are the most useful varieties for the purpose. 



The drawback to the Show Dahlia lies in the fact that it has 

 no great ancestral genealogical tree like the Narcissus, the Rose, 

 or the Apple. It has no stately ancient legends. Its hundred 

 years are not much longer than the average life of a man. Not 

 having the flavour of age, it does not so well suit the publis 

 palate. 



Poets have scarcely had time to sing its praises ; perhaps even 

 the name is not rhythmical enough for them. And yet it is too 

 old to be the rage of fashion. Still what we claim for the Dahlia' 

 is, that in its own season it certainly wears the regal crown among 

 early autumn flowers. No other plants at this time of year 

 fill our gardens with so much glory. The Dahlia, coming as it 

 does in its freshness and beauty after most of the other flowers 

 are over, gives colour and magnificence to the otherwise over- 

 blown garden. As long as the weather remains at all genial, so 

 long will its splendour last. 



The popular impression that the Show Dahlia is only useful 

 for exhibiting in long and straight lines on green boards was 



