268 
FLORICULTURE. 
flower-pot, are among the best. The lattice is by no means desirable for general use. 
Flowers that appear weakly in their footstalks are best subject to this style of shading ; but 
above all, I would caution my amateur readers from employing any contrivance that does 
not freely admit of a circulation of air. The grand desideratum with Dahlia growers is to 
keep their plants free from insects. The earwig is one of the most troublesome enemies. 
The most strenuous exertions can scarcely keep them from damaging and destroying, as 
they fly from plant to plant. As the best means, we advise early examination of the 
plants, using the most active vigilance in detecting their haunts, — many plans are adopted 
for this purpose. I believe there are few better than small pots half filled with dry moss, 
placed at the top of the stakes. Bean-stalks laid about them serve as traps, and oiled wool 
certainly prevents their gaining ready access to a flower. I recommend the ground round 
the plant being frequently stirred ; let it be forked up about five or six weeks after the first 
planting. Keep everything in order, and as clear of litters as possible — decayed leaves, 
broken stakes, pieces of bars, and many other unmentionables, contribute to the great 
deterioration of their general appearance, while the growth of good flowers is rendered 
somewhat uncertain by such neglect. 
Watering . — Plants that are continually watered will have the surface of the ground round 
them become baked and hard, it is therefore desirable to mulch them with partially decom- 
posed manure ; this should be attended to so soon as the ground has been forked over. It 
has a powerful influence in keeping the roots near the surface cool and moist. Soft water 
is the best to use, but when this is not to be had in sufficient quantities, take care to have 
the water you intend using exposed to the sun and air during twelve hours previous to 
watering with it. As the plants increase in size, they will require occasional deluging, 
rather than frequent watering — this must be subject, of course, to the weather. After the 
sun has ceased to shine over them, a watering over their head, through a fine rose, has a 
most invigorating effect, the dew which falls during the night keeping the plants in a cool, 
wet state, thereby enabling them to sustain the heat of the following day, without withering 
their foliage, the size and colour of which will soon testify to the policy of this part of their 
management. In selecting blooms for exhibition, let as much diversity of colour be 
introduced as possible ; select quality before size. 
In selecting plants for seeding, remove all inferior blooms as they appear, the fewer 
florets there are the greater the quantity of seed, with scarcely a chance of its producing a 
good double flower ; much ultimate trouble will be saved by these precautions ; the 
desirability of care in selecting seed is manifest, in the fact that amateurs produce finer 
flowers and more frequently, from their generally speaking small collections, than those parties 
who are known to have raised thousands of seedlings annually — so much for care on this 
important point. It may be as well to observe that those seedlings which take the lead and 
throw their blooms first, seldom, if indeed ever, produce a flower worth growing a second 
time : these are generally the offspring of the finest seed and thinnest blooms ; they 
usually vegetate first, and maintain their priority during the season. They are easily to 
be recognised by their habit and absence of side branches, whereas the small plants 
that come late and almost require nursing to make them bloom before the frost sets in, 
generally produce the best flowers ; very few of our best seedlings are shown the first 
season of their blooming, these are almost always raised from the smallest seeds and very 
double flowers. I think it advisable to change the soil where the Dahlia is grown, and 
not plant them year after year in the same spot unless the soil is partially changed ; where 
this is the case, the flowers mostly degenerate as might be expected. It is further desirable 
that pot-plants should be invariably preserved of those varieties which raise badly from the 
ground, or a variety might be lost during the winter. 
Having occupied the space allotted me, I have only to observe that in the next number 
of this Work I purpose offering a descriptive list of the best flowers out, in their respective 
classes, for the guidance of amateurs. Having no interest, directly or indirectly, in praising 
or censuring any grower’s productions, beyond my earnest wish to see the best most 
cultivated, I flatter myself I shall stand acquitted of favouritism in the notice I have been 
preparing of these flowers. It is my constant aim to render justice to all — if it becomes 
