PREPARING DAHLIAS POR EXHIBITION. 
42? 
savoys, kale, and Brussels sprouts. You ob- 
serve, that you never see ground vacant long 
together, until the close of the summer, when 
some that may be intended for spring sowing, 
or that may be wanting amelioration, is dug, 
and left rough or in ridges for the frost of the 
winter to penetrate. 
One look at the conservatory, and we will 
have done for the present. I would have you no- 
tice how differently it is furnished with plants 
to the class we saw here last ; balsams, cock's- 
combs, phloxes, Clintoniapulchella with its bril- 
liant blue flowers, and many other interesting 
annuals. A few of those extraordinarily formed 
flowers of the orchideous family are worth 
notice ; that extremely gaudy purple flower is 
Catileya Mossice; these with very long spikes 
of odd-shaped blooms, all speckled, are Oncidi- 
um Lanceanum ; the large plants with funnel- 
shaped flowers, and the two other, yellow and 
orange, are the plants I before showed you in 
the hot-house — the Brugmansia family. The 
other plants have been furnished from the 
stove chiefly, but present nothing remarkable. 
PREPARING DAHLIAS FOR EXHIBITION. 
The cultivation of the dahlia has become 
common to most gardeners, both professional 
and amateur, and the mere excelling of others 
in the growth is often more attributable to the 
soil and situation than to any extraordinary 
means used by the grower. Generally speak- 
ing, the dahlia would-4hriye best where the 
most ordinary vegetables excel; and probably 
any one of the extensive and well-managed 
market-gardens, just removed out of the smoke 
and confinement of the great towns, - would 
produce the dahlia as fine as they bring cab- 
bages or onions. The dahlia should certainly 
be planted in May, June, and July, for exhi- 
bition ; for when they arrive at their height 
of bloom, they do not remain long in first-rate 
strength and condition; so that there ought to 
be one set coming into perfection as another 
goes off. It is well known that strong rich 
soil agrees with most of them ; but large and 
naturally coarse flowers come better in poorer 
ground. 
The success of the exhibitor depends, how- 
ever, much on himself as he approaches the 
bloom. Let the flower come as large and as 
free as it may, it wants attention. If we go 
over a fine collection in a garden that is not 
allowed to be trifled with for shows, and where 
the plants are carefully kept in ornamental 
order, at first sight we may fancy we 
could cut a thousand flowers, while, on close 
examination, nineteen of every twenty are 
useless. Of some, the petals are eaten by ver- 
min ; of others, the eyes are exposed or not 
fully developed ; others, which have been all 
that could be desired, have been frayed by 
rubbing against the leaves or against other 
blooms ; hundreds have gone by their prime, 
or not arrived at it ; and it is sometimes diffi- 
cult to cut a single good bloom from a plant 
literally covered with noble flowers. We have 
always said that dahlia growers omit too long 
the counteracting of these manifold evils. The 
destruction of the earwig, one of the most 
prolific sources of mischief, should commence 
from the time the plants are put out in May ; 
and every plant being provided with a trap, 
somebody should examine them every day twice, 
and kill all they can take. Traps are of various 
kinds. A hollow tube of any sort would make 
a trap; bean-stalks, cut in lengths of eight or 
nine inches, are excellent ; the most common i3 
to put the small pot which is planted out of, 
on the top of the stake which is to support 
the plants, with moss in the bottom ; this 
affords shelter from the heat, or cold, or wet, 
whichever may annoy the insect ; and by ex- 
amining them frequently they will be found 
under the moss, and may be disposed of by 
emptying them into a vessel of strong brine of 
salt, and water. The bean-stalk is still better, 
for, by blowing them, whatever is inside is 
found out, and the operation quicker and safer 
than the pot, because, however active we 
may be, some will escape, and drop down only 
to torment us again. By attending to this 
from the first, we almost get rid of them be- 
fore the dahlia comes into flower ; neverthe- 
less, it must be persevered in throughout the 
bloom, or they would get the upper hand 
again soon ; and where people neglect them 
until flowering time, as many do, they cannot 
depend on a single flower, however promising 
it may be, escaping from the ravages of these 
insects, one of Avhich can destroy a bloom for 
exhibition in a single night. 
Supposing, however, that we arrive at the 
commencement of the bloom, and showing is 
our principal if not our only object, we have 
to set down two or three facts for our constant 
guide. First, as the flowers weaken far more 
than the growth, we have to remove every 
bud that is defective, the instant we discover 
that it will be useless for show, and to con- 
tinue watching every advancing flower for the 
same purpose ; consequently, flowers that have 
been fine and not used should be plucked the 
instant they have gone by. Secondly, as the 
rubbing of a branch or even a leaf against 
the finest bloom in the world would destroy it 
in a short time, therefore every flower intended 
to be saved must be so fixed that the wind 
can have no influence over it, and all the 
branches or leaves in its immediate neigh- 
bourhood that the wind could blow to touch it, 
should be shortened or fastened, to prevent 
