560 
THE DAHLIA. 
by degrees be inured to a cold frame, pre- 
vious to planting out. 
DAHLIAS FROM SEED. 
Sow in the early part of March; if in any 
quantity, make up a hot-bed and sow it lightly 
all over, but if not more than can be sown in 
pans or boxes, be it so. In a few days the 
seeds will come up, and will require a little air 
and occasional moisture ; when they are large 
enough to transplant, you may either make up 
a hot-bed with rather slight heat, or use one 
whose strongest heat has gone by, and plant 
them out all over it two inches apart, or put 
half a dozen round the edge of a wide-mouthed 
sixty or forty-eight sized pot, and return them 
to the hot-bed. They will require air, and 
water, and light, but it will be as well to shade 
them from the heat of the sun until they are 
well established, and of sufficient strength to 
bear it without injury ; the seedling plants 
must be treated in all respects like struck cut- 
tings until planting time, except that it is not 
worth the trouble to put them in single pots 
at all, unless you have but very few, and those 
very choice: they maybe planted out between 
the 20th and 30th of May, and not too 
shallow ; a foot apart in the row, and the rows 
a yard from each other, is distant enough for 
seedlings in the ordinary way. As soon as they 
indicate worthlessness, which a large portion 
generally will, dig them clean up and destroy 
them ; and when any appear promising, put 
stakes to them and tie them up properly, but 
there will in general be very few worth the 
trouble among ordinary seedlings. "Where 
there is one which is an improvement upon the 
present varieties there are hundreds that are 
not, so that by looking very critically among 
them as they come into flower they will be 
rapidly thinned. Should there be any that are 
really good, you may take off side shoots and 
try to strike them ; they will require a fresh 
hot-bed, which should be got ready in antici- 
pation of the chance, and by putting the 
cuttings in singly in thumb-pots, and keeping 
a good heat, there is a chance of success ; this 
is so desirable with anything really good, that 
it should never be neglected, because if a plant 
can but be made to bulb a little, or live through 
the winter, it will be a prize in the spring ; and 
sometimes first-rate things have been known 
to be saved by such means when the old tuber 
has rotted. 
PRESERVING ROOTS OR TUBERS IN WINTER. 
We have already observed that tubers should 
be kept where neither heat nor damp nor frost 
can reach them, and there are many ways of 
doing this ; some pack them in sand, — some 
keep them in a dry cellar, — some put them in 
the greenhouse. There are twenty ways of 
keeping a few, but where there are many there 
is more difficulty. It is common for valuable 
roots or tubers to be kept where they can be 
constantly examined, and common ones are 
often consigned to the greenhouse under the 
stage ; but even here they ought not to lie in 
heaps, but spread out singly, or nearly so, that 
the wet, which cannot fail to sprinkle them 
every time the plants are watered, may dry 
quickly : this would seem to be a secure place, 
because it is imperative to keep the frost out 
on account of the other plants. The stems 
should be shortened to an inch, and when'spread 
out on the ground, or packed up, or disposed of 
any other way, the stem should be placed down- 
wards, for were the hollow stem to receive the 
wet, or even retain its own juice, it would be 
frequently found to rot the collar of the tuber, 
which would fail to break in the spring. 
DRESSING THE FLOTVERS FOR EXHIBITION. 
However distasteful it may be to those clever 
artists who can almost double the apparent 
value of a flower by dressing it, we must pro- 
test against a growing evil that has deceived, 
and will so long as itfis tolerated deceive, the 
purchasers of novelties, and dissatisfy those 
who do not practice such deception. It is 
already known that there is scarcely a worse 
fault than quilled petals; the back or rough 
surface of the petal is seen in front, the ap- 
pearance of the flower is dull and un-uniform, 
and there is a fatal want of symmetry. Now, 
the clever manufacturer can, by insinuating 
the point of a tapering dresser into the opening 
end of the petal, and pressing it in gently, 
open it more, and by going over the flower re- 
peatedly, so open the quilled petals by degrees 
that they appear as if they opened naturally; 
and a variety that would be condemned, 
actually appears pretty and passable, although 
a gentleman — who would never condescend 
to such questionable means — would never pro- 
duce a flower like the dressed one in a dozen 
seasons. In selecting seedlings to name and 
propagate, for the purpose of adding them to 
collections, avoid such as do not open freely ; 
for Societies will be obliged to adopt some 
measure to put a stop to the discreditable 
practice of opening the petals. In 1846, 
several varieties that had been exhibited in a 
very pretty and passable condition at different 
shows, and that were admired enough to tempt 
the inexperienced growers, were sold out at 
half a guinea, never to be worth sixpence to the 
buyer, and are now altogether discarded from 
good collections, as well as from the principal 
catalogues. It behoves, therefore, all persons 
who save novelties to observe that unless they 
open freely they are highly objectionable. The 
character bestowed on some very showy flowers 
of " quills too much," or " apt to be quilly," 
