Emblias 
MRS. EDW. RENWICK, Garden Club of Short Hills 
In the first place full sun is necessary, and they must not be too 
crowded, at least three feet between the plants. Staking is also very 
important, for if a plant is allowed to fall over it never seems to pro- 
duce fine blooms. The newer German varieties, Vater Rhine and 
Wodan, grow very tall with me, often eight feet high, and require very 
heavy stakes. I plant them in ordinary garden soil and only enrich 
them after the flower buds have formed, about the middle or end of 
August. If planted in too rich soil they go to leaf and have few 
flowers. Last year I gave bone meal and liquid manure, and the year 
before Bon Arbor, and both worked well, but too much stimulation to 
top growth prevents their forming good strong tubers for the next year. 
It is also very important they should not have any check after growth 
starts, during our all too frequent droughts, as they tend to become 
woody and never produce really fine flowers. The peony flowered type 
is the newest and seems to be the most admired at the amateur shows, 
where size seems to attract the crowd. Gustave Duzon is a very large 
brick red which is wonderfully showy, but that is a decorative dahlia. 
Of the peony flowered I have grown Glory of Baarn (pink), Queen 
Wilhelmina (white),. Andrew Carnegie (pink), Duke Henry (red), 
Isadore Duncan (salmon), Bertha Von Sutwer (pink), H. Hornsveld 
(light pink), Manheim, growing yellow, pink and some others all of 
which are good, with long stems and the flowers well above the foliage. 
Of course there are dozens of others and new ones e^ery year, these are 
just standard varieties. Of cactus dahlias Countess of Lonsdale, Flora- 
dora, J. H. Jackson, Rhine Koenig, Pink Pearl Dainty, Snow Queen 
are some of the free blooming old standbys. Last year I imported some 
from Kelway, England. White Swan, which was fairly good, but very 
late in blooming; Flag of Truce, a lovely white flower, but it hung its 
head down and was almost hidden in the foliage, as was Satisfaction, 
a light pink cactus. The way the flower grows on the stem seems to me 
very important, but the catalogues give no clue as to their habit, but 
the kinds I mentioned grow well. The single ones bloom very early 
and really make the best garden effect, and they are all easily raised 
and bloom the first season from seed, if it is started in March in a cold 
frame or greenhouse. Farquhar sells named varieties. Last year I 
saved seed from one plant and had at least fifteen different varieties and 
all colors. Some of them very fine. Stillman, of Westerly, R. I., al- 
ways takes a good many prizes at the New York Show and has some 
fine kinds, but we get most of ours from Dreer and Farquhar. 
Dahlias must be planted three feet apart, not closer, and each 
one staked. If strong growers take all but one stalk from the root; if 
weak, leave two or three. When one foot high pinch out the center of 
