OF THE DAHLIA 
dening of the plant tissues may take place, the plant 
stop growing during August if the season be not only 
excessively dry, but also hot, and the soil's humus con- 
tent not large enough to hold sufficient moisture, and 
irrigation be impossible. In such an extreme condition 
the only remedy is to cut the plant down, leaving a 
stump with two leaves. If frost does not come until 
November you will have some fine flowers, for the plant 
has an elaborate, well-established root system, and can 
readily recover. Some seasons a month of blazing hot 
weather is followed by a long spell of rains. New strong 
shoots are likely to start up from the roots. When 
this happens it will certainly pay to cut down the old, 
drouth-damaged growth. Because the new shoots come 
from a ready-made vigorous root system they will grow 
like Jack's famous Beanstalk, and bloom in two weeks. 
Sometimes a dahlia plant here and there in the garden 
stops growing when six or eight inches high. The 
foliage keeps green but the plant remains a dwarf. One 
grower reports a treatment that with him has never 
known failure. The plant is carefully lifted, and the 
tuber thoroughly washed, replanted, and watered for 
a week. Gutting the plant down to the ground is 
easier, however, and thus early in the season, if watered 
for a week, it is likely to send up new and vigorous 
shoots. 
As far back as 1839, in England, when Paxton 
wrote upon the dahlia, it had been discovered that the 
