THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
25 G 
WINTERING DAHLIA ROOTS. 
November being the best month for getting up and bousing the roots of 
this popular flower, a few words from one who has had upwards of twenty 
years experience may be acceptable to amateurs. Years ago it was considered 
necessary that the Dahlia roots when stowed away in their winter quarters 
should be perfectly clean and free from any soil that might be inclined to 
adhere to them. I have even known some growers so particular on this point 
that the tubers have been washed and then carefully dried. Under this 
process, and with all the care that could be bestowed upon them, many kinds 
would annually decay. During the last few years it has been found out that 
all this care was unnecessary, that the soil that would stick to the tubers was 
really beneficial, and that a Dahlia root was as easily preserved during the 
winter as a sound Potato. Another mistake was often committed—viz., that 
of drying the roots too much. Many a time have I seen them suspended in 
some coach-house or loft, until nearly all the juices have been dried out of 
them. They were then consigned to a warm room where no frost could pene¬ 
trate, and by the time they were required for propagating half of the tubers 
were as dry as old sticks. 
Few roots are more easily kept through the winter than the Dahlia. My 
process is as follows :—Select a dry day for getting them up. Cut the tops 
clean off to within an inch of the crown with a small saw; lay the roots on 
some sticks, so placed on the ground that the air can pass through them, with the 
necks downwards, and with as much soil on the tubers as will remain after they 
have been poked with a small stick (which is the best tool to remove the soil 
with). If the weather is fine and dry the roots may be removed to their winter 
quarters in three days, care having been taken that they have been covered 
with mats at night, and the covering taken off each morning. The floor of a 
greenhouse I consider the most suitable place to keep them through the winter 
—or if the grower has not a greenhouse a dry cellar will answer the purpose, 
or any room where frost will not penetrate. A little ventilation is always 
necessary to prevent mould. Where valuable roots, such as seedlings or other 
scarce kinds are required to be kept in plump condition for early forcing, I 
would recommend that they be taken up from the ground with all the soil that 
can be lifted with them, and that they be at once placed in large pots in a dry 
place. This is the only sure mode of keeping Dahlia roots that I am 
acquainted with. 
The Cedars , Castle Bromwich. Charles Jas. Perry. 
VICTORIAN GARDENING. 
It is the fashion of the present day to condemn the modern or Victorian 
system of flower gardening, not only in the horticultural periodicals, but in other 
magazines and reviews, where their “vulgar colours” afford fruitful themes 
for critics to descant upon. In an article on Elizabethan gardening, in “ Frazer’s 
Magazine ” for August, the writer deals out but scanty justice to the gardener of 
the present day. At page 185 he treats us to a list of the plants used in the 
gardens of that period, consisting of such things as are green all the winter— 
viz., Holly, Yew, Ivy, Bay, and Fir trees, for making sheltered hedges; and 
Rosemary, Lavender, Periwinkle, Germander, and Sweet Marjoram with spring 
flowers. I wonder what our present owners of flower gardens would say to 
their parterres if they found them filled with herbs. Our critic says :—“ The 
