50 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY 
those who contemplate such a course of culture to make 
their arrangements during the winter and spring. 
L. Tall Dahlias for Shrubbery and other Borders.—To 
have them Early.— Having had a good show in the last 
week of July and onward to the present middle of 
October, with no signs of stopping until the frost catches 
them, I will shortly state the processes adopted, not 
thinking them, by any means, the best, hut yet as com¬ 
bining certain economical advantages. Towards the 
end of March the root3 were brought from a cool shed, 
and placed on the floor of a Vinery at work, and a little 
light, fine leaf-mould hirsled in among them, and a 
syringing given them once a day or so. By the first 
week in April they were making shoots. Those I wanted 
to increase much were taken off, aud struck in a moderate 
hotbed in the usual way. Those that there were plenty 
of were merely cut off with a portion of the tuber 
adhering, and were placed separately in small pots, or a 
number in shallow, portable boxes, using light loam and 
leaf-mould. They soon rooted, and began to grow freely, 
and then were removed to a cooler place, where they 
would have more light aud air. Only one individual 
shoot was left on each piece of tuber; and thoso raised 
by cuttings were grown in the same way, one shoot 
being taken only. By the end of April the pots, in 
general, were getting full of roots, aud the boxes were 
in much the same state. Early Dahlia plants in small 
pots suffer much from any stagnation in growth then; 
and to avoid this, and also to obtain the possession of 
empty pots, &c., the plants were all turned out into a 
cold pit in rows about a foot apart, and from six inches 
and onward apart in the row. The bottom of the pit 
was as hard as it could well be made. The compost in 
which they were planted was loam and rough, decayed, 
hotbed diing aud leaves. A glass light was put over 
them for a week or so, and then straw covers protected 
them at night until the end of May and the first days 
of June, leaving the covering off for some time alto¬ 
gether, as other matters prevented my plantiug them until 
then. Most of the plants were strong, and ranging 
from fifteen to thirty inches in height. The holes were 
dug, a stake fastened in each, and a couple of shovelsful 
of loam aud rotten dung placed to each; the plants 
were lifted carefully with a five-pronged fork, the earth 
kept adhering pretty well to the roots, carried to the 
place, planted, tied, well watered, syringed during sun¬ 
shine for a couple of days; aud, with the exception of 
watering twice in the hot weather, cutting off a few of 
the smaller central side-shoots, removiug a number of 
the larger leaves, and hasping the side-flowering shoots 
to the one stake, and removiug decayed flowers now 
and then, little or nothing more was required. 
Some of our readers may not know what “ hasping" is; 
and, though I have not coined the word, I will try and 
explain it. Suppose you had a nice Dahlia or other 
plant, say with five shoots, or the central one and four 
others nearly equidistant all round. You have a neat 
stick, to which you tie the central one, and, were there 
no danger of any of these side-shoots breaking off from 
the main shoot by its own weight, or the added weight 
of dew or rain, or the force of the wind, very likely the 
plant would look better without any more tying at all; 
and this easy, natural, graceful appearance, in unison 
with security, is what we obtain by hasping, that is, 
fixing one end of a string round the stake, and the other 
round the outstanding shoot, leaving it seemingly at 
liberty, but preventing it getting any farther away, and 
thus avoiding making a bundle of shoots on the one 
hand, and a forest of sticks for supporting a plant on the 
other. 
2. Using the Common-sized Dahlias for Flower-beds .— 
Exactly the same course may be adopted in the earlier 
stages as for borders, as early blooming depends upon 
early vigorous growth. Unless the beds are of great 
GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. —October 28, 1850. 
j size, however, the ultimate treatment must bo different, 
I as the beauty of a flower-bed greatly consists in most 
of it being much below the eye. Standard bushes 
it may have of good height, as resting or contrasting 
points; but the great bulk should be easily looked 
down upon. Another requisite is, that the flowers 
should be on stiff foot-stalks, so that the flowers look 
boldly up at you, instead of hanging their heads as if 
they were ashamed of themselves. Flowers thus hanging 
their heads on tall plants in a border are not so much 
amiss, because, if not somewhat giant-like in your propor¬ 
tions yourself, you have a chance to look up at them. Such 
meek, dependent flowers should, if possible, be excluded 
from a flower-bed. Your own observation, and the ex¬ 
perience of nurserymen to whom you ap>ply for suitable 
kinds, will make all right in this respect. The next 
point is how to get these imturally tallish kinds so low 
as from eighteen to thirty six inches in height. This is 
best done by laying them down. I used to do this as 
soon as the first flower-buds appeared, as that stopped 
terminal growth, and caused a number of strong side- 
shoots to come, soon to be crowned also with flower-huds. 
Mr. Fraser, of Luton Park, allows the plants to grow 
even stronger than that; and then, catching the stem 
firmly near the base, he gives it a twist close to the ground, 
making it crack freely longitudinally, without breaking 
it at all transversely, and then it becomes quite plastic 
in his hands, as he can lay or turn the head in whatever 
direction he pleases. If the plant receives a check, 
which I suppose it does, it assists free blooming at the 
expense of free growing. The finest dwarf white bed of 
Dahlias I ever saw was thus formed. The kind operated 
upon was Bragg’s Antagonist. I do not know how the 
beds were laid at the Crystal Palace; they were well 
supplied with buds, but had hardly any flowers on the 
11th of September. Possibly they were meant to be 
attractive when other things were going off, as some 
sorts, when made to bloom freely from the end of July 
and through August, do not do so well at the end of 
September and in October. 
3. Dwarf Dahlias. —Few, comparatively, of these have 
yet been tried; but in places of any extent groups of 
them, as I have proved this season, make a fine feature 
of themselves. All kinds that grow from eighteen to 
thirty inches in height, and are likely to produce a mass 
of brilliant colour independently of the quality of the 
individual flower (though, if that is good, so much the 
better), are likely to be much in request. I made some 
1 inquiries last year respecting some dwarf ones in the 
list of the Messrs. Clarke, who advertise in these pages; 
but I presume my letter miscarried, as I received no 
answer. I have heard of some nurserymen who have 
something very unique in this way, and, if sent out 
true to description, they will be found valuable. I have 
had numerous inquiries respecting the “ Unequalled 
Dahlia, Crystal Palace Scarlet ,” the finest bedding-plant 
“ in cultivation;” and many have had an opportunity 
of judging for themselves as to its quality. It is very 
unpleasant to be asked such questions, and I would not 
answer the present were it not for a strong conviction 
that the license for the poetical and the extremely 
romantic in plant advertisements has more than reached 
its legitimate extent, aud which, if persisted in, will, in 
all likelihood, be cured by a mode somewhat analagous 
to that which gave such a lesson to the boy who got into 
the habit of calling wolf in sport. I say nothing of the 
most respectadde firm w r ho have sent out this scarlet, 
and have no doubt they believe all they have said about 
it. I say nothing of the finest bedding-plant now to bo 
seen in the last days of September, because what I 
believe to be the same thing has been gay with me since 
the beginning of August. I suppose it will bo deemed 
quite correct to fresh name an old plant if the possessor 
deemed it to be a novelty, though that does not really 
