CARING FOR THE DAHLIAS 
When to dig and how to store. It is time 
to lift your bulbs when the plants have 
been killed down by frost, or perchance 
you live in a mild climate and the plants 
are not frosted, cut them down about a 
foot above the ground and let them rest 
for ten days and then lift. Store them up¬ 
side down (that is with the stem pointing 
down) in boxes or crates in a cool base¬ 
ment. It is well to look them over several 
times during the winter to see that they 
are not drying out. 
When to cut your blooms. We find the 
best time to cut blooms for decorative use 
is late at night or very early in the morn¬ 
ing, placing them in about 3 inches of 
nearly boiling water for a few minutes, 
when they are ready for your vases of 
cool water. 
Growing exhibition blooms. Where exhi¬ 
bition blooms of great size are desired a 
temporary shade during hot weather will 
be found to produce much finer dahlias 
both in color and size. Disbudding will of 
course also produce much larger blooms. 
To do this, when the buds begin to appear 
at the top of the branch you will usually 
find them in clusters of two or three. Take 
out all of these buds except the best look¬ 
ing one (usually the one on the very tip) 
and continue on down the stem taking out 
all the buds down to the parent stalk. This 
will also make your stems grow longer. 
The best time to disbud is when the buds 
are about the size of a pea. 
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