HOUSE AND GARDEN 
May, 1911 
359 
soms, which for beauty and variety are unrivalled. Those ama¬ 
teurs, who have not yet become enchanted by the culture of this 
beautiful flower have much pleasure in store, and I hope that 1 
may be able to give them, from an amateur’s experience, a few 
practical ideas which may be of benefit. 
Above all, in starting the dahlia garden, start right. Do not 
select your roots from catalogues, but if possible see the flowers 
first. This can easily be accomplished 
by visiting some such exhibition as 
the Dahlia Show, which is held every 
September at the American Institute 
in New York City. At this show, 
both amateurs and professionals ex¬ 
hibit a wonderful variety of blos¬ 
soms, and orders may be placed for 
such as suit the fancy of the grower. 
I was fortunate in making my first 
selection in this way, and secured ex¬ 
actly the color effects I desired. 
These bulbs are delivered to the buyer 
in the early spring. At the risk of re¬ 
peating information which is already 
known I will give briefly the pro¬ 
gram which I have carried out, and a 
description of some of the varieties 
of dahlias which I have grown satis¬ 
factorily. 
There is nothing gained by starting 
dahlias too early. I do not plant mine 
until the middle of May, but about 
the first of May I dig trenches about 
a foot deep, and spread all my roots 
out in those trenches, sprinkling them 
lightly with soil. A week or ten days 
of this treatment causes them to swell 
and the sprouts to appear. In most 
cases one can then determine which 
are lifeless and to be discarded. 
When the eyes or shoots are easily distinguishable, the clumps can 
be divided into individual roots. 
In planting allow at least a space of three feet between the 
plants—more if possible. The reasons for this are that dahlias 
are insatiable feed¬ 
ers and need all the 
nourishment which 
they can derive 
from the soil, and 
their foliage is so 
dense and spread- 
i n g that they re¬ 
quire a great deal 
of space. If they 
are too closely 
planted the s u n- 
shine would he un¬ 
able to filter 
through to the 
ground. 
The only ferti¬ 
lizer which I have 
used is bonemeal, 
and it is most ef¬ 
fective. One at¬ 
tractive quality 
which it possesses 
Another Cactus dahlia. Anyone prejudiced • t] , , , 
against the old-fashioned dahlia has but : ' 1 1 ( 1 1 
to see these forms to be won over breed weeds as 
Mr. 
is the case very often with most barnyard or stable manure. 
The holes for the roots are dug about twelve inches deep and 
a good trowelful of bonemeal put in. Then a couple of trowelfuls 
of earth, and the root laid carefully in with the sprout turned up¬ 
ward. After filling in the hole make a slight depression in the 
earth and put on top another trowelful of bonemeal. This will 
'sufficiently enrich the earth when soaked in by rain. 
The next step is to keep weeds 
away, which is not difficult, as the 
dahlias leave very little nourish¬ 
ment for other plants to feed on. 
After the plants have attained a 
fair growth several of the stalks 
may be cut out if desired. The ad¬ 
vantage of this treatment is to 
secure a more dwarf growth with 
larger blossoms. My system is to 
do this with the foreground, and in 
the background let the plants at¬ 
tain a natural growth, which is 
often a height of seven or eight 
feet. They form thus a beautiful 
background to the garden. I use 
Wildfire, a most beautiful single 
red dahlia, and Clifford W. Bru¬ 
ton, a fine lemon yellow, for back¬ 
ground effect, and have been able 
to cut great quantities of blossoms 
from them. 
Unless the beginner is warned he 
will lose some of his best specimens 
by not supporting the plants prop¬ 
erly with stakes. These stakes 
should he driven well into the 
ground and should be put in when 
the plants have attained a height of 
about three feet. Tie the plants to 
the stakes with heavy cord or wide 
hands of cloth. You will have better flowers and a greater abund¬ 
ance if you clip off all the first buds, and remember that you can 
afford to be generous with your blossoms, for the plants may be 
shorn of every flower twice a week, and new ones appear as if by 
magic. 
After the leaves — 
are turned brown 
by frost let the 
plants stay in the 
ground for a week 
or so. Then remove 
the roots, shaking 
off the earth as 
m u c h as possible, 
store them in 
boxes between lay¬ 
ers of newspapers 
and put away in 
the cellar in a dry 
cool place. The 
stalks and leaves 
may be left on the 
ground as they pro¬ 
vide a good mulch. 
There is such an 
endless variety of 
fine dahlias that it 
is imnossihle to The Cactus Hybrid type is also called the 
' Decorative dahlia. The growth has here 
have one specimen been confined to one sturdy shoot 
Walker’s “golden walk” is bordered with dwarf 
marigolds, tall marigolds and calendulas 
