70 
House &• Garden 
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■: 
Outdoors for Protection— 
Indoors for Beauty 
ES — use the very same Enamolin for 
both purposes. 
Enamolin is so durable that it protects your 
porch, front door or window frames for 
years. It will not chip, peel or crack. 
Indoors, on woodwork or furniture, it is 
practically indestructible. 
Outdoors, the rain keeps Enamolin clean and 
fresh, while indoors, a soap and water rub¬ 
bing renews its whiteness. 
Use Enamolin for economy. One coat covers 
as well as two coats of ordinary enamels. 
For years it requires no refinishing. And 
what a lovely, lustrous, porcelain-like sur¬ 
face it has! 
NAMLAC FLOOR FINISH not only 
beautifies floors with a fine, glossy surface, 
but also protects them against injury. For it 
is waterproof, heel-proof, scratch-proof — 1 - 
worthy of use in Enamolmed homes. 
Enamolin and Namlac Floor Finish are on sale ai 
the belter paint and hardware stores. If you cannot 
secure them, write to us. 
EMIL CALM AN e CO. 
!.S TA !>. I, ISll [■; I) ix igso 
100\\ illimn St, NVwAork 
Ask tor 
“THE WHITE 
SPOT BOOKLET" 
A sample can of either En¬ 
amolin or Namlac Floor Finish 
sent for 10 cents. 
Address Home Dept. 
Dahlias —Perennial, and Permanently Popular 
(Continued from page 41) 
five per cent of the seedlings will be 
worth carrying over the first year, and 
that most of these will be discarded the 
second season. You can readily see 
that space is a factor in riding the 
dahlia hobby. 
There has been—and always will be, 
I presume — discussion regarding the 
merits and demerits of cuttings and 
roots for general planting. Some claim 
that the cuttings produce more flowers; 
the plants are “short jointed” and 
therefore do not make so much useless 
“grass”. The adherents of the bulb 
method make the claim that growth is 
an indication of vigor and that the 
plants when trained advantageously by 
proper pinching will give returns. We 
must admit there is sound reasoning in 
this, though personally I believe there 
is little to choose between the two sys¬ 
tems. Both will yield results. 
The principal advantage of the 
rooted anting method is the fact that 
by it mew varieties can be increased ten 
times more rapidly than by root divi¬ 
sion. For this purpose the roots are 
planted in a frame in early spring and 
covered with sand. When the young 
shoots develop they are removed and 
rooted in a sand bed. They are potted 
up when rooted and handled the same 
as any other tender bedding plants. 
Soil and Planting 
Dahlias delight in a rich soil. This 
statement will probably cause a storm 
of protests from many who claim that 
the best dahlias are grown in gravel 
beds. The conditions that resulted in 
this last theory were tire use of rich 
animal manure in the soil which caught 
and stored immense quantities of wa¬ 
ter and which did cause the dahlias to 
grow so rapidly that the stems were 
pithy and unproductive. Then growers 
resorted to using a poverty-stricken soil 
which was somewhat assisted by feed¬ 
ings late in the season. As a matter 
of fact, dahlias delight in a mellow soil, 
full of plant food that is slow to dis¬ 
integrate and therefore slow in releas¬ 
ing its plant food. Fertilizers of this 
type are bone meal or any ground bone 
product, sheep manure or guano prod¬ 
ucts. 
The general method of planting roots 
is to dig holes about 18” deep and the 
same in width, in the bottom of which 
is mixed in a heaping handful of sheep 
manure or other concentrated ferti¬ 
lizer. The root should be set so that the 
crown is at least 6" to 8" below the 
finished grade. The soil can be gradu¬ 
ally filled in as the plant grows. This 
gives the stems additional support and 
gets the roots down out of the way 
of summer droughts. When planting 
seedlings or rooted cuttings the hole 
should be refilled with a compost made 
of good soil and fertilizer, leaving about 
a 6" depression. 
Dahlias are soft and suffer consid¬ 
erably if their roots are disturbed. It 
is therefore necessary when raising 
plants from seeds or cuttings to grow 
them in flower pots or some other con¬ 
tainers; berry baskets, tin cans or any¬ 
thing that will keep the roots intact can 
be pressed into service for this purpose. 
Dahlias like room, and any attempt 
at crowding will lead to trouble. Three 
feet apart each way is the minimum, 
and 4' should always be afforded the 
plants where possible. When planting 
on a large scale furrows can be made 
with a plow, scattering the fertilizer in 
the bottom and stirring it in with a 
subsoil plow. The roots can then be 
placed and the furrow thrown back 
with the plow. 
Good flowers are not possible without 
proper staking. Stakes may be used 
for individual plants. They should be 
placed when the shoots are about T 
high, supporting the three most promis¬ 
ing shoots. The others should be re¬ 
moved. No plant can support ten or 
twelve stems and produce high quality 
flowers. The shoots will require tying 
about every three weeks. Where stakes 
are used the shoots should not be pulled 
in tight — allow the plants to spread 
somewhat naturally. Where the plants 
are in rows of any length a stout post 
at either end with several strands of 
wire makes a very good supporting 
medium. 
The Importance of Care 
Attention is the real secret of good 
dahlias, if it is given before the flower¬ 
ing season, when they are just as un¬ 
attractive as any green weeds. If all 
the growth that dahlias make is per¬ 
mitted to develop the flowers will be of 
little consequence. This unbounded 
energy of the plants can be diverted 
into very useful channels by timely 
pinching—in fact, this must be done if 
one wants high quality flowers. Pinch 
frequently, as any attempt at whole¬ 
sale reduction will result disastrously. 
Properly done, this will furnish twelve 
good flowers in place of twenty - four 
mediocre or forty-eight poor ones. The 
shoots must be pinched when small, 
reducing them by fifty per cent; if not 
done frequently pinching is of little 
value, as you would be simply remov¬ 
ing growth that required considerable 
energy to produce. 
Liquid feeding is preferred to top 
dressing, as the latter attracts the roots 
to the surface. Feeding of any kind 
is rarely necessary until after the plants 
have been flowering for some time and 
the flowers show indication of its need. 
When applying, saturate the ground 
thoroughly, if necessary making holes 
with a sharpened stick to be sure the 
roots are reached. For liquid feedings 
dissolved sheep or cow manure, guano 
or nitrate of soda may be used. 
The ground around dahlias should 
be kept loose and porous. They are 
quick growers and demand quantities 
of moisture and air which are possible 
only in a well stirred soil. It matters 
little what you use, but if the ground 
is allowed to bake all the soil moisture 
will soon be dissipated. It is a good 
practice to keep the soil loosened up 
with a digging fork; even though a few 
roots are injured by this no particular 
harm will result. 
Dahlia flowers should always be cut 
in the early morning before the sun is 
strong. Immediately after cutting the 
stems should be plunged in a large re¬ 
ceptacle of cold water in a cool, dark 
place for a couple of hours. If this is 
done the flowers will keep for days. 
Some sear the ends of the stems, which 
prevents the sap escaping. This is 
more troublesome and not as satisfac¬ 
tory as the other method. 
After the frost has destroyed the tops 
the dahlia roots can be put away for 
the winter; the plants should be dug 
up and the tops removed about 6" 
above the bulbs. Never divide the roots 
in tire fall, as they shrivel considerably 
during the winter, and this would sim¬ 
ply increase the trouble. The roots 
should be allowed to dry thoroughly in 
the sun before storing; if they are left 
out for several days, you had better 
cover them at night with blankets. 
This sun curing will harden the skin. 
The roots should be properly labeled, 
using wired labels and piercing the 
roots with the wires. Do not fasten 
the labels to the shoots, as these are too 
easily broken and the loss of the labels 
would follow. 
The roots can be packed away in a 
frost-proof cellar. They will not stand 
freezing, but where the frost penetrates 
only in extreme weather sufficient pro¬ 
tection can be given by covering with 
sand or salt hay. In no case should ' 
they be stored near a furnace or ever 
allowed to get wet. Small quantities 
can be packed away in barrels with 
sand or sawdust. 
