OUR DISPLAY AT CLEVELAND 
GREETINGS 
Our annual DAHLIA BLUE BOOK again serves to greet our many friends and 
customers, whom we have been unable to meet personally during the past year. We 
greatly appreciate the confidence in us, expressed by your ever increasing patronage, 
and your generosity in recommending us to your friends. We are also grateful to the 
many who attended the MIDWEST SHOW here in Cleveland, and to the many who 
visited our gardens at that time, and at other times during the year. We hope these 
visits will be repeated. 
Several Eastern shows and gardens were visited in September. The effects of one 
of the poorest growing seasons in many years was not very! noticable at the shows, 
or in the gardens visited. Anyone can grow good dahlias under normal conditions, 
but the good grower is the one who can overcome handicaps. He is the one who 
intensifies his efforts when conditions are unfavorable. He neglects no details; giving 
special attention to the control of insects and pests, and to the proper care of his 
garden. He follows a program similar to the one outlined in our CULTURAL HINTS 
on page 65. He is the one whose pleasure is greatest. It is our earnest hope that 
you will be one of the good growers in 1954. 
E. J. Wind 
