THE HORTICULTURIST.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 3436, 18 May 1898, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE HORTICULTURIST.

CULTIVATION OF THE DAHLIA. • ' ■ Orange Judd Farmer. While the dahlia will grow wherever planted, whether the soil be heavy or light, rich or poor, there is no plant that more highly appreciates good generous treatment. To produce good double flowers in profusion, the soil must be strong, deep, and rich. The plant is a gross feeder, and requires plenty of light, room and air. With these requisites an individual plant will yield an enormous number of flowers, proportionate in size and colour. Artificial watering will greatly enhance the size and substance of the .flower, and the soil should be worked often and deep. The dahlia is not a weed, but a noble plant, and as such should receive proper attention.

Propagation is affected in the spring by division of the tubers, which should be started on wet moss or sand about three weeks before it is time for planting out in the border. The eyes will develop into sprouts; then with a fine saw cut up the tubers, leaving but a single eye on each piece. For the rapid increase of desired varieties for purposes of sale, the, tubers should be put in the propagating bench about the Ist of January (July here), and cuttings taken off' when they have trade two joints ; these will root freely with slight bottom heat. When nicely rooted, pot off in thumb pots, and carry on into larger pots as J their growth demands, and then plant out as soon as the weather will permit.

For; purposes of trade,. what are known as dry pot roots ate very convenient) as they can be distributed through the mails as easily as any email bulbs, and they make plants in every respect equal to those grown from larger tubers. These are grown from cuttings in 3in pole, which are plunged in ashes in a frame, to prevent their roots from penetrating the soil, and grown on during the summer, drying off in early autumn. When dry they can either be shaken out of pots and stored away, like the large tubers, or kept in the pots until wanted. After the tops have withered, the tubers can be taken up and stored in a dry place. The tubers ripen much better after the tops have died than before, and the tubers are not so liable to shrivel up during rest.