DAHLIAS FOR SHOW

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 January 1939, Page 9

DAHLIAS FOR SHOW

SOME USEFUL HINTS. Growing for show necessitates a lot of thinnings, for the purpose of affording the light and air requisite for the proper ripening of the dahlia stems. Go over the plants once a fortnight and take away all weak lateral pieces which are not required. Preserve some lateral shoots for the best flowers, or you will very soon be without blossoms. While the terminal buds are developing some of the laterals will be lengthening in readiness to fall into the breach left by the spent flowers. Watch these closely and see that they gel elbow room.

Some varieties do not require much restricting. and give better results when left very much alone. Locality and the treatment both have a lot of bearing on all classes of dahlia life.

When the first flush of flowers is over, cut the plants half-way back just above some stout laterals, and they will come away again, and soon be in bloom.

By paying a little attention to pruning after flowering, they might be kept in bloom over a much longer period. The dahlia will flower all the summer through, provided you renew the stems by cutting every time one crop of flowers is over. Stems that are blind on the end (have no signs of growth) are best taken back to where a growth is showing lower down.