Dahlia Cultivation—Part Three (1853)

This article is adapted from the book The Dahlia: Its History and Cultivation, with Description of All the Best Show Flowers by Robert Hogg. It was published in 1853 by Groombridge and Sons, London. 

Although the original work is in the public domain, this article has been edited for the modern reader and contains new material. 

This version is Copyright © 2024 by Steve K. Lloyd and may not be reproduced without permission.

Dahlia Cultivation—Part 3 by Robert Hogg (1853)

Edited with revisions by Steve K. Lloyd © 2024

7. — Shading.This requires great caution and judgment. Too much shading, or for too long a period, will cause the light-colored flowers to lose their delicate tints. A lilac would be changed into a blush, a deep yellow into a primrose. Slightly-tipped blooms, as also the edged ones, would lose their delicate marking, and so on. 

No positive rule can be laid down as to the time the blooms should be shaded, but it may be remarked in general that a week or ten days previous to the day of exhibition will be quite long enough for the shading to be useful, even in the brightest weather.

In dark cloudy weather, and in the earlier part of the season, four or five days will be sufficient. Then again, dark self-colored varieties require less shading, because the colors are firmer, and better able to bear the full light of the sun than paler or various colored flowers. 

This may appear a contradiction to the first sentence on this subject, but it is true notwithstanding. The fact is, there are more flowers injured by too much shading, than by too little. Yet shading is necessary and useful, both for bringing out a clearer and more distinct flower, and for protecting the blooms from heavy rains.

The best kind of shade is made as follows: A box made of deal, with three sides wood and one side glass, made to open with hinges, the bottom to have a groove cut in it half way across. This groove to be cut from the side where the glass-door is fitted in to open with hinges. This box should be wide, and high enough to allow room for the flower without touching the top, sides, or bottom. 

[Editor’s note: “Deal” is a softwood that comes from the pine tree. The term "deal" comes from the old English word “dael”, which means a part of a tree that is suitable for timber. Deal wood is often used for framing, flooring, roofing, and cladding because it is inexpensive and easy to work with. It is also resistant to rot and pests.]

When a bloom is so far expanded that shade becomes necessary, either for protection from the sun, or from rain, the box should be fastened firmly to a stake near the flower. Then, open the glass-door and bring the flower gently within the box. Tie the flower stem to the stake, so as to keep the bloom in the center of the box. Shut the glass door, and fasten it by means of a wooden button turning on it. 

The glass side should be facing the north, so that no sun can shine upon the flower. Any country carpenter could easily make such a shade if properly described to him. 

Shades can also be made in the form of an umbrella, with a socket on one side to fit upon the stakes. The flower stem should be tied firmly to the stake, so as to bring the bloom directly under the center of the shade. This kind of shade can either be made of tin, or of a framework to be covered with oiled canvas.

A cheap kind of shade is formed with garden pots, inverted upon a round piece of deal [wood], with a groove cut in it to allow the stem of the bloom to slide in, carrying the bloom to the center of the board. When it is fixed there, the pot can very conveniently be placed over it. 

For some varieties that require a little blanching, this shade, on account of its density, is desirable. Whatever kind of shade is adopted, they must always be contrivances to admit air to keep the blooms cool in hot weather.

8. — Watering. This point has been already incidentally mentioned. The best water is that which falls from the clouds, conducted from buildings into a tank butt. If this cannot conveniently be had, and the water to be used is hard, it should be pumped into a cistern or tank fully exposed to the air, which softens it and renders it more nutritive for the plants. 

The ground will, with frequent watering, become baked and hard. It should then be slightly forked over when moderately dry, then watered thoroughly and mulched over, as previously advised. This mulching keeps the moisture in the ground much longer, but it will in hot weather become dry again, and then should have a regular good steeping poured upon the mulching, which water will carry down with it a large portion of the fertilizing matter contained in the manure mulching. 

After a hot, dry day a syringing over the entire plant will be very serviceable in keeping the plants clean, fresh, and healthy. This will, in a great measure, prevent the increase of insects, at least such as feed upon the foliage of the plants after they become of a considerable size. It need scarcely be mentioned that all weeds should be destroyed as soon as they appear, and the ground kept neat and clean.

9. — Taking up and Storing. Under this head the cutting down of the plants will be properly placed. This cutting down should not be performed until the first frosts have completely checked vegetation. 

For choice, good varieties, it is an excellent plan to place a small hillock of dry ashes round the stem of each plant. This protects the embryo buds both from any sudden severe frosts, and also carries off to a distance the heavy autumnal rains. In wet ground especially, this is a good and useful application, though in high, dry land it may not be absolutely necessary. 

Choose some dry morning, when there is a probability of a dry following day, and cut down the plants to within a foot of the ground. The day following, take up all the roots so cut down, and turn them upwards to allow the watery sap to drain from the stems. 

Bring them in under cover, and see that the numbers or names are all securely tied to the stems with copper wire. Mat or twine is not good for this purpose, because it will soon rot, and the name may easily be displaced or lost — a matter of consequence to those who wish to keep their plants true to name. 

The roots should all be taken up on the same or the following day, in order to become all dry together, so that they may be put away for the winter at once. Let all the soil be carefully picked out from among the tubers without wounding them.

As soon as they are quite dry, and before they begin to shrivel, fix upon a place to store them away. A dry cellar is the best place, because there is, in such a place, just sufficient moisture to keep the tubers fresh without shriveling, and the buds alive.

Pack them with their stems downwards, and cover them up with dry clean straw, several inches thick, a layer of roots and a layer of straw between and under each layer of roots. In these winter quarters they may remain till the season for starting them into growth returns. 

They should be looked over about once a month, and all decaying roots and rotting stems removed, and fresh, dry, straw laid upon them to absorb any moisture. 

This is the best method of keeping Dahlia ground-roots. Pot-roots should have their tops cut off, and the pots laid on their side in a place where the frost cannot have access to them. If the amateur has a greenhouse, these pot-roots can be conveniently stored away under the stages, laid on one side so no water that may run through the stage from the plants, will injure them. Pot-roots keep better than ground-roots, and therefore it is desirable to have a few of each variety struck later for this purpose.

If the amateur has no cellar for his ground-roots, nor a greenhouse for his pot-roots, he may store the former away in boxes, in a dry chamber, or in any out-building, providing the frost can be kept from them by any kind of covering, such as old carpets or garden mats.

In such places they will require more frequently looking over, to remove all decaying roots and stems. Some recommend keeping them in sawdust in such places, but it has been proved that they rot quickly in that material. Others have recommended placing them in a pit covered with turf and soil, in the same way that potatoes, before the disease came upon them, used to be stored. 

The great objection to this method is the difficulty of examining them, and removing decaying roots, which, if not removed, soon affect the sound ones, and cause them to decay also. Still, if the amateur has no other resource, he should adopt some one or other of these confessedly imperfect modes of keeping his ground-roots through the winter.

Pot-roots may be more easily managed even under these privations of convenience. Laid on their sides they may be packed in a snug corner, or even against a south wall in the garden, and be thatched over with straw, and thus be perfectly secure both from damp and frost. Dahlias have been known to live through mild winters, but as such are by no means to be depended upon. Real good varieties should not be exposed to such a risk.