It is difficult to find room for Dahlias in a very small garden, but even one will give you a great deal of pleasure if you manage it well, as the flowers go on for a long time, and are most useful for cutting. Whether you have one or more, you must remember that the Cactus Dahlias grow from four to six feet high, and that each plant makes a big bush. The pretty little Pom-poms are rather shorter, and can be placed in front of their big brothers. We advise you to grow these kinds, and not what are called show varieties, which are stiff and, we think, ugly. Dahlias are greedy feeders, and wherever you mean to plant one you should get someone to dig in manure eighteen inches down. About the end of April or early in May, according to the season and your climate, you put out your Dahlias. If they are spring-rooted cuttings in a pot, all you have to do at first is to take them out of the pot, plant them, and look out for slugs. They will devour every one if they can. If you are given a tuberous root, you must put it five or six inches deep in the ground. It is of no use to grow Dahlias unless you can stake and tie them properly, as they become very heavy, and are ruined by a high wind if unsupported. Stout, square green stakes are made on purpose for Dahlias, and if you are far away from a town where they are to be had, you must get someone to cut and point you natural ones equally strong. For Cactus Dahlias they should be five or six feet long, and for Pom-poms four feet; and at least one foot of this length must be driven firmly into the ground. Do not tie with raffia, but with stout cord or coir, as nothing else is strong enough. When the frosts come you can take up your Dahlias and store them in a dry cellar; but unless you have a gardener to help you, we do not think you could strike cuttings from them in heat, in spring. You will find in autumn that the little plant you put out of a pot in May has made a big tuber, with a number of fingers. These should be left as they are till spring comes again, and then they may be carefully separated with a sharp knife and put as they are into the ground. Each piece will make a fresh plant. In sheltered parts of Devonshire and Cornwall, Dahlias, after being cut down, are often given a little covering of straw and manure and left in the ground. CHAPTER V BIENNIALS