Dreaming of Dahlias

I do n’t think I could cope very well without Dahlias . Not that I would burst into hysterical tears or run around screaming but at this sentence of year they are just getting into their footstep and bringing in a scrap of very welcome later colour to the garden . A decade or so ago that is not something that I would ever have said as the Dahlia pinnata was a very unfashionable and very few people wanted them in their garden as they were considered too cheeky and vulgar .

Since then they have had a massive and well deserved revival .

The dahlia is native to Central America where the specie is a heavy scrambly thing quite far remove from the variety we see today . It has small flowers and is mostly not that telling . From Mexico it was export to the Botanical Gardens in Madrid and from there it was spread around Europe .

Incidentally , one of the first Europeans to record the dahlia was the Gallic phytologist Nicolas - Joseph Thiery de Menonville . He was in Mexico to steal the Cochineal bug ( much prized as a food color ) from under the eye of the Spanish . This he succeeded in doing , along with seeds of the Opuntia ( Prickly Pear ) upon which the louse feeds . He then set up up a very successful plantation on the island of Saint Dominigue ( now Haiti ) .

Once they arrived in Europe they enjoy a very brief here and now as a food source : the big fertile Tuber are comestible and there was a thought that they might be an option to the potato : this mind came to nothing when the first northerly european wintertime reduce the whole lot to glacial gunk ( they are only stout to Zone 8) . That and the fact that they do n’t actually taste terribly near !

Anyway , from these mintage cagey plantspeople have multiply innumerable hybrid in almost every people of color ( except dreary ) and in many different shapes . One of the matter that makes this potential is that if you inseminate the seed from any dahlia then every seed will acquire a flower with a different shape and colour . Most of them will be unexciting but every so often a new Dahlia pinnata will emerge so you’re able to well see why there are so many different possibilities . My grandmother grow dahlias in her vegetable garden many years ago . I remember that they were rise in rigid row with each plant rigidly stand by a stout bamboo cane .

The dahlia tide turned when the late slap-up Christopher Lloyd tore out the previous rose garden atGreat Dixterand replaced it with an exotic garden full of ( amongst other matter ) bananas and brightly coloured dahlias . People started to look at dahlias differently and nowadays we grow them they are integrate it amongst the rest of the works in the borders . They are very useful for filling the gaps made as early summer and spring plants pass away .

By the way , the plant is named after Anders Dahl , the great Swedish botanist and pupil of Linnaeus . If you have an iPad then there is a fabulous clause about Dahlias write by Andy Vernon in the summertime Episode of intoGardens – if you have not yet discovered this app , it is the world ’s first garden powder store app design peculiarly for iPads.details here .

Dahlia Arabian Night

Dahlia Honka

Fine Gardening Recommended Products

A.M. Leonard Deluxe Soil Knife & Leather Sheath Combo

ok Gardening receives a commission for items purchased through connection on this site , include Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising program .

Get our latest tips , how - to articles , and instructional videos sent to your inbox .

Signing you up …

Out-of-the-Ordinary Dahlias

Stop Dreaming About Spring

An Easy Way to Get More Dahlias

The Best Dahlias for Your Garden

link Fine horticulture for a free engaging live webinar featuring Dr. Janna Beckerman , a renowned plant life pathologist as well as prof emerita at Purdue University and the ornamental technical manager …

When I spotted a particular guts dollar cactus ( Astrophytum asterias ) at the Philadelphia Flower Show a few month ago , I knew I was in trouble . With a delightful coloring rule …

When we only prioritise plants we require over plants our landscape needs , each time of year is fill with a never - finish list of chores : pruning , pinching , tearing , treating , amending , and fertilizing , with …

Video

Touring an Eco-friendly, Shady Backyard Retreat

You must be careful when you enter the backyard of garden fashion designer Jeff Epping — not because you ’re probable to trip on something , but because you might be dive - bombed by a yoke …