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The Gardener's Guide To Growing DahliasEditions
Review
Introduced from Mexico where Montezuma, no less, had collected many exotic specimens from the wild, hybridisation began in Spain and Italy. The first mention of them in England was not until 1802 when “Mr John Fraser of Sloane Square in Chelsea” - only yards away from John Sandoe - offered specimens of Dahlia Coccinea to an avid public. Botanically, the Dahlia is a member of the largest family Compositae, its nearest relative being the sunflower, and most garden Dahlias as we know them today are all Dahlia x variabilis. In size, however, they range from miniature pompon to giant waterlily and in colour they are celebrated for their truly astonishing diversity from pure white and blush pastels to vivid orange through the spectrum to deepest burgundy. Their greatest merit lies in supplying colour and structure to the border or bed from mid-summer until late autumn, and the current enthusiasm for clashing associations in “hot borders” has made them fashionable again. The standard features of this invaluable series are present, including lists of nurseries, gardens, shows and societies and while details of care and propagation are of great importance with these plants which are frost sensitive, it is the outstanding photography which is the distinguishing factor in this book, where colour is the most telling criterion in helping us make choices from the mind-boggling range on offer. My own favourite is the deep plum-coloured, cactus flowered “Nuits d’Eté”, worryingly not included in here. Do they know something about it that I don’t? Oh dear! - review by Stewart Grimshaw |
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John Sandoe [Books] Ltd |
I asked five gardening friends for their opinions on Dahlias, and in ascending order of merit they considered them “Hideous!”, “Dead common”, “Naff!”, ”Not worth the effort” and “Incredibly useful”, which I think shows that The Dahlia Society could use the services of a spin doctor to rescue their reputation as overblown giants, the staple of municipal bedding schemes and roundabouts as well as the mainstay of flower shows from Rye to Chelsea.
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