26.01.12
Dahlia’s are fast sweeping back into fashion, with them starting to become popular for wedding bouquets and table arrangements again.
Lucky for those brides that the Dahlia season in New Zealand coincides with the wedding season, starting in December and finishing up in late April, depending on the weather of course.
I was lucky enough to be able to go out to a Dahlia grower in Auckland and was amazed at the variety and amazing range of colours
that they come in. So thank you very much to Linda and Robert for their time showing me about these vibrant flowers.
The most interesting thing I learnt is that with some dahlias its just a matter of genetics. Most of the commercially grown Dahlias come in ball, pompoms, decorative, cactus and fimbriated varieties. The main difference between these varieties is how the petals are rolled. Sort of like
being a human you can either roll your tongue, or you can’t. Cactus variety dahlias the petals roll outwards creating the separated spiky look. Pompoms, balls and some of the decorative ones the petals roll inwards to create the fuller look, and the fimbriated varieties are outward rollers with a fork at the end to create an amazing spiky messy look. This is of course a bit simplified as there are many other types of dahlias as well, but most of the commercially grown varieties
fall into these categories.
What gets me though is the staggering colours, they range from pure whites, through to lemons, pinks, reds, oranges, dark reds, and the
variation of colours within one Dahlia is astounding. A lot of them have a variation of colour, and as they open the colours can change and darken.
Dahlias are one of the few flower varieties that are picked when the flower is in full bloom, so they are stunning immediately. The
main thing to remember is they are hollow stemmed which means they need water and lots of it, try and get them into water as quickly as you can once you have purchased them, and don’t leave them hanging in the car in the heat for to long as you will shorten their vase life.
