Our Boppa grew dahlias in the gardens by the house at the farm on Oldfield road and I wonder if he didn’t grow them would I be growing them today? As a kid, I remember being particularly enamoured with the huge yellow blooms of Kelvin Floodlight. They made a huge impact! So much so that when I bought my first house 30 years later and finally had my own gardens, I planted my first dahlias along with green arrow shelling peas (because they are AMAZING too and great snacks if you like snacking straight off the vine)! There was no internet back in the early 80s so exposure to beautiful dahlias was limited to seeing them in the gardens of friends and family, via a visit to the dahlia display at the Butchart Gardens, via local Dahlia Society events, or the exhibition hall at a fall fair (our closest was the Saanich Fall Fair). Since that first house, my gardens have never been without dahlias! But… unlike my Boppa who seemed to grow the same varieties year after year, I find myself continuously enamoured by new varieties with their fabulous forms and colours.
I did grow Kelvin Floodlight for the sake of sentiment and nostalgia in my early gardens. But new factors influenced my decision to stop growing it. Its a show stopper to be sure due to its magnificent size and bright yellow colour but its too big for the average bouquet and is also a later bloomer so not the best choice for me with the shorter growing season where we live in Terrace in Northwest BC vs the Victoria area on Vancouver Island…. so KF had to go! Tough choices when you have limited space and certain requirements (i.e. must be able to use in a bouquet)!
Availability and access to new varieties ramped up exponentially since the internet became a thing… and then even more so in the last 20 years +or- as smart phones and social media on the internet became things… Thinking back to around the year 2005 I was working for a well-loved airline called Hawkair. I remember Captain Lopes showing us this new “app” called Facebook where you could sign up for an account and connect with friends and family no matter where they were in the world so long as they had accounts too “for free”! Wild! Smartphones with cameras enabled the ability to connect to the internet and share photos of beautiful dahlias in just seconds!!! Internet + Social Media + Smartphones = Dahlia Awareness to the nth degree! You might also call this influence…
Ever wonder how many photos of beautiful dahlias have been shared via social media?! Sooooo many! We can admire seemingly limitless photos of dahlias 24/7/365! Anytime, any day, all year long! We are under the influence!!!
Over the years I find that my preferences for colours and forms of dahlia flowers changes… but the 1 thing that stays constant is my appetite for new varieties. The thrill of watching a new variety bloom for the first time! Its so exciting to see it bloom in the garden for the first time! When I see these new blooms, I can’t help but start to compare them to varieties I’ve grown before. Which do I prefer and why? Practicality and the attributes of the variety itself are ultimately what influences me the most when it comes time to decide if I will continue to grow it or not.
What influences your decision to grow a new variety? Is it the colour? Is it the form? Is it the growth habit? Is it because “everybody” wants it? Is it sentimental? Is it the name of the variety? Is it because it blooms earlier? Is it because its a blooming powerhouse? Is it the size of the bloom? Is it the tubers? Is it the stem length? Is it practicality? Is it show worthiness?
Whatever the influence!!! Enjoy the Dahlia!!!