Dahlia Season

I was noticing how nice the dahlias were looking at RBG yesterday and forgot to mention how fortunate I was to see a dahlia show at the Chicago Botanic Garden (CBG) last weekend when I was there for the NAJGA (North American Japanese Garden Association) conference. All of these shots were in one of the showrooms at the Regenstein Education Center at CBG. The Central States Dahlia Society celebrated their 80th year by presenting the Midwest Dahlia Show. While we have some dahlias at RBG, I couldn't believe the impressive color range and size of some of these varieties (displayed in many rooms and greenhouses). These were some hard core dahlia fanatics and there is a lot of work in getting dahlias to "show quality" like this. Dahlias, while blooming well in summer, put on a heavy flush of blooms in late September in to early October and continue to fascinate me. We have focused on displaying shorter varieties with dark maroon foliage (no staking). This was an extra bonus for me to see this show and I'm inspired to try more dahlias next year. When I started at RBG, we had a dahlia collection that Dr. Sholl, one of our original "Grumpies", maintained. We ultimately couldn't maintain it but I continue to enjoy seeing dahlias and have never seen a variety I didn't like.