Addisonia 51 



(Plate 218) 



DAHLIA "AMI NONIN » 

 " Ami Nonin " Dahlia 



Garden Hybrid 

 Family CarduacEae Thistle Family 



The French variety "Ami Nonin" is an attractive and desirable 

 representative of the class of dahlias known as "collarettes." In 

 the "collarette"* group, the flower-head, according to the definition 

 of the American Dahlia Society, is of the "single" type, having 

 "not more than nine floral rays with one or more smaller rays, 

 usually of a different color, from the heart of each ray floret, making 

 a collar about the disk. " 



Priority in the matter of developing the first modern collarette 

 dahlia probably belongs to M. Gerbeaux of Nancy, France, who 

 introduced the "Gloire de Nancy" in 1898 (Revue Horticole 76: 

 64. 1904). Later and better varieties and those most often credi- 

 ted with priority were the " President Viger" and "Joseph Goujon," 

 which were originated in Lyon, France, in the season of 1900. The 

 better of these, "President Viger," was advertised in the 1901 cata- 

 logue of Ri voire, Pere et Fils, of Lyon, for distribution in 1902. 

 A flower-head of the same general style seems to have been devel- 

 oped by H. Cannell & Sons of England in 1901 (Gard. Chron. Ill 

 30: 153. 1901). " President Viger" reached England in 1902 and 

 seed at least of the "Dahlia a collerette" was offered in American 

 catalogues as early as 1903 (Peter Henderson & Co.). Other varie- 

 ties of the same general character soon followed. They were 

 recommended as more endiu-ing for cut flowers than varieties of the 

 simpler single-flowered type and most of them have justified this 

 claim. The later varieties have shown many attractive combina- 

 tions of color and those in which the color of the narrower smaller 

 rays of the collar is in pleasing contrast to that of the larger outer 

 rays have been especially popular. As in most of the other groups 

 of dahlias, some of the varieties are naturally short in habit of 

 growth, others tall, and others of medium growth, and some are 

 naturally floriferous, while others are less so. Among the best and 

 most popular varieties of the collarette type in cultivation at the 



* Some of the English and a very few of the American dahlia-growers have 

 preferred to retain the French orthography " collerette." The usual French 

 name for the group is " Dahlias k collerette " or " Dahlias simples 4 collerette." 



