September 11, 1913. 



The Florists^ Review 



9 



THE DAHLIA AND <^ 

 ^ THE RETAIL FLORIST 



A flower that is living down a reputation for uselessness to 

 retailers and coming: into its own for a brief season each year 



HIS is the height of the 

 dahlia season, but how 

 many retailers are usiag 

 the September queen? A 

 good many, to be sure, but 



_^ not nearly so many as 



should. It is worth more attention than 



it gets, in flower stores. 

 The dahlia has had to live down a 



io]»iitation — still has it to live down, 



one might say, for far too many store 



men think of the dahlia 



as a fine old-fashioned 



flower, excellent in its 



jiliu'c in grandmother's 



j>arden, but not a commer- 



dal cut flower to put on 



the counter with the rose 



and the carnation. Eeally, 



that is an old-fashioned 



idea. The modern dahlia 



has a place beside the 



modern rose. 



Millions of Dahlias. 



The season of the dah- 

 lia is brief. It begins 

 early in September, is at 

 its height in the latter 

 part of the month, and 

 lasts until frost cuts the 

 plants. During this time 

 the big growers of dahlia 

 roots market millions of 

 flowers, but there are only 

 a small number of florists 

 using them, a small num- 

 Ijer, that is, in comparison 

 with those who might 

 liandle dahlias to their 

 own profit and the satis- 

 faction of their customers. 



The east is the section 

 in which the modern dah- 

 lia has been given the 

 ffreatest measure of ap- 

 preciation. The biggest 

 dahlia farms are there, al- 

 though there are some 

 large growers in the west, 

 and the dahlia as a cut 

 •lower has come into con- 

 siderable favor in Buf- 

 falo, Pittsburgh and east- 

 ward. Philadelphia and 

 New York are the mar- 

 kets where the greatest 

 quantities^re sold. 



One point that is a 

 little surprising is that in 

 most cities where the 

 dahlia is used the stores 

 handling it are generally ' 



the ones with the high cWss, trade rather 

 than the ones with the popular class 

 ot peonage; the arJstocratic class of 

 "■ade appears to hold no prejudice 

 :>y:ainst the flower, while many of "fhe 

 ••oniniQn people" consider it to be. as 

 I'U'beian as themselves and prefer rtfecs 

 ''!■ carnations, recognized greenhopse 

 products. 



The public may need further educat- 

 ing to a thorough appreciation of the 

 dahlia as a cut flower, but the- chief 

 obstacle to its general use is the old- 

 time difficulty of getting shipments 

 through in good condition. It is an 

 easily bruised flower and does not ship 

 well in hot weather. As soon as cool 

 days arrive, however, it is a much bet- 

 ter traveler and New Jersey dahlias 

 then go long distances. The wholesalers, 



The Single Dahlias are Wonderfully Effective. 



too, have found the dahlia such an im- 

 ])ortant item that they have made a- 

 study of packing and shipping, recog- 

 nizing that, if cattlej'as can be shipped 

 successfully half across the continent, 

 surely dahlias should go anywhere they 

 are likely to be wanted. They do, too, 

 when the weather is cool. Bruising is 

 avoided by eareful handling, and the 



shippers have learned how to pack them 

 so they will travel. 



Fopulac Uses. 



The dahlia is a good seller as a loose 

 cut flower. By far the larger part of 

 the great quantities that will be sold 

 in the next two to four weeks will be 

 handed on to the public as loose cut 

 flowers, either in dollar boxes or in 

 other counter sales. For designs and 

 bouquets the dahlia is not 

 well adapted. But as a 

 decorative flower for au- 

 tumn store openings or 

 for dances, receptions and 

 the like there is nothing 

 better. Used in combina- 

 tion with autumn foliage 

 and for harvest effects, a 

 wise choice of varieties 

 permits of the use of 

 color schemes not other- 

 wise easily available and 

 leads to a result that sel- 

 dom fails to give satisfac- 

 tion — satisfactory to the 

 customer because of the 

 admiration the work 

 evokes and satisfactory 

 to the decorator because 

 the profit is good. 



The Types. 



Dahlias also are splen- 

 didly adapted to vase and 

 basket work; wherever 

 bright colors and bold ef- 

 fects are desired the big 

 decorative type of dahlias 

 is useful; where some- 

 thing lighter is needed 

 the cactus varieties are 

 what are wanted, while 

 for table work there is 

 nothing in the whole flo- 

 ral kingdom that can be 

 used more successfully 

 than can the single dah- 

 lias. Indeed, it may al- 

 most be said that the rise 

 of the dahlias as a flo- 

 rists' flower dates from 

 the introduction of the 

 Twentieth Century, the 

 variety used by W. J. 

 Palmer & Son, Buffalo, in 

 the basket arrangement 

 illustrated on page 10. 

 Since the advent of the 

 original Century a con- 

 siderable number of other 

 varieties of the type have 

 made their appearance, so that there 

 now is a rather wide range of color 

 available in this light, graceful flower. 



The Varieties. 



You can not order dahlias by name, 

 the way one does roses. Some of the 

 growers catalogue hundreds of varieties 

 and manv of the wholesalers do not 



