202 The Amateur's Book of the Dahlia 



with her colours, but many plain reds are to be 

 found on her plants, while plain yellows — ^never. 



Orange variegated with red reverts to a plain 

 orange most of the time. Pierrot, so charming 

 when true, is a flagrant sinner in this direction, 

 also disliking to show its white finger tips. 



It is easy enough to breed a yellow dahlia if one 

 is not particular as to the shade of yellow. Both 

 the wild dahlias and the hybrids have a strong 

 tendency toward the sulphur yellow — some- 

 times even with a greenish tinge. The pure gold 

 in a dahlia is almost as rare as the pure gold in 

 the earth; though once it is there it is there to 

 stay. 



I remember many years ago I exhibited at the 

 Short Hills Show three enormous yellow blooms 

 from tubers sent to me by a friend in Wiltshire, 

 England. They were some of the first of the 

 English incurved cactus types of a pale sulphur 

 yellow with drooping tired heads, and were 

 distinctly labelled with their correct name. Glory 

 of Wilts. They were very unusual then, and I 

 was very proud of them until I heard a visitor 

 remark: "Well, I guess they named that one 

 right!" Those drooping heads were never seen 

 in my garden again. 



Yellows overlaid with pink usually have a 

 soft iridescence and warmth of tone. Without 



