208 The Amateur's Book of the Dahlia 



was twenty years ago. Stredwick has enlarged 

 it and named his new one F. W. Fellows. Just 

 as fine in form and colour, twice the size, it 

 bears fewer blossoms, but all growers are unani- 

 mous in its praise. 



A rose pink, sometimes light, sometimes dark, 

 according to the weather and the food, is George 

 Walters. Always softened with a golden sheen 

 at the base of the petals, always large and loose, 

 always beautiful, yet no one can agree to what 

 class it belongs. The American Dahlia Society 

 has definitely placed it as a hybrid cactus — 

 probably because it fits the other classes less. 

 Indeed, the hybrid cactus class seems to absorb 

 all types that fit into no other. 



Some years ago a dahlia appeared from La 

 Conner, Washington, for which it was named, of 

 so unusual a form that it was called " Carnation 

 flowered" — which described it exactly. An up- 

 right blossom of long fluffy petals on a wiry stem; 

 a soft rose iridescent with blue and gold, the 

 flower stands out in my memory above all 

 others of those days. There was no class to fit 

 it, and no dahlia society to regulate it. It was 

 so frail, however, that the blossom seldom lasted 

 more than a day after cutting, and so delicate 

 were the tubers that it took a genius to winter it 

 over. I doubt now if the variety exists. 



