WHAT AMERICA HAS DONE FOR THE DAHLIA 



Triumph of the Most Popular of Present-Day Favorites and the Steps of Its 

 Ascent — A Tribute to Those Who Fostered the Fancy in the Pioneer Period 



Editor's Note: — This presentation of the personalities concerned in the early days of the Dahlia in our gardens adds one more chapter to 

 the collection of similar reviews in The Garden Magazine that have discussed the Rose, the Peony, the Iris. Others, it is hoped, will follow from 

 time to time. Each article is prepared by a devoted student of the particular flower and embodies all the facts actually available in an effort to 

 render honor to whom honor is due. The early records of American gardening are but fragmentary and the effort to present a consecutive 

 account involves much study and research, which is undertaken always as an affectionate tribute by an enthusiastic admirer to the subject of his 

 devotion. Prof. Norton is busy cataloguing the entire nomenclature of the numerous varieties. It is hoped that any significant fact that may 

 be within the knowledge of any reader and not generally known will be communicated for the purpose of the record, and in the interests of truth. 



I. EARLY DAYS AND THE PIONEERS 

 J. B. S. NORTON 



University of Maryland 



! LMOST within the memory of living men the Dahlia has 

 expanded from the single flower of limited color range, 

 known a hundred years ago, into greater variety of 

 form and hue than any flower to-day under cultivation. 

 In this stupendous transformation — contemporaneous, strangely 

 enough, with her own period of greatest 

 development — what part has America 

 played? 



As compared with Roses or Lilies, for 

 example, the Dahlia is a new thing; its 

 history as a garden flower did not begin 

 until after the opening of the nine- 

 teenth century, though known to our 

 Aztec predecessors and used by them. 



About 1 814, when double Dahlias 

 first began to be cultivated in Europe, 

 reputable firms dealing in seeds and 

 plants were just being established in 

 America. Importation from Europe 

 (especially from England) was relied 

 upon, when the best was wanted in any 

 line; consequently we find a consider- 

 able number of the early English varie- 

 ties of Dahlias in American catalogues 

 in the twenties of the last century. 



Grant Thorburn of New York was 

 a leader in the seed and plant business 

 at that time, and as the Show Dahlia 

 craze developed during the next ten 

 years in England and was reflected in 

 America, Thorburn became one of the 

 most notable importers of the new vari- 

 eties each year. The great Prince estab- 

 lishment at Flushing, Long Island, also 

 had extensive Dahlia gardens and its 

 annual catalogues listed many of the 

 latest English Show varieties. 



A man of great activity, as well ■llllilllllllllllllllllll!^ 

 as love for all things horticultural, 



was C. M. Hovey of Boston. A dealer in horticultural sup- 

 plies and editor of the old Magazine of Horticulture, he did 

 much to promote this branch of practical science and was an 

 ardent supporter of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. 

 He was also an active backer of the Dahlia shows that began to 

 flourish in imitation of those held in England. Hovey and 

 Thorburn, Marshall P. Wilder the well-known pomologist 

 of Boston, the Buists of Philadelphia, and a few others vied 

 with one another in the big shows held in Boston, New York, 

 and even in Washington, which was then still quite a small town. 



Few new varieties were produced in America in those days, 

 and the new European introductions replaced those of the 



CHARLES MASON HOVEY (1810-1887) 



Pioneer nurseryman and seedsman of Boston, 

 Mass., who as president of the Massachusetts 

 Horticultural Society, and editor of the 

 Magazine of Horticulture did much to foster 

 the fancy for the Dahlia 



previous year in the gardens with even greater rapidity than 



new Dahlia varieties succeed one another in our present-day 



catalogues. 



Robert Buist put a few seedlings on the market about 1840; 



and in the long lists of " Lords," " Ladies," " Dukes," and 



" Duchesses" in the Dahlia catalogues, 

 a few names of American heroes also 

 appear. We see also in catalogues in 

 the forties the names of Heiskill, Han- 

 cock, and especially Schmitz as Ameri- 

 can originators of Dahlias. The last 

 named lived at Roxborough near 

 Philadelphia, and the Dreer catalogues 

 of that time carry announcements of 

 his productions. But after all, what 

 then was matters little, for the Dahlias 

 of that time and their sponsors are gone, 

 leaving scant influence on present- 

 day Dahlia culture in America. The 

 Show Dahlia ran its course and its 

 popularity faded in America apparently 

 before it did in England. 



Most of the present-day leaders in 

 Dahlia development in this country 

 have, like Topsy, just grown. Un- 

 known cultivators of small gardens 

 "grew Dahlias also." Nobody told 

 them to like the humble flower. Only 

 the unfolding glories expanding in the 

 autumn morning's dew spoke to them. 

 They grew more Dahlias. They be- 

 came more discriminating. They began 

 to grow seedlings. A fine new kind 

 came. 1 1 was so easy ! The Dahlia had 

 acquired a new devotee. The country 

 soon became filled with admirers. 



ABOUT the middle of the century 

 . commenced what might be called 

 the period of disfavor. This does not mean that people stopped 

 growing Dahlias. During the period of its greatest un- 

 popularity — or rather dispopularity — both in England and 

 America, Dahlias were listed in many catalogues each year; 

 English breeders like Keynes were all the time putting out 

 varieties — no better than the older ones in most cases it is true — 

 and thousands of roots and plants were sold annually. But 

 in the attention of fanciers and leaders in flower growing other 

 flowers had displaced the Dahlia. 



Judging from the fact that they steadily continued to exhibit 

 Dahlias at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society's shows, 

 the Hoveys may be credited for having helped Dahlias from 



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