The Garden Magazine, December, 1921 



193 



fading entirely from public no- 

 tice until such time as the in- 

 troduction of the Cactus type 

 gave fresh zest to their culture. 



There seems to be some mys- 

 tery about the Dahlia in Amer- 

 ica from several years before the 

 period marked by the advent of 

 the Cactus Dahlia up to about 

 1890. It is hard to find out just 

 whatwasbeingdonewith.it then; 

 perhaps no historian thought it 

 worthy of notice; but it was dur- 

 ing this time that the modern 

 Dahlia interests had their birth 

 and obscure childhood, Many 

 present-day Dahlia worshippers 

 were then active young men and 

 surely some of them will come 

 forward and dispel the gloom 

 that surrounds the babyhood of 

 their favorite. A number of the 

 fine old varieties yet grown 

 came in then, but they do 

 not carry the brand of their 

 originators; unhappily, the 

 practice of cataloguing the orig- 

 inator with the variety, quite 

 general before i860, has only just begun to be used again. 



We know that Henderson and Dreer were doing much in in- 

 troducing new Dahlias and doubtless there were others also. 

 Then with the rapid development of the great florist establish- 

 ments about 1890, the organization of the business of flower 

 growing, and the introduction of the new Decorative, Peony- 

 flowered, and Collarette types in Europe, Dahlia raising received 

 fresh opportunity for development. In 1895 the original 

 American Dahlia Society was organized. Peacock and Michel, 

 present-day Dahlia leaders, were among the organizers. Un- 

 fortunately, it soon was chloroformed by some of its originators; 

 and, while it showed the tendency to "get together," did not 

 have a chance to help the cause much. 



JOSIAH T. MAREAN 



Justice of the New York State Supreme Court whose fifteen years of 

 breeding and selection in Dahlias has developed a well-defined strain of 

 large-flowered Decoratives. The Judge is alongside his variety Emperor 



BUT who are the great breed- 

 ers producing the many 

 new American Dahlias that 

 come into our gardens each 

 year? The ease with which the 

 Dahlia varies into thousands of 

 luxurious form-and-color com- 

 binations has made it such a 

 flower for the multitude that 

 its prophets are picked with 

 difficulty from the many of 

 lesser rank who aided its 

 development. Other flowers 

 that more grudgingly give up 

 their treasures have produced 

 greater lights among their hu- 

 man friends. We get Dahlia 

 flowers from seed in four or five 

 months, and three years is con- 

 sidered enough for test before 

 introducing. Compare that with 

 ten or even twenty years from 

 seed to market for a new Peony. 

 It is so easy to get new Dahlia 

 varieties of some merit that 

 dealer vies with dealer year 

 after year to offer pages of his 

 own novel creations in each 

 annual catalogue. Thus few stand out as major prophets of the 

 Dahlia. 



All the distinct classes now grown have come into being in 

 European gardens; the Cactus, Decorative, Peony-flowered, and 

 Collarette types originating, or at least having their greatest 

 development, within the last twenty-five to forty years. How- 

 ever, the Dahlia has acquired certain characters that are dis- 

 tinctively American. When we see the splendid combinations of 

 reds and yellows blending in indescribable mixtures in our most 

 popular varieties, we do not have to go far to find their counter- 

 part in the October landscape, in whose autumn colors visitors 

 from other countries find a distinctively American wonder. 

 In America we love big, brilliant, glorious things. Each year 



RICHARD VINCENT, JR. 



Whose enthusiasm as President of the 

 American Dahlia Society from its in- 

 ception has won him the admiration 

 of the trade and amateur growers 



J. J. BROOMALL 



One of the earliest Dahlia fanciers 

 in California and leader of con- 

 temporary growers and raisers 



ELIZABETH LYMBERY 



Who, as Bessie Boston, became an en- 

 thusiast of the Dahlia and is actively 

 identified with its progress in California 



