LEONARD BARRON 
TABLE DECORATION 
WITH THE REFINED 
TRUE CACTUS TYPE 
Pink Cactus Dahlia and 
Belladonna Delphinium 
with Maiden-hair Fern 
(Ailing) 
THE FEAST OF THE DAHLIAS 
Real Triumph for the American Dahlia Society 
In Its First Independent Exhibition in New York 
At all events there gathered together during 
those days (September 27, 28, and 29) as great 
and as representative a lot of horticulturists as 
might be expected at any national gathering. 
Garden Club members, amateurs with a general 
love of the garden and its products, pure Dahlia 
enthusiasts, Rose men, Iris and Peony men, as well 
as dealers and commercial and professional horti- 
culturists from a wide area foregathered at the 
festival of the Dahlia. Now indeed it may well 
be said, “The Dahlia has arrived” — not that 
it ever has been very far in the background! It 
is a flower of wonderful allure for the amateur 
with only a few feet of ground to use; its gorgeous coloring, its 
multiple form, and its lavish profusion of bloom captivate all 
who once pause to give it concern. It is not a hardy plant in 
that the roots need caring for over the winter, but that is per- 
haps an added attraction, requiring a minimum of personal at- 
tention. And it yields so much for so little effort. The blooms 
may be cut freely, almost with abandon, and still more and more 
come along. Even the element of tenderness and the chance 
injury (or in an occasional year, complete loss of the bloom) 
by an early frost is oftentimes an incentive to the gardener to 
try his luck once more. Its color range is practically everything 
the floral world has to offer, except blue, and in addition some 
strange shadings of almost metallic lustre, or like the fire from pre- 
cious jewels, that none of the other garden plants will yield. They 
may be raised from seed to flower in a season, and the variety 
then to be had by one’s own efforts will surprise any who have 
not yet entered into that fascinating field. Well, indeed, was it 
named Dahlia variabilis, for it is without doubt the one most 
■ ^OR three days in the last week of September the crowds 
I— came, and saw, and were conquered. True, the season 
■ ite r had been unusually favorable for the perfection of 
exhibition blooms of this magnificent flower of the fall 
garden; not too hot; sufficient rainfall pretty well distributed 
over the season; and no devastating “cold snap” to nip the 
blooms on the eve of the opening of the big show. It was a bold 
venture for this comparatively little known organization to 
open up, all on its own account, on the roof-garden of one of the 
big hotels of the metropolis, but the success of the effort, 
looked at both from within and without, was justifyingly suffi- 
cient. Following the lead of some other bodies, which also took 
their annual exhibitions into a commodious hotel in a central 
city, the American Dahlia Society demonstrated to those who 
w'ere fearsome — and they were not a few — that the one way to 
get an attendance of the public at a floral meeting is to go where 
they, the people, are already wont to go. Is there not a lesson 
here for the management of other floral associations? 
WHAT THE MODERN GROWER MEANS BY A '‘FANCY” FLOWER 
Discarding the older strict subdivisions of "show” and “fancy”, according to color distribution, the term is loosely applied to anything fantastically 
variegated. Right, John Lewis Childs’ variegated crimson on orange with occasional white tips; left, a new Stillman seedling, crimson and white 
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