Pretty pictures: Dahlia cvv.

It turns out that I don't have particularly strong feelings one way or the other about Dahlias. I sort of feel like I ought to -- there are certainly some very vocal Dahlia enthusiasts out there -- but I can't work up much more than a resounding meh. This is perhaps a character defect, though I'm inclined to blame it on the fact that a lot of other kinds of flowers -- daisies, chrysanthemums, Zinnias -- do similar kinds of flowers. Dahlias lack distinctness, for me, I guess is what I'm saying.

Three of these are NOIDs I photographed last week at Lowe's; the two speckled/striped ones are from a mixed group that were identified as D. 'Fireworks.'

The first and last pictures are my favorites.

Question for the Hive Mind: Dahlia NOID

A PATSP reader writes,

I recently found your website while looking for growing information on some cacti- but after browsing through many past posts, I noticed that you and your readers help a lot of people with various plant ID. I fell in love with a Dahlia [in] a public garden about a year ago, and have not been able to figure out what kind it is. I was hoping someone might recognize it and know what it is called! It is a huge blossom, probably about 10-12” wide if I remember correctly. Very beautiful, rich jewel tone pink. The blossom seems to face downward, but there are so many frilly, wavy petals it all looks like a big messy ball. I have attached pictures (the last picture is of a soon-to-open bud), and greatly thank you in advance for your help!

Anybody have any guesses? Or know of any good Dahlia-centric sites that might be useful?

Pretty picture: Dahlia 'Dahlietta Jenny'

Saw this at the ex-job sometime in the last week (it's all kind of blurring together lately). I understand abstractly why people like Dahlias, but they don't do a lot for me personally.


I googled in the hopes of finding something interesting to share about this particular variety, and didn't really find anything, though I did run into a couple sites (1) (2) that seemed to be suggesting that people can and do grow Dahlias indoors. I kind of think that this may not be true. The ones we had in the greenhouse last year at work (not 'Dahlietta Jenny:' a couple other varieties, I don't remember what they were) got spider mites so bad that I can't imagine that going well for any kind of extended period. Maybe they mean "grow indoors" in the sense that people "grow" mums indoors, or primulas: i.e., they keep them until all the flowers fall off and then throw them in the trash. I don't know.

In any case, it's a nice flower. I'm a fan of orange.

Pretty picture: Dahlia 'Dark Angel Dracula,' 'Mussette,' 'Vincent'

My biggest problem with Dahlias, historically, is that I confuse them with lots of other flowers. I think after this spring, though, I've probably gotten that part under control.

Dahlia 'Mussette'
I don't especially like 'Mussette.' It's okay, but I'm not a huge fan of the "explosion of petals" sorts of flowers, like peonies and chrysanthemums.

Dahlia 'Vincent'
'Vincent' is okay, though. I wonder if it's named for Vincent Van Gogh, and what he would have thought about having an orange flower named for him. He semi-famously said that orange was the color of insanity. I've never known why, exactly, but there you go.

Dahlia 'Dark Angel Dracula'
The 'Dark Angel' Dahlias are nice. The picture doesn't quite do this one justice - the dark foliage is kinda neat in person, even if the flower is less elaborate. The 'Dark Angels' sold pretty briskly, too.

Random plant event: Dahlia 'Munchen' flower

The more time I spend working with all these annuals and perennials, as opposed to tropicals / houseplants, the more pairs of plants I'm running across that I realize now I had confused with one another. Like for example, I thought petunias and pansies were the same thing for a long time. I was even worse about Dahlias, which somehow I had confused with Zinnia. Or at least I think it was Zinnia. Now that I've had a proper introduction to both, it's hard to remember what I thought. Even when I know the difference, sometimes the similarity of the names trips me up: I may never be able to talk quickly and fluidly about Callas or Cannas.

Dahlia 'Munchen'