Monday, July 19, 2010

Flower of the Week: Dahlias

Dahlias are just starting to come into season and that means you'll be seeing it integrated into many of the arrangements we are designing for our clients at The Hidden Garden. I absolutely love the color varieties the dahlia comes in from deep burgundy, raspberry magenta, tangerine orange tones, blush pink, white, yellow and variegated shades. It has a rich history of decorative and ceremonial purposes and is often mentioned by many as a favorite flower.


The dahlia flower was named after a botanist named Anders Dahl but it has many different aliases in several other cultures. For instance, the Japanese call this flower the "Peony of India". Historically, the Aztec people used dahlias in many of their cultural ceremonies and even made small pipes out of their woody stems.






An interesting fact about dahlias is that they have more chromosomes than most flowers so there are many varieties of size, shape, color, and other elements in their buds.


One of the most interesting variations of this flower is the "black dahlia", a flower known for having black color in its petals. The black color usually appears on burgundy dahlias and comes in variations of contrast and brightness. As you know "black" is not a common color description for most flowers so this is one of the few floral varieties that come in such a deep rich tone.

If you are ordering arrangements from The Hidden Garden...don't forget to mention this "favorite flower". It's amazing and we are so fortunate that one of the great Dahlia Growers is right here in our own back yard, Endow.

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