The Dahlia

Of course I would love to write about the Narcissus, but I also have to stay focused and try to get you, the dear newsletter reader, enthusiastic about the Dahlia.

I must honestly admit that I have fallen a little bit in love with the Dahlia in recent years. Of course, the Narcissus remains my favorite bulb plant, but what the Dahlia shows in summer in flower splendor is truly unprecedented. Applause for the Dahlia .

(By the way, 'Applause for the Dahlia' is a very nice and cheerfully written book by Marie Mul. Just Google it, it's a real must-have book for the Dahlia lover)

Years ago I would have looked at you with astonished eyes if you had told me that I would ever be completely crazy about the Dahlia . I would not have told you but I would certainly have thought 'that sweet woman is a bit of a cuckoo'. All that noise in the garden from those flashy colorful flowers, that is really not necessary for me.

Dahlia Strawberry Ice

But yes, if you start a flower bulb webshop your customers will also ask if you do not sell summer flowering bulbs. So I went to the Dahlia show garden to see what was available. That was not disappointing at all, not all Dahlias made the fuss that I suspected they would make. In fact, there were some very beautiful ones with refined flowers on beautiful healthy plants, I really enjoyed it. But the big surprise came two weeks later; they were even more beautiful. And two weeks later they were still so beautiful, it seemed like the flowering of the Dahlias would never end. After a few visits to the Dahlia show garden I was sold.

The Dahlia garden at De Tulperij

Let me explain what the Dahlia show garden is. The Dahlia growers jointly plant a garden each year in which they show all their varieties. They do this mainly to show the flower bulb traders what is in stock. In recent years they have done this on a small field next to De Tulperij at Oude Herenweg 16B in Voorhout, near Lisse. I have included this address on purpose because you as a Dahlia lover are also very welcome to come and enjoy the Dahlias. If you are in the vicinity of Lisse in the months of August or September, really go and have a look. The managers of the Tulperij, Anja and Daan Jansze, also serve a nice cup of coffee.

Dahlia Mikayla Miranda

And what is also nice if you are interested in a certain plant is that you start reading and talking more about it. You discover that there is a whole world behind the Dahlia; there are summer flower parades around the Dahlia, Dahlia associations and even the Keukenhof has a beautiful Dahlia garden around its Kasteel Keukenhof in the summer months, definitely worth a visit for the Dahlia lover.

Dahlia Twynings White Chocolate

What struck me is that botanists have divided the Dahlia, just like the Narcissus , into all sorts of different groups. The shape of the Dahlia flower is used to divide it into a specific group. There is a group for Single-flowered Dahlias, Anemone-flowered, Waterlily, Decorative, Pompom, Cactus, Fimbriata… and so on, up to 14 different groups of Dahlias.

Dahlia Thomas A. Edison

In the Fluwel webshop I don't make this distinction, it's all just a bit too complicated for me and I suspect that most garden lovers just want beautiful Dahlia flowers and it won't matter to them whether this Dahlia flower falls into the group of Cactus Dahlias or whether it belongs in the group of Semi-cactus Dahlias.

Dahlia Bishop of York

With the Narcissus I also have the experience that there is no need for such information among the gardener. I also see that those who are interested have already delved much deeper into the Narcissus or the Dahlia. They are often the people I approach when I want to know something.

Dahlia Karma Serena in the garden at Keukenhof Castle

But this is all background information that the Dahlia you are going to plant in your garden probably does not care about at all. It does not care about any of this and will just happily bloom in your garden.
Seriously, if you have no experience with the Dahlia, give it a try, who knows, you might fall in love with it as much as I do.

After planting, watch out for snails.

Bulbocodium narcissus China Jewel, one of the new varieties at our nursery.

I can't resist, to conclude with a beautiful Daffodil, it is spring after all.

Kind regards,

Carlos van der Veek.