By Beatrice Hawkins
On the 10 and 11th March, Warwick Horticultural Society held the annual autumn flower show and it was an amazing display of what can be grown in our town and surrounding area.
The array of flowers, pot plants and vegetables was a delight to see given the season we have been having. I know we have had some rain in recent weeks and thankfully my lawn needs cutting again, but even with this brief reprieve, gardens have been suffering, so I was thrilled to see the quality and number of entries received.
Our judge Barry Murphy agreed that, although entries may have been down a little, the quality was a credit to the exhibitors. The floral art section was, as usual, absolutely beautiful. There are some very talented and artistic ladies in our area.
The dahlia section, as always with the autumn show, held some beautiful blooms. I am always envious and in awe of the people who grow these lovely, show stopping, blooms. The variety of size, form and colour was most appealing.
Roses were well represented and a great display of other cut flowers filled a table with colour.
Pot plants of many varieties were on display and a good showing of hanging planters made me wish for somewhere to hang things at home!
Vegetables and herbs were well represented with prickly cucumbers and eggplants showing something a little different. Climbing spinach was new to me, as was Russian spinach, that looked for all the world to me like common “dock” weed! Another plant that I have only recently seen was “lettuce leaf basil”. The size of the leaves was amazing and still with the lovely strong scent of basil. As the exhibitor, Richard Oelhmann, didn’t want it back I brought it home and have enjoyed the sight and smell in a container on my kitchen bench…delightful thank you very much!! I’ll try growing that and the climbing spinach next year.
The display was a credit to the devoted gardeners of our area and the Horticultural Society appreciates their efforts and dedication and would like to thank all those who supported the show again this year either by entering or coming to see.
After seeing the amazing display of dahlias at the show, my curiosity was piqued and I decided I needed to find out some of their history.
They are native to Mexico and some other South American countries where simple forms grow wild in open valleys. They were greatly valued and cultivated by the Aztecs. The tubers were eaten like potatoes and also used medicinally as the skin of the tubers contains a natural antibiotic. The flowers were used to treat epilepsy. The inulin contained in the tubers can also be converted into a natural sweetener. It was an all-around useful plant for the Aztecs, as tree dahlias can grow up to 6 metres and the stems are hollow. These stems were used to carry water and the Aztecs name for the plant was “acocotli” meaning “water cane”.
Much of the early Aztec history and uses of the dahlias was lost during the Spanish Inquisition until, in 1570, King Phillip II sent Francisco Hernandez to study the natural resources of Mexico. He stayed for 7 years and an associate drew and described the native plants and these drawings and information was published in 1651. This was not acted on for many years until in 1789 a gardener from the botanical gardens in Mexico City sent seeds of 3 varieties to botanist Antonio Jose Cavinilles who grew them in the Royal Botanical Gardens in Madrid. He named these plants after the Swedish botanist, Andreas Dahl.
The resultant plants from his breeding of these 3 became popular through Europe and seeds were shared. They eventually made their way back across the Atlantic and the first Dahlia Society in America was founded in San Francisco 1917. In the interim they had arrived in Australia and we beat the Americans to the punch with the South Australia Dahlia Society formed in 1888.
In 1936 there were 14,000 cultivars registered and today there are over 50,000! Varieties in all colours except blue, all derived from that original three types of seeds from Mexico grown in the gardens of Madrid in the 18th century. Dedicated breeders are still trying to perfect blue and frost hardy varieties. From these centuries of breeding, dahlias today have one of the largest range of form, colour and size of any flower grown.
They are an obvious choice as the national flower of Mexico and are said to symbolise elegance, inner strength, change, creativity and dignity.
*This is an old article that has been digitised so our readers have access to our full catalogue.
