The French Floral Touch: The Magic of Dahlias in Paris
When I started gardening 35 years ago, I admit that I viewed dahlias only out of the corner of my eye, finding them rather garish and even downright gaudy. Then I came eye to eye, or rather nose to bud, with an ethereal blossom called “Café au Lait.” My prejudices gave way to appreciation, awe and even envy. Since then, I have sought them out for my floral compositions, cultivated them fanatically, and tried to convey my enthusiasm for them to others on my garden tours.
A bit of history
Dahlias are native to Mexico, where they’re considered the national flower. They were cultivated for centuries by the Aztecs who feasted on their tubers, fed livestock with their leaves, and used their stems as water pipes, while the flowers were used for celebrations. The plants were noticed by the first Spanish conquistador in the early 16th century, then described in inventories and illustrations during the 17th century.
However dahlias only made their way to Madrid in the late 18th century. The director of the Botanical Garden of Madrid, the Abbot Antonio José Cavanilles, named the plant in honor of the Swedish botanist Anders Dahl. and shared seeds with other botanists and ambassadors. His generous distribution – and the novelty of the blossoms that grew from his seeds – led to the cultivation of this new plant in Italy, England, Germany and France.
At the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, André Thouin initially studied dahlias for their alimentary potential, however no amount of sauce or butter could embellish its taste. Described as a cross between an artichoke and radish, it was finally deemed unpalatable, even to animals! This acknowledgment lead to the dahlia’s coming out as a purely decorative pursuit, to the delight of many enthusiasts.
In the 19th century, an explosion of new shapes, sizes and colors of dahlias began to appear from the Alps to the South of France as well as along the Loire River Valley. The first large, decorative dahlias were created by Jules Chrétien, the head gardener at the Parc de la Tête d’or in Lyon. His boss and the director of this garden went on to create the first Collerette dahlias.
Today there are 49 recognized species and close to 60,000 registered cultivars (named varieties) which are divided into groups relating to the flower’s shape. These have evocative names such as waterlily, orchid, cactus, ball, pompon, star, etc. They are further classified based on their form as single, semi and double flowers, as well as a miscellaneous category for those not fitting neatly into one category.
After an initial period of veneration alongside the rose and the camellia, not to mention elitism, the dahlia fell out of favor. The democratization of gardening spurred by the Industrial Revolution led to a certain disenchantment; everyone was now growing dahlias! Then there was the seasonality issue. Due to its late growing cycle, only beginning to flower in mid-summer, the dahlia competitors found themselves alongside vegetable competitors in the early fall and at county fairs. By the end of WWII, only 20% of the registered dahlia varieties were being grown.
Despite all this waxing and waning, the dahlia hadn’t said its last word. In the 1990s, the respected English gardener Christopher Lloyd ripped out a sickly rose garden at Great Dixter in East Sussex and replanted it with exotics that included the dahlia, thereby signaling to the gardening world that dahlias were “in” again.
Claude Monet’s love of dahlias
Another expert gardener who loved dahlias was Claude Monet, and they can still be observed and enjoyed today at his garden in Giverny. From late June until the first frost, dahlias line the central alleyway between the creeping nasturtiums and the towering perennial sunflowers. The artist also used various forms and colors throughout the upper garden, known as the Clos Normand, in his color-coded beds as well as in mixed borders.
Today dahlias are grown around the waterlily pond, as is the case for this red cactus dahlia (pictured below). While the perimeter of the pond was sparsely planted during Monet’s lifetime, for safety reasons the edges of the pond are densely planted today.
Where to see dahlias in Paris
While some Parisian gardens are looking frazzled from the long months of summer sun, the Parc Floral’s dahlia collection has come into its hour of glory. On the edge of the Bois de Vincennes in eastern Paris, the dahlias are tucked into the back corner of this botanical garden, near the children’s playground and the zip-lines, offering some of the biggest and brightest flowers you’ll ever see. Three centuries of development and creation are on display in the left and central sections of the dahlia garden with historical varieties as well as some botanical species. To the right, you’ll find new varieties competing for prizes in the Parc Floral Dahlia Competition.
This competition was begun in 1988 and draws amateur and professional dahlia growers from around Europe. The top three dahlias in both the large and small sizes are awarded prizes by the internal jury in mid-September. There are also prizes awarded by schoolchildren who visit the garden on a class trip, journalists, florists and qualified amateurs. In the first weeks of September, the general public is also encouraged to cast their vote in a criterium. Should you select the same dahlias in the correct order as the international jury, you may even be invited to participate as a qualified amateur the following year.
The head gardener of the dahlia collection, Christophe Kneblewski, won a prize for a dahlia that he created in 2013 by combining the pollen of a copper-colored dahlia with a yellow center onto the pistil of a pink waterlily-shaped flower. The winning reddish-orange flower was selected by the mayor’s office to embellish the gardens across the city this year because of its resemblance to the Olympic Flame. (This dahlia was baptized the “Parc Floral de Paris.”) The organization and work required to accomplish this feat is beautifully illustrated in this short video.
While the Olympic flame has been extinguished in Paris, Olympic blossoms continue to shine across the city’s 150 parks, gardens and green spaces, thanks to the hard work of the Parks Department, and the creativity of Christophe Kneblewski. Who could have imagined such a fate for the humble dahlia in the hills of New Spain?
Lead photo credit : Dahlias. Photo credit: Amy Kupec Larue
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