| The Dahlia: Drama Queen of the Flower World |
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Birmingham, Alabama, October 29, 2001 -- The two-toned pooh variety of dahlia graces Lucy Calvert's home. (SHNS photo by Mark Weber /Birmingham Post-Herald)
Birmingham, Alabama, October 29, 2001 -- The large pink flowers of the islander variety of dahlia adorn Lucy Calvert's home. (SHNS photo by Mark Weber /Birmingham Post-Herald)
Birmingham, Alabama, October 29, 2001 -- The dramatic wine frost type of dahlia plant. (SHNS photo by Mark Weber /Birmingham Post-Herald)
Birmingham, Alabama, October 29, 2001 -- The ivory palaces variety of dahlia is one of many at Lucy Calvert's home. (SHNS photo by Mark Weber /Birmingham Post-Herald)
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By Leigh Anne Monitor
Scripps Howard News Service Call it the autumn drama queen of the flower world: the dahlia. Just as hot summer weather brings out the rose enthusiast, the crisp days of fall lure in the dahlia devotee. Dahlias stand proudly as those can't-miss big bloomers with sprawling round red, white, yellow and other colorful flowers. "If you walk in a room with a vase of flowers like that -- it just cuts the ice so well," said Ed Whitfield, a dahlia grower in Birmingham, Alabama, who cares for the plants with his wife, Kathy. "You're almost on a friendly basis," Whitfield continued. "It's a way of making other people feel special, because they (the flowers) are so beautiful." Like so many glowing jewels, the fairly sturdy blooms shine in a rainbow of colors and sizes down to a tiny 1-inch size. Some even include flowers shaped like baseballs, with flower petals curving all the way back to the stem. These beauties -- although a bit labor intensive -- are a greats way to add color to a fall garden, Calvert said. "You tend to start out with a few, and your garden tends to grow and grow. My husband and I have about 300 (plants)," she said. The dahlia demands at least a half day of sun every day, an inch or two of water each week; well-drained soil rich with organic matter, a low-nitrogen fertilizer as needed, pruning, insecticides for beetles and grasshoppers and staking and tying as the plant grows taller. It's little wonder Calvert says the secret for growing the plant is lots of care. "I would think that the labor would be similar (to roses) because of the pruning, the water requirements, the drainage requirements," Calvert said. It all starts when a dahlia grower places a tuber (or bulb-like) plant in the ground around the first of June with a view to blossoming in October. Dahlias can also be planted earlier in the season for late summer color. After it frosts, the plants must be dug, divided and stored. They are replanted the next year, Calvert said. For folks getting started, Calvert suggests popular varieties: David George, which has a deep red medium-size bloom; Bonaventure, which has a large bronze bloom; or Allie Yellow, a dahlia with a small yellow bloom. Many couples grow the plants together, such as Lucy Calvert and her husband, Butch, and the Whitfields. Lucy Calvert is president of the Alabama Dahlia Society. Ed Whitfield, for example, will prepare the soil and spray the plants, as well as shove stakes in the ground. Kathy Whitfield takes care of the tying and trimming. "It takes a certain amount of dedication," Ed Whitfield said. "It usually takes the wife and the husband helping do them. The men get involved and make a commitment." The Whitfields began growing dahlias four years ago, thanks to seeing the plants at a flower show. "We were intrigued," Ed Whitfield said. "The first year, we grew like 30 plants. The second year, we doubled it (to) 60. The third year was about 100. Now we're doing about 140 or 150 plants." One of the parts Whitfield loves most is sharing the flowers. He and his wife have given dahlias to friends, family, neighbors, dinner party guests, hospital patients, and newlyweds. "I have friends, too, that come over and take photographs of them when they're growing, and I do that, too," Ed Whitfield said. "There are so many diverse patterns of color -- and the size of them. Most people, that's what pulls them to the dahlias." Leigh Anne Monitor of the Birmingham (Ala.) Post-Herald can be reached at lamonitor@postherald.com. (Visit SHNS on the Web at www.shns.com .)
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