Skagit Heights Dahlia Farm

Modern Day Dahlia's                           The Beginning of what we have today

The history and evolution of the modern dahlia are very well documented.

The story of the dahlia is an interesting one, but like all stories
there are areas where speculation and the imagination of the author are not to accurate historical fact.
     The dahlia originated in Central America where it was discovered by botanists accompanying the Conquistadores in the 16th century.
D. imperialis or the tree dahlia as it is sometimes known bears little resemblance to today’s blooms. It was called acocotli, Aztecs who used its hollow stems as pipes to move water from mountain streams to their villages.
     King Phillip II of Spain in 1570 sent Francisco Hernandez to Mexico to study all the natural resources of the county. Staying for 7 years he described plants that resembled the dahlia species, Acocotli and Cocoxochitl.
Although the early botanists noted the existence of the plant, it was not until 1789 that the dahlia arrived on Europe.  From Mexico, Guatemala and Colombia, seeds and tubers that had been gathered “lost” two hundred years by Spanish colonist and were complete hybrids found their way back to Europe.  The earliest arrivals included, it is said D. coccinea, D. pinnata & D. rosea. is the foundation of what we have today.
Abbe Cavanilles  a senior officer of the Royal Botanical Gardens of Madrid set out experimenting with these new arrivals and promptly lost most of them.  He tried again and was assisted by Dr. Andreas Dahl, a Swedish botanist and former student of Linnacus. Dahl extended his knowledge of horticulture by working on projects in Madrid with his friend Cavanilles.  Being good friends the Abbe gave
away the right for this flower to bear his name, which was thus named Dahlia.
     Specimens of the plant found their way to northern Europe and even to Russia, where they were grown by Russian horticulturalist, Professor Georgi. 
     Cavanilles sent seeds and tubers all over Europe first to France and then as it became clear that his hybrid was and exciting and profitable proposition to the rest of Western Europe.
     In Britain, food was the object as was in Mexico, of some early growers, being sold at markets as Jerusalem artichokes.  However this was short lived.  However there was something more rewarding, where it was discovered that the dahlia could and would change its form, face andcolor at a drop of a hat.  By the early 1800’s British nurserymen were changing this sub-tropical hybrid, and the first fully double forms emerged, with a type that fascinated 19th century gardeners that cultivated almost to the exclusion of every other form. Since then there are many forms, shapes, sizes, and hues.  As the dahlia has evolved, what we have now has been carefully hybridized and cultivated over many years.  There is so much more to the history of the dahlia.  This history has been taken in text from the book  DahliaS by Philip Damp

     The history

horticulturalist,