This article is adapted from the book The Dahlias: Its History and Cultivation by Richard Dean, Robert Fife, John Ballantyne, Stephen Jones, William Cuthbertson, and Leonard Baron. It was published in 1903 by Macmillan Company in London and New York.
Although the original work is in the public domain, this article has been edited for the modern reader and contains new material.
This version is Copyright © 2024 by Steve K. Lloyd and may not be reproduced without permission.
Exhibiting the Dahlia
By Stephen Jones (1903)
Edited with revisions by Steve K. Lloyd © 2024
Preparing Dahlias for the Show
EXHIBITING THE DAHLIA
After the instructions given for producing exhibition blooms have been followed, the question of preparing them for the Show naturally arises.
First provide a sufficient number of wooden cups and tin tubes. Also prepare a board for staging them on, which should be of the following dimensions, for a dozen blooms: 24 inches long, 18 inches wide, 9 inches high at the back, and 3 inches high in front, with holes 6 inches apart, painted a dark olive green and varnished. A box or cupboard should also be provided to carry them to the Show without injury.
Cut the blooms in early morning or late at night, when the sun is not shining. When cut,draw the stalk through the wooden cup, and plug with a slice of rhubarb or turnip to fix the bloom (see accompanying illustration)> Then insert the wooden cup into the tin tube, which should be full of water. This will keep the bottom petals from being bruised. They can then be placed in the stand and traveling case.
In staging, care should be taken to arrange the colors harmoniously, putting the largest blooms in the back row, the medium-sized ones in the middle row, and the smallest in front. Place the most striking blooms and colors at the corners, such as a good scarlet, yellow, maroon, and white. The care bestowed on arranging a stand often means the difference between first and second prize.
It is also most important that all the flowers be carefully and legibly named. This counts several points in a close competition. There are several methods of naming, many of them very slipshod.
One very good plan is to write the name neatly on cards 2 inches long by 1 inch in width, and support them with brass pins, 1 inches long, in front of the bloom. Another way is to use cards of the same size as those before mentioned, and attach them with very thin green twine to the Dahlia tube, the card lying flat on the board in front of the bloom.
Cactus varieties are now often exhibited as single blooms like the show dahlias. They are also shown in sprays of six or ten blooms, arranged in pyramidal shape. For sprays cut the blooms with the longest possible stems, selecting those with good double centers, for one bloom with a bad center will spoil a bunch.
Twist a wire round the stalk of each bloom. Then take a thin flower stake, 12 inches long, and fasten to it, with raffia, a nice piece of Dahlia foliage, then place a flower, with a long stalk, on the top to form the apex of the bunch ; work in some green moss, then two more flowers, then three flowers, keeping plenty of moss all down the stem, to convey moisture to any flowers with short stems, back up with foliage and introduce some good unopened buds amongst the flowers, to give the spray a more graceful appearance. Each flower should be kept quite clear of the others. If ten blooms are required add more blooms at the bottom of the bunch.
The same remarks apply to Pompon, Single, and Single Cactus varieties ; when cutting the Single varieties select blooms that have only the outer row of stigmas exposed. Various methods are adopted in staging the bunches after they are arranged, but the best way is on light stands or stages. If twelve bunches are to be staged they should be arranged in three rows, each row rising 6 or 9 inches above the other. The staging should be painted green, or covered with green moss or fern fronds, and the tubes used to hold the water should be at least l^ inches in diameter by 3j inches deep. Brown stone jars, made for the purpose, are now being largely used for setting up flowers of this class for exhibition. Being of an unobtrusive colour they suit very well. In naming the varieties use cards about 3 inches by 1 inch, placed in a slit on the top of a thin flower stick, painted green. Allow the name to appear just above the top of the bunch, or it may be inserted in front just below the lowermost blooms, if the bunches are so arranged that it can be easily seen there. There is much more scope for tasteful arrangement in these classes than in the Show and Fancy ones, and the best lesson a new beginner can get is by visiting a good exhibition, and noting how the successful exhibitors set up their flowers.
