The Aztecs are reported to have cultivated dahlias for food, ceremonies and as decorations. Early European visitors to Mexico described their brilliant colors and brought them home for breeding; now they’re grown just about everywhere.
Golden Gate Park is home to the work of some award-winning dahlia hybridizers, including Erik & Gerda Juul and Lou Paradise. Dahlia varieties seem to drift rather rapidly, so they warrant documentation. In honor of the start of Spring, I’ve posted a collection of photos of the various dahlias grown in Golden Gate Park with a variety name for each. These are intended more as documentation than art. The sort of abstraction of these flowers that I prefer merely irritates their breeders. I like to shoot them after their prime and blur out the details, but I’ve tried to avoid that for this group.
Click here for the full collection.
Skipley Spot of Gold
Sellwood Glory
Kenora Fireball
Helene Juul
gold eye