Fresh focus

摘要

Colorful and diverse, dahlias are now enjoying an extended season. HOW DO YOU describe dahlias (to a customer on the phone, for example)? After all, some dahlias resemble anemones, while others are more like chrysanthemums, peonies, or even water lilies. Horticultural authorities recognize 14 dahlia types and more than 18,000 cultivars—garden and cut-flower hybrids sprung from at least 36 natural species. Botanists attribute this diversity to a genetic trait called octoploidy, meaning that dahlias possess eight sets of chromosomes in places of the usual two.