Dahlia Dilemmas

Looks like a Zinnia to me.

If Wunx and I can ever get our butts in gear, we're planning to build a website for the Utah Dahlia Society. Wunx is a designer and a web programmer and all sorts of other geeky things!

So, I happily partnered with her on this project knowing full well that 99.5% of the hard work would rest smack dab upon her shoulders.

My job would be to come up with a snappy tag line and then take a long lunch. I don't know that it's all that challenging or professionally rewarding being the writer. But it's certainly efficient!

So, last night I thought I'd put forth 5 of the 10 minutes I intended to invest in the We.Be.Dahlias.com web site and that's when I began to see the error of my ways...

Did you know there are over 50,000* named varieties of Dahlias? Including 3 of them in this blog post who have yet to be identified?

Fun facts to know and tell!

Dahlias may look bold and beautiful but they're wimps in disguise.

• You have to dig them up in autumn or they'll freeze their little toes.
• They are highly susceptible to hungry buggers.
• They need a lot of water, fertilizer and TLC.
• Last but definitely not least - they don't grow well in my clay soil. The whole reason I volunteered for this gig was because I thought they'd give me a few bulbs!

Knowing now what I know about Dahlias I've decided to stick with the Dahlia impostor in this blog post. Because she loves clay soil, winter slumber and an inattentive Mother (aka gardener.)

Can you tell which of these flowers isn't a Dahlia?

* The 50,000 varieties of Dahlias could be 20,000 varieties, depending upon which website you visit. Fingers crossed it's the latter...