Dahlia
(DAL-yuh)

I have two Dahlia portraits today. One is a bud of ‘Mom’s Special’ close up. This isn’t the way I would normally take a picture of a Dahlia. There were some distracting elements behind the flower and I wanted to get really close. I used my 60mm Micro-Nikkor lens on my D70s. The macro lens has been glued to the end of my camera. I would recommend it to any flower photographer. It wasn’t that expensive either. There is some cultural and historical information on Dahlias in previous posts (check the archive).

This Dahlia is growing with the group of Dinnerplate Dahlias that were labeled ‘Mom’s Special’. It doesn’t quite look like the others. It is a nice cultivar that my wife wanted to try this year. I tend to like my Dahlias a little more dramatic but have been happy with the amount of flowers they have produced. I also bought some mixed Dahlias and one might have got mixed with ‘Mom’s Special’. This is the first time I ever bought mixed and it has been both a blessing and a curse. The nice part is seeing what color the flowers are; the not so nice part is not knowing the names.

The picture below is the more traditional approach to shooting Dahlias, at least for me. This is a wonderful cultivar. The only thing is the plant is a little short. That would have been fine if I had known before hand. I am not complaining because I have really enjoyed having this flower around. The cultivar name ‘Procyon’ is named after the 8th brightest star in the sky. It's scientific name is Canis Minor, or the Lesser Dog star. They really got the name right, as this Dahlia would be a star in any garden.