Dahlia ‘Hollyhill Joker’s Wild’

Dahlia ‘Hollyhill Joker’s Wild’

This Dahlia was quite unusual as there several different flowers on each plant. Some were all red, some were almost all white and there were a couple like this one with a few white petals. What will they think of next!

Dahlia enthusiasts take the naming and classification of the plants very seriously. With over 40,000 different cultivars trying to keep them straight must be a big job. The stakes at the garden had tags with the names, size, form and color classifications on them.

The tag for ‘Joker’s Wild’ read like this:

BB ID Bi R/W

BB is the size of the flower. It stands for Small, 4 to 6 inches across. The top grade is AA, which stands for Giant, 10 inches plus.

ID stands for Informal Decorative, which is one of the 19 forms recognized as classes.

Bi R/W is the color. Bi-colored Red and White. There are 15 different colors and combinations that are recognized by the American Dahlia Society.

Happy Ruby Tuesday. To see some other red things check out the Ruby Tuesday HQ at the teach’s blog .