An item in this week’s Country Life headed “Graceful Dahlias” began as follows:

“It is interesting, and not a little curious, to note the change in public taste concerning the dahlia. Ten years ago the large, double show and fancy varieties with their symmetrical dense heads of cone-like petals, were most in demand, yet they are seldom seen at any exhibition now. At the Royal Horticultural Society’s Hall on Tuesday last Dahlias were very largely shown, yet very few of the type mentioned above were to be seen”.

This is curious, I thought. Why is Country Life, which is normally so sniffy about dahlias suddenly taking them to heart? It was then that I noticed that the article was headed “100 Years Ago” and was in fact a re-print from the edition of 3rd September 1910. During the last 100 years dahlias have gone in and out of fashion and it is only in the last ten years that they have become acceptable again. Well, in the case of Country Life readers acceptable if they have dark leaves. It would be interesting to know the names of the varieties being exhibited at the RHS Hall in 1910- such are the changes in fashion that I doubt if many of them are available today.