I finished the copy of "A Practical Treatise on the Culture of the Dahlia" by Joseph Paxton, FLH HS.
It came from Amazon as a paperback, 109 pages, very large print. It looks like a magazine.
Here is my Cliff's notes or at least notes by memory:
-- A brief history of the dahlia's migration from Mexico to Europe is given
-- He notes dahlias were also called Georginas in England both because there was a similarly named plant and to avoid the lowbrow pronunciation of it as DAll-yah
-- He spends a lot of time describing the type of soil dahlias need and how to amend it, focusing on sandifying a clay soil. He is very disdainful of using too much vegetative matter or manure, saying dahlias are used to the sandy plains of Mexico. He brings up "don't use too much manure" several times across the book.
-- He writes about hand pollination using muslin bags and camel-hair brushes.
-- He advises that the seeds on the outer periphery of the pollen center are largest and most likely to be singles.
-- He is in awe of the many forms of dahlias and how well it thrives even in a cottager's garden, and opines on the qualities of dahlias for show. He thinks perhaps someday someone will make a black and white dahlia.
-- He spends a couple pages talking about the odious practice of exhibitors plucking out bad petals and replacing them with other petals, to fraudulently perfect their entry.
My favorite excerpt:
"Indeed, the return of every season surprises us with some additional beauty; and this gives me confidence in asserting, that the Dahlia will ultimately surpass in perfection any other flower that has ever engages the attention of floricultural wisdom and skill; and what adds pleasure to the anticipation is, that it will not, like the Tulip etc, become the aggrandizing property of a few, whom Providence has favored with riches and other means, whereby such plants alone can be procured; but it will become alike the property of the nobleman, amateur, tradesman, and cottager..."
Oh and the variety he mentions is York & Lancaster. Which again he says will show best if not overmanured.
