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Dahlia Fire

Autumn season is dahlia season! When the summer ends and the days become shorter again, the dahlias defy the rhythm of the seasons and blossom in all imaginable colours and shapes until the first frost. The Britzer Garden pays homage to the versatile autumn flower on an area of 2,200 square metres. From the end of August you can admire about 7,000 dahlias here.

The almost 300 different varieties are accentuated by adjacent grasses and leaf ornamental plants, which underline the lush colour diversity of the dahlia flowers. Sweet potato plants with their purple, bronze and fresh green leaves line the beds. During the weeks of flowering, the so-called »dahlia fire«, there is also an accompanying informational show in the garden that provides many exciting facts.

The dahlia first appeared in Europe in 1791, after the Spanish botanist Vicente Cervantes had sent dahlia seeds from Mexico City to Madrid. In Central America, the history of dahlias goes back to the Aztecs, who cultivated the first dahlia varieties in their gardens. Today there are several 100,000 varieties of dahlias, which have been divided into 15 different classes based on their very different flower shapes.

A special feature of the dahlia is that it can form new varieties on its own. The so-called »sports« are colour mutations in the otherwise constant flowering, which prevail over several generations and thus form new varieties. Today there are several 10,000 varieties of dahlias.