When I lived in England many moons ago, we moved into what they call “a country house” or stately home that had been loaned out to a nearby university. Four families lived there in a building that dated back to the 16th century at which time it had belonged to the hapless Earl of Essex who rebelled against Queen Elizabeth I and lived to rue the day (until his head was chopped off and he rued no more).

Although the owner had moved elsewhere, the former head gardener still lived on the property and tended the premises, which included a walled vegetable garden and the remnants of a moat. He sold vegetables and flowers at the open market in the nearby village and to those of us to lived in Stansted Hall (English houses, both great and small, tend to have names.)

Shortly after we moved in, I asked him for a bouquet of flowers since I was going to host a dinner party. What arrived was astounding – a giant bouquet of multicolored and multi-shaped dahlias on 3-foot tall stems. Large enough to fill our 5-foot wide fireplace—which is often where the English display them. The price? $2.

To learn more about this fabulous flower that flows in and out of fashion, head to the Chicago Botanic Garden on September 24-25 for the 78th Midwest Dahlia Conference and Show. Exhibitors from 18 different states will be showing 1000 blooms — all of them as perfect as the growers could make them. You can be sure the proud “parents” will be eager to answer your questions and at the end of the show you can even buy a few stems to take home.

And if you’d like to read about one of our local enthusiasts, check out the story in this year’s January/February issue in which Michelle Byrne Walsh visits the phenomenal Frank Campise of Arlington Heights and learns how he propagates 700 dahlias from cuttings each year.

—Carolyn Ulrich