Dahlia show in Emmental: Nature shows all its skills once again

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Their names are Peter, Sandra, and Eveline, and they are named after famous people such as inventor Thomas A. Edison, writer Franz Kafka, and painter Otto Dix, or are named after their colors: Pink Skin, Little Red Riding Hood, and Orange Ingot. The number of Dahlia varieties reaches thousands; It is listed by name in 3,282 internet directories, from A la mode to Zuster Clarentine.

If you want to admire the magnificent queen of autumn in real life, you should go to Emmental now: On the southern slope of the Waldhusberg in the Gotthelf community of Lützelflüh BE, the annual dahlia show at the Waldhaus nursery attracts spectators. lasted. In an area of ​​approximately 2,200 m2, more than 12,000 planted tubers of approximately 250 dahlia species will be in full bloom by mid-October.

The traditional dahlia show celebrates its 100th anniversary this year: in 1923 Hans Bärtschi (1894–1936) organized the first flower display here. The property has been in family ownership since the 15th century. The Bärtschis were farmers; until trained landscape architect Hans Bärtschi first encountered dahlias on a study trip to Dresden (Germany) and took a few tubers to the Waldhaus.

There was the first dahlia in Goethe’s garden

Dahlias, named after Swedish physician and botanist Anders Dahl (1751–1789), originally come from the Guatemala and Mexican plateaus. There the Aztecs cultivated the tuber as a food plant and decorated temples with dahlia flowers. Spanish conquistadors discovered the flower at the end of the 16th century and sent the first dahlia seeds from Mexico City to Madrid at the end of the 18th century.

Dahlias spread rapidly from Spain to Europe; The first is said to have bloomed in the Weimar garden of the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) as early as 1814. And at the latest, dahlia flowers found their way to the Emmental in Bern, after Hans Bärtschi was impressed by the magnificence of the flowers in nearby Dresden.

The varieties Renato Tosio (orange decorative dahlia named after the long-time SCB ice hockey goalkeeper) and Berner Oberland (purple water lily dahlia) are similar to Bern, but they are Dutch varieties. To date, Waldhaus’s Gruss (purple-red, white-striped frilled dahlia) is the only Swiss dahlia species that can be seen at dahlia shows around the world.

Dahlia tubers can be prepared like potatoes

Hans Bärtschi’s niece, Elisabeth Brändli-Bärtschi (83), took over the annual dahlia show in the hamlet of Waldhaus from 1964 and passed the business on to the next generation in 2014. But Brändli-Bärtschi is still working in the background; she is primarily concerned with the physical health of visitors to Blueme-Festhuttli and is always working on new dahlia recipes.

While in 1923 his uncle served guests homemade farmer’s bread and home-squeezed sweet cider for 25 cents, today they can buy dahlia syrup and cheese and pork medallions with dahlia tuber coating for a few francs. Tubers can be prepared similarly to potatoes, being juicy and developing tropical flavors like pineapple. Its leaves are also suitable for salads.

But for most people, dahlias remain primarily a feast for the eyes: They fascinate with a wide range of colors and a variety of flowers, from stag antler shapes to pompom and ball shapes to cactus shapes. It was as if nature had to show all its talents once again before winter came.

100-year dahlia show at the Waldhaus nursery in Lützelflüh BE until mid-October, admission free

Source : Blick