Date posted: 15 January 2018
It's a two-horse race for the most popular sight at Adelaide Botanic Garden right now - our Nelumbo Pond or the ever-popular Dahlia Garden.
Have a look during your next visit and let us know your favourite. The Dahlia Garden can be found a short stroll east of the Santos Museum of Economic Botany.
Every year, members of the Dahlia Society of South Australia Inc. and our horticultural staff, come together to prepare and maintain Adelaide Botanic Garden's dahlia display, which typically looks its best around February.
The parents of these much-loved perennial herbs came from Central and South America.
Dahlias were an important food and medicinal crop to the Aztec people, while these ingenious people also used the sturdy, hollow, 10-metre long stems of Dahlia imperialis as pipes, supplying villages with water from mountain streams.
Today dahlias are grown for their decorative flowers. Over the past three centuries hybridisation (combining different varieties) has given rise to a range of fascinating flower types.
As a general rule of thumb, the first week of November is a good time to plant dahlias. Choose a spot that has morning sun and afternoon shade. Visit the Dahlia Society of South Australia's website for more growing information.
18 July 2023
Have you ever driven past the beautiful heritage-listed Goodman Building when passing the Garden on Hackney Road? Did you know this building was formerly the base for the Municipal Tramways Trust but now serves as the Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium administration building.
07 June 2023
World Ocean Day is an annual celebration held on 8 June which unites and rallies the world to protect and restore our blue planet. In our latest blog, State Herbarium's Jem Barratt takes a deep dive into how its scientific work focusing on seagrasses and seaweed helps with the restoration and preservation of our ocean ecosystems.
