By Anne W. Semmes
They said it couldn’t be done, to dazzle attendees even more than what the 2024 Dazzling Dahlia Show does each September at the Greenwich Botanical Center (GBC). But this past Sunday 500-plus flower enthusiasts came to the 16th annual Show to find an extraordinary backdrop of large-scale, robustly colored oil paintings of flowers, including dazzling dahlias!
“She’s a Riverside native,” said GBC Executive Director Phoebe Lindsay of flower painter Toby Sue Gordon, “and a member of the Riverside Garden Club, and this is her first show. And you can see how her colors quite compliment the show!”
And there lined up on the long “Court of Honor” table of award-winning dahlias were the spectacular winners, with the dazzling pink dinner plate “King of the Show” once again as in last year taking center stage as “Best Single AA”- a “Hollyhill Big Pink” variety grown by Hartford based champion grower Jesse Peterson. He had noted last year, “Hollyhill Big Pink is a high win variety as compiled from dahlia shows across the country.”
And there peering upward at its beauty was a little girl named “Dahlia” by her mom, Alana Kontos, GBC Marketing & Communications Manager.
And across the room there was a rainbow of colors of dahlias in different shapes and sizes. “We had 22 grower contestants,” told Lindsay, “From Greenwich, upstate Connecticut, Westchester, Long Island, New York, and New Jersey – and 108 prizes.”
Standing bedazzled in the aisles was Greenwich’s Miriam Landsman, long celebrated for her years of “flower power” as a floral arranger and supporter of the Botanical Center. Bedazzled beside her was her twin sister, Sylvia Weisbard.
Also eye-catching were the impressive, donated arrangements from McArdle’s, from Greenwich Garden Club, and Hortulus Garden Club. And by the front door sat that explosive bouquet of dahlias arranged by Stephen Ruttkamp, a trophy winner at the national level and member of the Greenwich Dahlia Society. “We’re raffling that one off at the end of the show,” said Lindsay.
And yes, by show’s end Sunday afternoon, dahlia lovers turned buyers would nearly empty that flower filled room with their purchases, eager to take home some of that dazzle.
