Dahlias have always been popular in Nova Scotia gardens and the old standard decorative types in solid colors of red, pink or yellow have been handed down through many generations across the province like cherished heirlooms. In time, some gardeners began to specialize in dahlias and started to import more showy cultivars from Europe or the United States. Dahlia personalities like Percy Wallace and Wilfred Armstrong of Dartmouth, Ken Coudrey of Halifax and Harry Townsend of Truro spearheaded the promotion of the Dahlia, bringing beautiful dahlias in new colors, sizes and flower forms to every Garden Club and Exhibition Flower Show they could. Quickly the public began to take notice, and the Dahlia became one of the most popular features of our September Flower Shows. Percy Wallace in the late 50s started his own commercial dahlia business in Dartmouth and attracted huge crowds to his Open Houses every fall. People like Ken Coudrey carried the torch for many years and was one of the main architects along with Arthur Haskins and Vern Fraser in the establishment of the Dahlia Society of Nova Scotia.
January 23rd 1985 a small group of enthusiastic dahlia growers met at Oxford Street School in Halifax and decided to form the ADahlia Society of Nova Scotia. Ten members were present and the first executive elected were: President - Arthur Haskins, Vice-Pres -Vern Fraser, Sect/Tres-
Cecil Dexter. Others present were Arleen Britten, Marjorie Fowler, Carol Dexter, Ed and Sylvia Alley, Jim Morrow and Ken Coudrey. Annual dues were set at $5 Single/$7 Family. Our own Dahlia Newsletter was started with Arthur Haskins as editor and he was succeeded by Nina Dandurand, then Barry MacKenzie and then David Steele. To promote dahlias, that fall the newly formed society held a dahlia display at the Bayers Road Shopping Center and began signing up new members, by promotions like this and word of mouth the membership grew steadily.
The next spring to help gain more exposure for the dahlia the society donated 150 newer cultivars to the Halifax Public Gardens to replace their old stock. That fall we held another display of blooms at the Mic Mac Mall and found that we could sell the blooms after the display and made $97.00. In August, members George and Ruth Graham made baskets of dahlias to decorate a float for the Blueberry Festival Parade held in Dean. A week later, member Ross Cameron filled the back of his small pickup with dahlia blooms and displayed them in the Economy Clam Festival Parade, and later gave the blooms away to the public. That same fall a lapel button was designed and made with a shovel on it that read, I DIG DAHLIAS.
In 1988 as a fund raiser we decided to have a spring dahlia tuber sale to the public, our first efforts netted us $280.00 and it continues to this day and is the main fund raiser of the society. Later that year in July we held our first club picnic at the home of George and Ruth Graham in Dean. They continued to host this event for a numbers of years before we changed venues and met at the home of Eric And Joyce Higgins. We were especially busy in 1988 as we held two dahlia displays on the same date in different locations, one in Bridgewater and the other in Sydney, a number of new members were signed up especially in Cape Breton and the 800 dahlia blooms on display attracted a lot of attention. That fall Marjorie Fowler presented the Dahlia Society with a wooden gavel made by a local dahlia grower, Capt. Carroll.
In 1989 we took on a new and exciting project, the "Flowers of the Atlantic". This was a very large flower show and horticultural trade show held at the Halifax Metro Center and the major Horticultural Societies were asked to participate, and we were one of the largest exhibitors. Our growers made a major impact and dahlias were front and center as the public viewed the show. Unfortunately, not enough of the public viewed the show because the next year the show was discontinued. Meanwhile, that same year George and Ruth Graham convinced the Halifax County Exhibition to expand their dahlia classes and to give the dahlia display a separate space. The display grew from 5 entries to over 129 in just a few years of the changes and to this day is a major draw at the exhibitions flower show.
The society continued to draw in new members and the membership climbed to over 100 scattered throughout the province and in several other provinces. After talking about it for a few years, in 1993 the Dahlia Society of Nova Scotia decided to make a bid to host the American Dahlia Society National Show and Conference. Arthur Haskins carried our bid to the National Show held that year in Birmingham, Alabama and was successful in securing the next available show date 1997. Our tuber sales were making us over $2000.00 each year now and we began to build up a reserve fund to host the National Show. In 1994 we held our first dahlia show using ADS rules and classification. The show was held in the Mic Mac Mall and the best entry in show was "Harriet Collins" entered by Joe LaPierre. After two dahlia shows in the Micmac Mall it was decided to move to the Bedford Place Mall that had more space. We have remained at the Bedford Place Mall except for the two years we held National Shows. We moved our meeting to Windsor Park to a new facility there.
In 1997 the Dahlia Society hosted the American Dahlia Society National Show in Halifax at the Sheraton Hotel. The show was a big success with many visitors coming from the United States and other parts of Canada. The large ball room was full of bloom, over 1600 of them and everyone had a great time. In fact it was so much fun that within two years we decided to bid to host another National Show for 2005. Members continued to promote dahlias over the next few years and a few even traveled to the National Shows in Washington DC, Long Island New York, and Ohio with dahlia blooms. The dahlia is front and center at many flower shows and exhibitions throughout the province thanks to the tireless efforts of our members, and the dahlia gospel is being spread by a number of our members who speak to different groups about growing this wonderful flower.
In 2005 we hosted the American Dahlia Society National Show for the second time in eight years. This time we were headquartered at the Westin Nova Scotian Hotel and it was an excellent choice. The show was a success, over 2000 blooms filled the ballroom and everyone enjoyed themselves and we were treated to some great weather to take in the tours and gardens.
To begin our twenty-first year we decided to change our meeting place to the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History on Summer Street in Halifax. The Dahlia Society of Nova Scotia continues to promote the Dahlia and continues to evolve with a mixture of small and large growers, experienced and new to the game, with varying interest such as garden display, cut flower and blooms for showing. The goal remains the same "grow and enjoy this wonderful flower not only with yourself, but with others"
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