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This summer, the dahlia will champion decorations in Parisian parks and gardens, and even around Olympic venues. With its vibrant orange-red hue, it evokes the Olympic flame. It hybridized in the Parc Floral de Paris, by a city gardener. Let us share its story with you.
They came to life through the expert hands of Christophe Kneblewski, a gardener for the City of Paris. After a long and painstaking process of natural hybridization between the Antibes dahlia and the Gabriel Nigond dahlia, the Parc Floral de Paris dahlia was born. To obtain its inimitable color, which evokes the shimmer of the Olympic flame, the gardener introduced pollen from a red flower into a pink mother plant.
Once the new plant was created, all that remained was to produce it in quantity, with a target of 50,000 plants for the Paris 2024 Games. A real challenge!
Cultivated in jars, the first shoots of the dahlia were born in the Parc Floral (12th district) laboratory.
Crédit photo :
Sonia Yassa / Ville de Paris
A gardener takes care of the young shoots grown in the greenhouse.
Crédit photo :
Sonia Yassa / Ville de Paris
Dahlias thrive in the Rungis horticultural production center greenhouses.(Val-de-Marne).
Crédit photo :
Sonia Yassa / Ville de Paris
The dahlias were then planted in the ground, forming magnificent fields in the horticultural center.
Crédit photo :
Frederic Combeau / Ville de Paris
The young plants were then propagated in in vitro culture laboratories to avoid disease. Cultivation of the 50,000 dahlia plants continued in the greenhouses and nurseries of the City of Paris horticultural production center in Rungis, with meticulous and regular monitoring by gardeners.
The various stages of the production process were carried out without the use of any synthetic plant protection products, in line with the methods of horticultural production and the management of green spaces in Paris.
The planting of dahlias in the parks and gardens began in April, calling on the creativity and care of all the gardening teams.
Heritage dahlias all over Paris
Today, dahlias adorn no fewer than 150 green spaces and line magnificent decorations created by the gardeners, who are also celebrating the Games with their own creations!
So keep your eyes peeled for them, as they are showcased and honored in emblematic locations such as the Champs-Élysées gardens (8th) and Trocadéro (16th). But that's not all, you can also find them in your nearest public park, near you!
Good news: this "Olympic dahlia" will be produced and planted every year, carving out a lovely place for itself in the legacy of Paris 2024!
The story of the Olympic dahlia
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