Studies on the behavior of some cultivars of Dahlia in the Botanical Garden Cluj-Napoca

Dahlias are particularly appreciated due to the elegance of the inflorescences and the long duration of flowering, which gives them multiple uses both in floral art and in landscaping. The research investigates 8 cultivars from the Dahlia genus concerning main morpho-ornamental characteristics (height of plants, length of floral stem, number of branches/plants, number of inflorescences per plant, diameter of inflorescence, number of ligules per inflorescence). Moreover were evaluated the determination of the amount of chlorophyll in the leaves and soluble dry matter content in tuberous roots. Based on the data obtained, we noticed a different suitability of these Dahlia cultivars, general having a positive significance concerning the morpho-decorative characteristics studied. The cultivars 'Record', 'Tsuki Yori No', 'Josephine' and 'Colour Spectable' present the highest amount of soluble dry matter in the tuberous roots, over 20%, and the chlorophyll content was over 500 μmol/m² to the cultivars 'Tsuki Yori No' and 'Colour Spectable'.