As promised, I went to the local Dahlia show today in search of the color purple. Sorry, I have to retrain myself to say "violet" instead of purple. The result: well, I honestly don't know because the show was inside under fluorescent lights. Some of the colors were peculiar, and none came anywhere close to what I used to call purple. But the dahlias were beautiful. Our local Dahlia club has published its own color charts to help classify the flowers. A member showed me these charts, and curiously there were pages devoted to the color I used to call purple. When I pointed to those colors, the dahlia person assured me that there were no dahlias in that color range. They do use the term purple, and when I asked the dahlia person to show me a dahlia in that category, a dusky red one was pointed out. Oh, well... Another member mentioned Dahlia 'Purple Joy' and said it was a very distinctive lavender which really stood out in a planting of dahlias. Jim McKenney jimmckenney@starpower.net Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where I wonder how Lavandula became lavender in English - I guess they couldn't spell any better back in the old days than some of us do now.