"Yellow Dahlia, Hope Burst" is one of two limited edition NFTs available from my collaboration with Long Island photographer, Kelly Teleglow, on "Tale of Two Blooms: Tulips and Dahlias" - the recent article for my site ntvli.com.

For the piece, Kelly animated four of her photographs, two of which we have put up for sale here on Bitski. As part of this NFT, Kelly will be gifting an 8x10 physical print of the photograph. We will just need you to email me at ntvli.com@gmail.com with your mailing address if you wish to redeem the gift. I am also including the original file for the photo in case you prefer to just download it and make your own print.

You can check out the blog at ntvli.com and follow Kelly on Instagram at @KelTel_Images for more of her beautiful photography.

Corresponding Excerpt from the Blog: I’ve always had a soft spot for dahlias. There are over 50,000 varieties of this tuberous plant that bloom at different times throughout the season - from spring to first frost. Dahlias are related to sunflowers, daisies, chrysanthemum, and zinnia and span the full color spectrum and size range from petite 2-inch pompoms to 15-inch blooms the are referred to as “dinner plates”.

Dahlias have a globetrotting history that is as interesting as the flowers are beautiful. They’re native to Mexico, Guatemala and other regions of Central America where they grow like weeds in the vast, open valleys. The Aztecs were the first civilization to cultivate dahlias and they revered them as symbols of their sun gods. The Aztecs made good use of these abundant plants, using their tubers as a food source, natural sweetener, and a natural antibiotic to treat many ailments. They also used the large flowers and hollow stems of tree dahlias to collect and carry water.

When the Spanish arrived in Mexico, an innovative botanist by the name of Francisco Hernandez was captivated by dahlias and dedicated a good part of his time to studying and sketching them. His work would go largely unappreciated until many years after his death when another Spanish botanist, Antonio Jose Cavinelles took an interest in dahlias and decided to grow three wild varieties at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Madrid. These initial dahlias became such a popular attraction that the Royal Botanical Gardens soon shared seeds with their contemporaries in England, France, and Germany, leading to a boom in demand throughout Europe, and subsequently a myriad of new variants were bred.

As demand flourished in Europe, our story comes full circle as dahlias made their way back across the Atlantic. The first Dahlia Society in the U.S. was formed in San Francisco in 1917, and the city (as well as Seattle) have since adopted dahlias as their official flower. Mexico has also paid homage to the dahlia by making it their national flower. It’s incredible to think that the 50,000 varieties available today and popular around the world can trace their roots (no pun intended) back to three wild Mexican varieties brought to Spain by Hernandez and cultivated by Cavinilles at the Royal Botanical Garden in Madrid all those years ago.