..
snip
Standing the flowers in Dye tends to colour the whole flower, cutting
immature flowers and leting them develop in water esp in poor light
can result in the centres failing to develop their true colour.
I still think Mid June is early for dahlias.
David Hill

Mine are barely showing through the soil but this is normal for here,
August is a good time here for Dahlia.

Judith

Our Dahlia excelsa (from David Hill) are up and growing very tall and are
in flower. D. Engelhardt's Matador, which is the most fabulous colour
with bronze foliage, is just about to flower and D. The Bishop of Llandaff
is open and busily showing off in the long border. Even D. imperialis
which goes to about 17' in the garden and more in the greenhouse, has a
not-fully-grown cutting flowering in the greenhouse. Mind you, compared
to yours, our winters are sub-tropical!
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
Shrubs & perennials. Tender & exotics.
South Devon

I have to take care here cos I don't wish to offend anyone in suggesting
that they came from the local supermarket, nothing wrong in that I like
flowers wherever they come from. I had a bunch of similar flowers, they were
plain white when fresh, I put them on a rather cool window sill and over a
few days they changed colour and ended up with a pink tinge, I thought it
was the cold which would not apply in this case but who knows what happens
to these flowers before we buy them.

kate