"Sacha" wrote in message
...
David, it's getting an awful battering today but 'your' Dahlia excelsa is
still flowering in three different places in the garden. It looks
absolutely wonderful and the colour is as bright and zinging as always.
Poor thing has definitely been rather tattered by autumn winds but it
battles on valiantly. What a great plant! I do hope you're propagating
loads of it! ;-) The Dahlia imperialis has grown to an enormous height
in the garden but shows no sign of flowering and I very much doubt it will
now. Have you grown that one outside this year?
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
Shrubs & perennials. Tender & exotics.
South Devon


It is a super plant and I can certainly say it's not shy to flower up here
in the North, unlike D. imperialis. On the advice of the Crug crew I reduced
the number of stems to 4 early in the season and stripped all the side
shoots and I now have what looks like a perennial bamboo with a
proliferation of jolly (common as muck) flowers at a height of 4 metres. It
has to be one of the easiest plants to propagate and given the right
conditions could almost be classified as a pernicious weed. :-) A superb
plant!