On 2009-10-24 20:03:13 +0100, "rupert" said:


"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!

The other really good one for colour, though not as long-flowering,
quite, is D.Engelhardt's Matador. This has lovely dark leaves and the
flowers are very striking against them. However, I noticed this
morning that 'the Bishop' is still going with one flower left on it!
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
Shrubs & perennials. Tender & exotics.
South Devon