On 2009-10-25 22:08:50 +0000, Dave Hill said:

On 25 Oct, 11:55, Sacha wrote:
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 look
s
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 ver
y
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 wi
th
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!
--
Sachawww.hillhousenursery.com
Shrubs & perennials. Tender & exotics.
South Devon- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Glad to hear the dahlia is going strong Sacha.
I am hoping that I can get 2 dahlias into the RHS trials next year ,
they are

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...ias/Collerette
AbacusSol.jpg

That's a really *beautiful* colour and form, David. I really do like
that. The yellow is such a good colour, not too 'in your face'.

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...ias/Ownfoliage
semililac02.jpg

Another lovely colour - that looks a brighter pink than D. excelsa, am
I right? The stem and foliage contrast well with the flower and its
centre.

The last of the 2 is the one with the great young foliage

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...ias/Dahliafoli
age01.jpg

Interesting leaf and I like that bronze in it. Does the bronze remain
as the plant matures?

Also they are probablt going to have 2 tree dahlias to try in the
gardens
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...ias/Owntreetal
lview.jpg

That's superb! Lovely colour and I really like that twist on the
petals. I think that's a real winner.

which has flowers op to 9 inches across and grows to 8ft and more
also
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...ias/OwnTreesin
glePeach01.jpg.

That looks like a sunrise - what a gorgeous colour.

One I hope is going to reapear next season is a sport that has only
flowered in the last 10 days.
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...ias/DSCF1902.j
pg

Oh beautiful. That is a really good , ure white. It's wonderful.

It is only 2ft or so tall, but looks good even after the gales and
driving rain we had the last couple of days. This picture was taken
after all that weather.

David Hill

You've got some real beauties there, David, so I think they'll trial
well - do hope so for everyone's sake! I especially like the 'sunrise'
one because it seems to me to be a most unusual colour. I don't know
much about Dahlias but I don't think I've seen anything quite like that
before.

--
Sacha