I had a look at the GW bit about Dahlias and our friend showing his Tree
Dahlia D. Imperialis, he was wrong about it's flowering time. it's late
October to November, not September.
It does seem as if a hot summer helps flowering, mine flowered well last
year, but not even a bud this year.
The leaves do look good, and I measured one today that is 37 inches long.
The touch of frost that we had a few days ago knocked the ordinary
dahlias a bit and caught some of the leaves on the Imperalis but just
the odd one, and in some cases just half a leaf, this picture shows
frost damage between 2 plants that were untouched
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...lisfrosted.jpg
The next pictures are of D.Tenuicaulis, it is now close to 10 ft tall
with flower buds showing at the tips, the leaves are much smaller than
D. Imperialis.
http://s240.photobucket.com/albums/f...current=01.jpg

Tenuicaulis is in the centre of the picture behind the cane.
http://s240.photobucket.com/albums/f...caulisbuds.jpg
http://s240.photobucket.com/albums/f...aulisplant.jpg
There are a lot of the Hybrid tree dahlias flowering well despite the
rain and hail we have had the last 3 days, and with plenty of buds to
follow weather permitting
http://s240.photobucket.com/albums/f...lawithbuds.jpg
http://s240.photobucket.com/albums/f...ent=Stella.jpg
The species D. Coccina are still flowering well,
http://s240.photobucket.com/albums/f...sCoccina01.jpg
http://s240.photobucket.com/albums/f...sCoccina04.jpg
http://s240.photobucket.com/albums/f...sCoccina02.jpg
http://s240.photobucket.com/albums/f...sCoccina03.jpg
I think you can see the rest of the album showing the range of the
Hybrids as they are today, though some were taken 2 weeks ago.
David @ the muddy end of Swansea Bay.