GD in your picture showing us your third-place (well done) the Dahlia at the back looks suspiciously like one I have if not slightly pinker than mine- but that could be the photograph. Do you know the name? Mine is called Spanish Dancer.
Gosh BobFlannigon et al, I hope I haven't given you all the impression that I grew those beautiful Dahlias pictured at the start of this thread. They were in a local show, and were some of my favourite entries - but not mine alas. I am just a basic gardener with not much knowledge but some luck and many disasters. I don't know the names of any of the Dahlias, but was hoping that some members may recognize and be able to name them, so thanks for your input Bob.
Wow: Several feasts for the eyes! Wakeshine: I have one also like a dinner plate but as yours is an iridescent yellow, it must have injected so much drama in your garden.
Chrissy the gardener: Wow! Where did you buy yours? I bought loads of seeds but the flowers are all very indifferent. Those two look so beautiful and distinctive. I am going to take cuttings of mine as there are two that I definitely want to keep. Where can I buy these beauties, Chrissy?
Hi aym20, I don't know the name of the pink dahlia but the white one is a cactus dahlia,Tsuki-ytori-no-shisha. The name, aptly, means 'messenger from the moon', apparently the title of a very popular Japanese novel
The great thing is that Wilko has had this in stock for the last few years and dahlias have just gone on sale there. They do sell out fairly quickly but my store still had some last week and they should have some for at least a couple of weeks more.
I've grown it for three years and it's fabulous. A prolific flowerer, my two initial tubers have grown into very large bush-like plants and probably need dividing. It goes on for ages with deadheading. I've left mine in the ground the last three winters and they've been fine, although the winters have been relatively mild. Though people say it's the wet that's the real problem, rather than the cold.
But mine are in a very well-draining border and I mulch them each winter. Like all dahlias they do attract earwigs and blackfly but it's never been a serious problem for me as I keep on top of that. Another tip for these is that the petals at the back of the flowers start to rot and go brown/black but I don't deadhead them straight away, I just pick off those petals and wait until the flower has completely opened to show its yellow centre and allow the bees to feed before I think about deadheading them
Would love to see your beauties on MY Flowers thread .. Please grace my thread... Haha! I'm begging here.
I knew that you had a typo, so I copied and pasted the text into google and out came Van M... as a supplier! I don't think so. I bought the Blue Bayou and got a single and a dinner plate two coloured flower. I won't buy from them again. I know a tiny bit of Jap and knew that yt couldn't be a Japanese cluster. Tsuki-yori-no-shisha is the name. I made typo like this all the time, especially two ii. When I wrote threee .., my teacher said it was a mental aberration... That's such a long time ago.. I'm fossilised. Shame my life has always been an aberration ..
Lovely intelligence to act upon. I really love your flowers, soulboy!
aym280, thanks so much for your kind comments. I will post some pic's on your thread when I have some time. The misspelling was an oversight rather than a typo. I copied and pasted the name from a website without checking it. The big mistake I made however, was in saying the dahlias were in stock. It was a brain burp! Of course it's the autumn and winter bulbs they have in stock at the moment. The dahlias are stocked in the spring, from around March/April time.
Still, they are much cheaper in Wilkos than many other places. If I remember correctly, the ones in question are £2.50 for a two-pack. Some of the dahlias are cheaper, such as Topmix varieties. In fact, if you take the risk of waiting, visiting the shop reasonably regularly, they all go on sale after a few weeks and you can pick them up for 50p a pack.
They have quite a good selection, I bought another beautiful white one and a glorious pink and yellow one, both large-flowered.
Suppliers are notorious for misspelling plant names. Sometimes it turns into a sort of 'Chinese whispers' and we end up with half of them selling something that looks like a different variety but is just the result of a series of ever more corrupted names. I often wonder if this is often done on purpose to avoid them being taken to court for selling plants to which they don't have the breeding rights..
A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
Back to dahlias if I may...I have some questions about my Bishop of ? dahlia. If anyone can help! This dahlia does not seem to have done very well compared to my others. It gave one flower so far and it's already end of August, the cream one I posted earlier - here it is again:
A couple of days ago I noticed another flower on the same plant:
When I bought this plant, it said 'Bishop of Landaff' on it. When it gave the first flower I thought it must be something else. Now it's given the above red flower.
1) Is it normal for a dahlia plant to give two so different coloured flowers?
2) Is this red flower indicative of Bishop of Landaff (or some other Bishop?)
3) Is there anything I can do about the overall vigour of the plant? Can I feed it something? If so, what? I have miracle grow, would this help?
I think it could a very old tuber - does this make a difference? It was bought from a charity garden for £1.50 - they propagate all their own plants and sell small cuttings. There was a very hard woody stem on it at the beginning, which I cut off. Is this something to do with the reduced vigour? It does have a few buds though...no sure what colour the remaining flowers will be.
Thanks Aym280. I know, they are aren't they? No wonder GeurnseyDonkey loves them so much. If in fact it is Bishop of Landaff, I will definitely grow it again next year! I just hope it flowers more :-( My other dahlias have so many more flowers on each plant. This is only the second flower this whole plant has produced. Maybe it's just late, or maybe it was settling in, I don't know. All the others I have were started by me from tubers indoors, this was the only one I bought from a shop.....
The first three are Bishops children , grown from seed three years ago and overwintered in the greenhouse each year. The peachy one was also grown from seed as mixed giant dahlias.This is cafe au lait, grown from a tuber , new last year. The single flowers are dinner plate size,but you don't get many and they are no good for bees. I will probably cut it and have it in the house.
Thanks Aym, maybe next year I might plant it somewhere else but I'm not sure that's the reason for the lack of vigour as there are other dahlias right beside it that are doing really well.
Fidgetbones, those are beautiful - thanks for posting. Yes I have been deadheading all of my other dahlias and they are flourishing. But this one I have not deadheaded yet as it has only produced two flowers all summer so there was nothing to deadhead until now! Here are some of my others, lots of flowers like yours!
I hope someone can enlighten me as to why this Bishop of X is not doing as well...
Posts
GD in your picture showing us your third-place (well done) the Dahlia at the back looks suspiciously like one I have if not slightly pinker than mine- but that could be the photograph. Do you know the name? Mine is called Spanish Dancer.
Gosh BobFlannigon et al, I hope I haven't given you all the impression that I grew those beautiful Dahlias pictured at the start of this thread. They were in a local show, and were some of my favourite entries - but not mine alas. I am just a basic gardener with not much knowledge but some luck and many disasters. I don't know the names of any of the Dahlias, but was hoping that some members may recognize and be able to name them, so thanks for your input Bob.
Hi aym20, I don't know the name of the pink dahlia but the white one is a cactus dahlia,Tsuki-ytori-no-shisha. The name, aptly, means 'messenger from the moon', apparently the title of a very popular Japanese novel
The great thing is that Wilko has had this in stock for the last few years and dahlias have just gone on sale there. They do sell out fairly quickly but my store still had some last week and they should have some for at least a couple of weeks more.
I've grown it for three years and it's fabulous. A prolific flowerer, my two initial tubers have grown into very large bush-like plants and probably need dividing. It goes on for ages with deadheading. I've left mine in the ground the last three winters and they've been fine, although the winters have been relatively mild. Though people say it's the wet that's the real problem, rather than the cold.
But mine are in a very well-draining border and I mulch them each winter. Like all dahlias they do attract earwigs and blackfly but it's never been a serious problem for me as I keep on top of that. Another tip for these is that the petals at the back of the flowers start to rot and go brown/black but I don't deadhead them straight away, I just pick off those petals and wait until the flower has completely opened to show its yellow centre and allow the bees to feed before I think about deadheading them
aym280, thanks so much for your kind comments. I will post some pic's on your thread when I have some time. The misspelling was an oversight rather than a typo. I copied and pasted the name from a website without checking it. The big mistake I made however, was in saying the dahlias were in stock. It was a brain burp! Of course it's the autumn and winter bulbs they have in stock at the moment. The dahlias are stocked in the spring, from around March/April time.
Still, they are much cheaper in Wilkos than many other places. If I remember correctly, the ones in question are £2.50 for a two-pack. Some of the dahlias are cheaper, such as Topmix varieties. In fact, if you take the risk of waiting, visiting the shop reasonably regularly, they all go on sale after a few weeks and you can pick them up for 50p a pack.
They have quite a good selection, I bought another beautiful white one and a glorious pink and yellow one, both large-flowered.
Suppliers are notorious for misspelling plant names. Sometimes it turns into a sort of 'Chinese whispers' and we end up with half of them selling something that looks like a different variety but is just the result of a series of ever more corrupted names. I often wonder if this is often done on purpose to avoid them being taken to court for selling plants to which they don't have the breeding rights..
Back to dahlias if I may...I have some questions about my Bishop of ? dahlia. If anyone can help! This dahlia does not seem to have done very well compared to my others. It gave one flower so far and it's already end of August, the cream one I posted earlier - here it is again:
A couple of days ago I noticed another flower on the same plant:
When I bought this plant, it said 'Bishop of Landaff' on it. When it gave the first flower I thought it must be something else. Now it's given the above red flower.
1) Is it normal for a dahlia plant to give two so different coloured flowers?
2) Is this red flower indicative of Bishop of Landaff (or some other Bishop?)
3) Is there anything I can do about the overall vigour of the plant? Can I feed it something? If so, what? I have miracle grow, would this help?
I think it could a very old tuber - does this make a difference? It was bought from a charity garden for £1.50 - they propagate all their own plants and sell small cuttings. There was a very hard woody stem on it at the beginning, which I cut off. Is this something to do with the reduced vigour? It does have a few buds though...no sure what colour the remaining flowers will be.
Thanks in advance!
Thanks Aym280. I know, they are aren't they? No wonder GeurnseyDonkey loves them so much. If in fact it is Bishop of Landaff, I will definitely grow it again next year! I just hope it flowers more :-( My other dahlias have so many more flowers on each plant. This is only the second flower this whole plant has produced. Maybe it's just late, or maybe it was settling in, I don't know. All the others I have were started by me from tubers indoors, this was the only one I bought from a shop.....
The first three are Bishops children , grown from seed three years ago and overwintered in the greenhouse each year. The peachy one was also grown from seed as mixed giant dahlias.
This is cafe au lait, grown from a tuber , new last year. The single flowers are dinner plate size,but you don't get many and they are no good for bees. I will probably cut it and have it in the house.
You have to keep on dead heading dahlias.I draw the line at disbudding to get bigger flowers.
Thanks Aym, maybe next year I might plant it somewhere else but I'm not sure that's the reason for the lack of vigour as there are other dahlias right beside it that are doing really well.
Fidgetbones, those are beautiful - thanks for posting. Yes I have been deadheading all of my other dahlias and they are flourishing. But this one I have not deadheaded yet as it has only produced two flowers all summer so there was nothing to deadhead until now! Here are some of my others, lots of flowers like yours!
I hope someone can enlighten me as to why this Bishop of X is not doing as well...