Dahlia catalogue

Faithful followers of this blog will know that I'm fond of Dahlias as a garden plant. I like the bright flowers, and I like taking cuttings of them in the Springtime, to enlarge my stock. It's a bit of a pain to have to dig up the tubers in Autumn so that they can overwinter free of frost, but I think they're worth it.

Last year I carefully labeled up the tubers with their commercial names before storing them away, only to find by Spring that I had forgotten what colours and sizes of plant the names represent. So this year I have made a catalogue of the flowers against the names that I will call them, so I don't forget what they are next year when it comes to planting them.

Here it is.




This one's called Arabian Night. It's a lot more of a blood red colour than appears here, and it's the first Dahlia I bought for the garden in France. Consequently I have lots of it, even after giving quite a few away.















This isn't actually called Edinburgh, but it's exactly like one that I used to have in England of that name. So if I call it Edinburgh I'll know what colour it is. The red is very close to that of Arabian Night and they go well together.















I bought this one, Dark Star, this year. I'm not sure it's a success. i think it's supposed to have more petals than this, but perhaps the drought caused it to grow poorly. I'll give it another go lext year because it goes well with the previous two.

















These two, this Lilac one and the lilac one with white flecks go well together. I call the lilac one Lilac, and for some reason I can remember the name of the one with flecks, it's Bristol Panaché. Panaché seems to be French for variegated, and I think the English name is Bristol Variegated or something similar.





























This one was donated as a tuber by my mum's boyfriend Ron, so I call it Ron's Orange. Thanks, Ron.















Ron's Orange will go well with this one, called Summer Festival, so I will plant them together next year.
















They both go well with this Short Orange Water-Lilly flowered one, too.



















This yellow cactus Dahlia was the second one I bought for here, so I have lots of it too. It doesn't really go with any of the others so next year I will plant it separately.













However, I planted some seed from a packet of bedding Dahlias, and these two lemon yellow ones were among those that flowered. One is pure lemon, the other has white tips to the petals. I might keep them for next year since they go with the yellow cactus.
































Finally, three odd-ones-out. The orange ball is new this year, nice, but doesn't really go with any of the others. I'll keep it because it's really pretty, but it needs a place of its own.















I'm not too sure about this purple pom-pom. It's a tiny flower only about an inch and a half diameter. That means a lot of plant for not much flower. I will think about this one.















And finally, this small pink cactus flower. Again, pretty, but needs a place of its own.