Surrey Homes | SH49 | November 2018 | Gift supplement inside

Dahlias,
darling!
Sue Whigham celebrates and investigates
the most joyous of late bloomers
Whether the name ‘dahlia’ was bestowed by the great
Carl Linnaeus himself – the Swedish botanist,
physician, and zoologist who formalised ‘binomial
nomenclature’, the modern system of naming organisms
- after one of his students, Swedish botanist, Anders
Dahl, is in question as the great man died in 1778, eleven
years before the plant was introduced into Europe.
It seems most likely that the first attempt to define the
genus was made by Abbe Cavanilles, Director of the Royal
Gardens of Madrid, who received the first specimens from
Mexico in the early 1790’s. However, what is certainly
known is that the species originates in Central and South
America and in particular, Mexico,
where dahlias are the National Flower.
Their natural habit is rather unlike the
conditions we give them in that they come
from cool, damp mountain slopes. Imagine
seeing the lavender flowered species, Dahlia
imperialis, growing to its full height of up to
ten metres on the hillsides of Guatemala…
The chance of that particular plant
flowering in this country is limited so we
have to content ourselves with growing that one for its
dramatic height and foliage, but with 42 species of dahlias
and innumerable hybrids – up to 50,000 and still countingwe
have a wonderful array of choice of this jolliest of flower.
What other bloom is so varied and so much fun as a late
season border plant? I was reading the Frustrated Gardener
blog this morning which is worth subscribing to and the
author Dan Cooper (whose Broadstairs garden is small, hence
the title of his blog) and I particularly like his description
of a ‘drama of dahlias’ for that is what they bring to a
garden with their fantastically rich colours and forms.
We’ve got two of the species varieties growing in a
large pot here, one of which is D. coccinea var. palmeri,
“Dan Pearson
describes local flower
shows as a child where
the dahlias were the
domain of men in
string vests”
and I can’t tell you how often we’re drawn to go out and
admire the intensity of its burnt orange petals in the early
evening sun combined with delicately filigree leaves. I
like the single flowered varieties such as this particularly
as they are, of course, bee friendly. And whilst the ball
varieties, also firm favourites, with their intense spiral
arrangement of incurved petals are lovely, any pollinating
insect would be pushed to make any headway with them.
I wanted to know a little more about the secrets of success
with growing dahlias with an eye to improving on this year’s
limited success. Mind you, it hasn’t been the ideal year. Even
Monty Don admitted that his dahlias haven’t been as usual
and he put it down to lack of water in
June. All the more reason to look ahead
to next season, so I popped into see Dave
Izzard whose front garden in Wittersham
is always a picture in dahlia season and
causes many a dahlia loving driver to lose
concentration for a moment or two!
He was so accommodating and not
only showed me his plants but talked me
through what he does to produce such
fantastic blooms and how he got started. It seems that thirty
years ago he joined the Parish Council and was given the
job of looking after the planting around the War Memorial.
Luckily for him somebody in the village offered him dahlia
plants which did well and that was it. He was hooked!
He tends to get his tubers from Halls of Heddon who have
a very comprehensive list. They offer 10 to 13 centimetres
pots containing a tuber grown for a full season before it is
sold. This ensures that it is healthy and compact. They are
available from December through to February and arrive in
little polystyrene sleeves in vermiculite for you to start off.
Dave cuts back his dahlias when the frost gets to them or
when they “start looking embarrassing”. I know it is a good
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