Dahlia XXXL

So these dahlias may flower in Cornwall, then PeterS? I checked out that,site fat controller. May try one

 

Yes Verdun - I think that you would have a good chance of both of them flowering in Cornwall. The imperialis is better known and I suspect the better plant. Excelsa is pretty obscure - probably because it is very brittle.

Fat Controller - I did have a Google of Dahlia XXXXL first - as I hadn't heard of it. I hope they did better than my ordinary ones, which have only recently started to flower. And have now been cut down by the frost.

 

I have cut my Exhibition Dahlias down today (they have had a slight frost) and are digging up tomorrow . Most have very large tubers, but my ground is seriously waterlogged .

Dave

 

I lifted my Llandaff and Moonfires yesterday but only so i could dig up a big yellow thing who's name i've yet to find out and post in another thread.

There also seems to be different opinions on how to store these things as well. I normally rinse off all the dirt with a hosepipe, dry them on a windowsill first then a radiator, store on my office shelving in air-holed bags stuffed with shredded paper. I plant in pots at the beginning of March and plant out after the first frosts.

All three have put on many tubers over the past three years and grow about 3 - 4 foot high and wide. But the Don in GW says not to dry them out completely and to keep them in dirt in a frost free place.

As mentioned above, it's the prolonged wet that does the damage so as my soil is extremely well drained i might leave them in next year and see what happens.

 

I just kinda chuck mine in trays in a frost free conservatory. I'm not recommending my cavalier approach, but I think worth remembering that they usually survive outside in wet, cold, wintry conditions and most people "bring them in" only as insurance against a really wet + really cold winter, or to bring them on earlier in the Spring so that they flower earlier (or to "force" them for propagation to bulk up the stock)

So I don't think a great deal of care & attention is required in order to keep them alive, and some moisture is fine as they would get plenty outside ...

but taking better care of them, than I do, is probably prudent!

 

Did you notice any difference in the foliage/habit of these two, PeterS? I've been led to believe they are more or less identical - maybe one has pink, one has red flowers?

I had one for many years which grew to about 8' and never flowered in the Midlands. I kept it outside for some years but lost it in the really bad winter two years ago. When dug up the tuber was like the RH on in your photo but bigger and very woody.

The woody canes, when still greenish, can be induced to root and sprout from the nodes if placed in well-trained compost and given bottom heat. I think I even managed this after keeping the cut canes lying about in the greenhouse all winter but cutting a cane for the purpose in late summer would probably be a less silly idea. So hope you haven't binned yours yet.

The really annoying thing is that I bought a new one earlier this year, planted it in the garden and have not been able to find it since. Flimmin' slugs again, I suppose. Maybe it'll show up next spring.

 

Hi - Madahhlia.

I too had read that D. excelsa was just a varient of imperialis. Excelsa had several flowers for me and they do seem to be very similar to pictures I have seen of the imperialis flower. But otherwise I would have said they were very different plants. Imperialis has very distinctive attractive foliage and looks exceedingly neat and rather un-Dahlia like. Its also very robust. By contrast the excelsa foliage looked the same as any other Dahlia - but it is very brittle and breaks easily. Imperialis probably needs no support, but excelsa needs extensive support.

As it was my first year with these two I was unprepared for the brittleness of excelsa so it never grew that high because bits kept breaking off. Hopefully next year I will be more prepared.

Because of its attractive foliage and robustness, I would say that imperialis comes out as the better of the two, which is probably why its better known than excela. But they are both great fun. They are not competitors to traditional Dahlias, rather unusual plants that just happen to have the same Dahlia name.