Dahlia Delight!

WARNING! THE FOLLOWING POST MAY REQUIRE SUNGLASSES!

Carrying on the autumn bloom thread, this week the Daisy duo headed off to the National Dahlia Collection at Varfell Farm near Penzance. I as usual was clueless about this local wonder and was unprepared for the assault on the eyes that was to come.

There were hints from the car park - that's St Michael's Mount in the background...

and then...

POW!

And there wasn't just one, oh no, they were as far as the eye could see!

There were glorious raggedy ones...

...and tightly packed petals...

...and every colour variation.

Here are some of our favourites (believe me narrowing it down was a massive and difficult job!) Brace yourselves...

Lovely single flowers and dark foliage of left, Preston Park and right, Mount Noddy.

The gorgeous bi-colours of left, Karma Fuschiana and right, Brownie Harvest

The frilly single Twynings left, Pink Fish and right, Inglebrook Jill

The tightly packed left, Requiem and right, Berolina

A couple of lovely 'Bishops' (by this time my noting of varieties was getting slack)

The gloriously spikey left, Argyle Beauty right, Tiffany Lynn.

The sumptuous and huge Cafe au Lait!

The zingy Magenta Star and the deep Hot Chocolate.

The spikiest of spikey left, Bora Bora and right Clair Obscur.

Some were up to 7ft tall...

...some were just perfectly formed...

...and some were oddly named - this one is Quite Nice! 

We looked for 'A bit Meh' and 'Decidedly Average' but strangely we didn't find them.

This just took my breathe away!

And what did we coma away with? (bearing in mind we don't have a spare field- just as well as we probably would have tried to fill it)

 A Karma Fuschiana and a Cafe au Lait for Jayne, and a Tiffany Lynn and a Mount Noddy for me. How restrained was that! My history with Dahlias is not good, the snails got the better of two, over wintering got the better of two and one just disappeared!

However I am determined not to give up hope. Really I should cut off the flowers now and focus on increasing the root and tuber strength to survive the winter but I do so love those flowers and I have buds to come. Perhaps this is why I don't have any successful Dahlias! I shall try and harden myself and do what is needed (but I'm not promising anything).

I need to lie down in a darkened room now!