Dahlia Blooms

Ryecroft Zoe and Ruskin Andrea are both producing cracking blooms with not a lot of effort. Andrea much more bushy, i've hardly disbudded and all blooms near maximum size. Zoe, a bit more manageable but again, letting it go and restricting to about 8-10 blooms.
Both stood the weather well, so i'd certainly recommend them both for garden use and certainly for exhibiting.

I like the Ryecroft Zoe.

A few more that you haven't seen

Brabarry Melody....the photo doesn't do the colour justice, perfect shape but small for a small dec




Barbarry Cosmos....much larger, strong reliable grower.



Staleen Condessa...... Lovely medium semi cactus if you can get good stock. Taken me 5 years of reselecting to get a reliable set of plants, so if they come as good next year then i'll have cracked it.




and my favourite giant, Fairway Spur. This one i've reselected over 10 years and the ones sold by Station House Dahlias came from my stock, and i believe some of the top exhibitors use them.

Now whether the lack of size is due to the cuttings received, and thus the plants planted out, i don't know. It has been absolute hell to grow, but there is something about it that tells me decent plants and proper restricting will produce really good blooms.
Will never be the size of Brenda T but petal formation is much better. And they have withstood the rain and winds nicely....well, those that haven't been blown over have
Another one to give at least one more season.

A bit of feedback from the show, everyone is smitten by the shape and colour of Barbarry Melody. Same applies for Susan Gilliott. And they loved the Ryecroft Rebel.
With a bit of effort, Melody could be a real show winner.
As for Susan Gilliott, cannot fault it's size and shape and stems.
The depth of the bloom develops in the last few days. Best med cactus i've grown in a long time.

six went in, it got hammered by susan gilliott

Lovely... ;D