"The Dahlia, the Beautiful Dahlia"...

...Our good neighbour gave me this one to blip for today - oh I wish I could grow them like she does..she has an old garden with lots of sheep/cattle manure added over the years, and she told me this Dahlia came from a bulb at a local Show a few years ago.

She didn't know anything about it, as it was one of the bulbs for sale there - (as many as one could fit into a box for so much)..
And so - this one is the result of one lone bulb, the bloom would be 7" across - 18cm, and the plant around 6ft tall -and ofcourse, this one has had a bit of editing done to it. But. it's a very pretty light purple..naturally...I just did something crazy to it..

Years ago we used to grow them quite successfully, all different varieties, but not this one.
We learnt quite a lot about Dahlias when we went to the Dahlia Shows in Adelaide, South Australia; we learnt how dedicated the growers were, how beautiful the Dahlias were, and sincerely admired the folk who travelled for hours and hours - just to show their precious and lovely blooms in a little a church hall - full of them.. (a lot of folk coming from the country and having to fight their way through the City - just to get there).

Some Dahlias didn't look like Dahlias at all - but they CERTAINLY were - I was promptly told - and some were SO huge they were like big dinner plates.

There's no real fragrance to them, just their beauty and to see a room full of them with little tags everywhere and VERY dedicated (men mostly - ladies in charge of the afternoon tea ofcourse..) sitting behind their very own Babies - some very proud and ready to answer any questions and compliments which may come their way.

Most of those lovely folk would not be with us now as most were in their 70's-80's then - and that would be 30 years ago now, but oh, they loved their Dahlias, and we did too..and what a nice interest it is - to grow Dahlias.. (if one can, that is..)