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Re: Dahlia imperialis

Hi David,
My husband and I haven't grown this dahlia ourselves, but our neighbors
did for many years. Their greatest success was when they planted it up
against their tall two-story house, under the eaves and facing east. The
plant overwintered in the ground. We don't have frost usually, although
every ten years or so we can have a severve bout caused by the jet stream
coming from Alaska. It seemed OK, even so because the plant was dormant.
The greatest problem with this plant in a temperate setting is with the
wind. It can be reduced to tatters. We think that is why our neighbor's
site was so successful, because it had good wind protection from our
prevailing west winds from San Francisco Bay up our canyon.
It is a good looking plant when not battered.
Elly Bade


On Wed, 20 Aug 1997, David Poole wrote:

> I was given a rooted cutting of this species in early June this year
> and having potted it on into a 15" container, it has leapt up to over
> 7 feet high, with 3, 'wrist thick' main stems.  The 2 foot+ long,
> aralia-like, pinnate leaves are very handsome and whilst I do not
> expect to see its pale, white stained mauve flowers this year, I'm
> hopeful that it will perform during next summer.  Frost is a
> considerable rarity in my garden and winter night lows seem to hover
> around 40/45F.  The only drawback may be that our winters are
> generally very wet, with many totally sunless, rainy days.  This can
> cause problems with species that are susceptible to fungal rots and
> various moulds.  I'm not sure whether to dry it off for the winter and
> store the tuber until early next spring, or to try and retain its top
> growth.
> 
> Does anyone have any direct experience of growing this species?  I've
> seen very poor, weedy, 10 foot high specimens growing and flowering in
> Tenerife, but have yet to see it discussed to any extent.  I know that
> it is a sub-tropical, native of Mexico and capably of reaching well
> over 15 feet high, but apart from technical details about this
> species, I can find little else about it.
> 
> I would like to know how cold tolerant this plant is (without any
> detriment to flowering capacity) and whether it can make sufficient
> growth from the roots in one season for it to produce flowers.  Also
> (again related to flowering) how long a growing season does D.
> imperialis need?   Everyone that I know over here, claims that it will
> not flower out of doors in the UK, but having broken nearly every rule
> in the book over the past few years, I'm taking those assertions with
> an immense pinch of salt.  
> 
> I've got money riding on whether I can flower it outside by October 31
> 1998, so any help with this would be greatly appreciated <G>.
> 
> David Poole
>
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