Re: Tree dahlias (was Fall Bloomers in Berkeley, CA)

Richard Starkeson wrote:
> 
>  Moira Ryan wrote:
> 

> > David
> > I read your list with interest, as some of the flowers were very familiar to me though others not grown here. The tree Dahlia is also sometimes seen in our
> > gardens,
> > but I have never had the urge to grow it myself as I don't find the relatively small flower compared to the mighty length of stem particularly appealing.
> >
> 
> Moira,
> I think placement is everything (almost).  Here in hilly San Francisco, it is common for what is the ground floor at one end of a house to be the 2nd or 3rd
> floor at the other end.  For months, I have been waiting with anticipation as the Dahlia imperialis' massive stalks slowly inched there way towards the level
> of the 2nd+ story kitchen windows, knowing that come November, the arching panicles of 5 inch pale lavender dahlia blooms would be ready to open, dangling
> right in front of the window.  Now that they are here, (a little early this year) one prays that the winter will be a mild one, so the flowers don't get all
> blown to hell in one of those violent rainstorms we often have.  With luck they should last for two months.  Last year, a shaded Berkeley dahlia was still
> blooming in April.  Since the stems regrow from the roots each year, they don't impose all summer, only reaching their maximum height in October.  They
> slowly force their way (with a little help) through a Jasminum growing on a neighbor's fence; the twining jasmine vines provide a bit more resistance to the
> occasional strong winds.   Throughout the winter, until the leaves are dead a nd blown away, their brilliant green form provides a nice contrast to our gray
> winter skies.  The new shoots are extremely vulnerable to snails - other than that the plant are relatively pest-free.  Now, if only they were fragrant  .
> .  .  (have smelled a slightly fragrant variety, but haven't been able to obtai one.)

Hi Richard
I am sure you are right about placement and I can assure you that hill
properties just suited to them like those ones in San Francisco are
extremely common in parts of my area, especially in hilly Wellington
itself (which even mirrors San Francisco in having a cable car from the
city to the university!). However when you talked about seeing them
peeping in upper windows it suddenly revived a memory of a story by some
people near Nairobi (East Africa) who were raising a rare giraffe not
far from the local animal park, and who had full-sized wild adults come
to visit the youngster and easily put their great heads up to look in at
the second story windows. (Heads large enough to more than fill the
whole window space). I think dahlias would be easier to relate to!!

However I myself live in a suburb which, although enclosed by hills has
its houses largely on level valley floors and these dwellings are for
the most part single story. The only examples I have seen of this Dahlia
near me have been grown without any attempt to disguise the ungainly
stem and  consequently have struck me as simply gawky and arkward.

Moira
-- 
Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
Wainuiomata (near Wellington, capital city of New Zealand)
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