Re: Why don't we grow dahlias?

Interesting to get a French perspective on Dahlias,
but can it really be that no one plants them out in
the garden anymore?  The dark foliaged selections are
still pretty popular here in northern California, and
I personally use dahlias in gardens where the client
loves cut flowers for inside the house.  The huge
double flowers and cactus type blooms are still
popular with enthusiasts here locally, but do require
more attention to staking to keep them looking good. 
The bedding type and single petal types are more
useful as landscape plantings which require little
care, and are still very much seen in local gardens.

Tree Dahlias are probably more commonly available here
in nurseries these days, and we are favored with a
mild fall climate where they reliably bloom each year,
but they do require careful siting to avoid winds
associated with winter rains that may decimate the
flowers just as they are in full bloom, and are
certainly not a drought tolerant plant.  D.
tenuicaulis is probably more useful as an earlier
blooming tree type dahlia, and less prone to wind
damage.

I remember being surprised to see single bedding
dahlias being used as a winter growing annual in the
deserts of Saudi Arabia, as I suppose they also are in
Phoenix or Palm Springs.  Certainly they are as easy
and showy as the classic pansy or primrose for winter
color in climates that support winter plantings.

--- Chantal Guiraud <chantal.guiraud@modulonet.fr>
wrote:

> Yes, of course they are out of fashion, I never see
> dahlias in any  
> french garden, except for dahlia imperialis here in
> the south.  
> sometimes it is not hardy here. For instance, in my
> mother's garden,  
> 15 kms from my house her dahlia imperialis cannot
> set any flower  
> because the cold arrives a little bit earlier while
> mine is very well  
> protected in a city garden where the weather is
> milder.
> I try to grow dahlia 'Bishop of llandaff' for its
> foliage, but of  
> course it's not at its best and is suffering from
> the summer heat.
> 
> Chantal Guiraud
> Montpellier, France
> 
>
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