Dahlia 'Catherine Deneuve'

Latin: Dahlia 'Catherine Deneuve'
Swedish: Dahlia 'Catherine Deneuve'
English: Dahlia 'Catherine Deneuve'

This dahlia is one of the most lovely dahlias I have seen. It lights up the place. Really no kidding.

14/8-2011

We have now had it two years in a row, that is we purchased it twice.
Last year, 2010, it gave very large amounts of flowers and it lighted up my Automn. It really even survived the first frost until October. It was a pleasure to see it.

This year, 2011, I was forced to purchase a new bulb as I enjoyed last year's so much. I am though not sure why: it might depend on the fact that it does not have enough space, or it might simply be that it was not its year. Or maybe I put it outside too early. Though the current amount of flowers is far from satisfactory: there are a lot of blossoms, but they haven't developed to flowers yet. So far we have only seen one only flower at the time. Still lighting up my everyday routine, but I wish more flowers were to come.

Product description
Single orange flowers (8 cm. across) and beautiful dark foliage, height 80 cm.

Dahlia Gallery Matisse Purple

Latin: Dahlia "Gallery Matisse Purple"
Swedish: Dahlia "Gallery Matisse Purple"
English: Dahlia "Gallery Matisse Purple"

14/8-2011

This dahlia is a tricky one. She will though land again on my purchase list: the flowers, even though not even near to what they looked like in the catalog are very beautiful, colourful and happy. Well, why tricky, you might wonder. The answer is easy! It is the only dahlia whose flowers actually grow under the leaves... So if you want to see them, you'll need to do serious research... under all those leaves. It is very small compared to other dahlias. Right now it has maybe around 2-3 flowers but there are more to come... somewhere under all those leaves... :O)


Producer's description
rather large (13 cm. Ø) orange flowers, height only 30 cm. Purple colour.

Dahlia Honka Surprise

Dahlias are rather wimpish, but somehow there is something to them that makes me purchase them in industrial quantities anyways. Last year we purchased quite a few ones via a Dutch mail-order firm called eurobulb.nl or similar. We had them in vases with peat (it was supposed to be a good idea according to what I read) in the house for a long time until they became rather tall. That was a serious mistake. When we started moving them outside, most of the stems broke in half and most of the dahlias did not develop fully or they died completely.

One of the few that actually survived was Honka Surprise. Which was very good as it is indeed really cool. See here:

20/7-2011

It did not have so many flowers but the few it had were worth the whole fuzz... Unfortunately, it is rather tall (over one meter) so it requires support.

So this year, we decided to buy it again (no, we do not have the patience for keeping them alive over the winter. But they are so cheap, it is really not worth it).
It has grown a little bit, and we have already started moving it outside now as it is very little and we hope it won't break. As it is over 15 degrees tonight, all plants will stay outside. First step towards their full garden life...
Retrospective 21/8-2011: Moving it outside when it was very small was definitively a very good idea. The plant is now over 60 cm high and nearly as wide.

14/8-2011

It also has a lot of blossoms and 3 flowers.

14/8-2011

It looks very majestic compared to last year's sticks that could not stand by themselves at all. We have not used any support yet and it does not seem to fall at all.