I found a pretty good site for reference for dahlias, which is the:

www.national-dahlia-collection.co.uk

They are about as good as I have seen out there for ease of reference.

I trust this is helpful.

Kind regards,

Peter

Thanks for the correction.

I was too harsh with my comments and I apologise for that, it really isn't the tone of a fellow gardener so apologies for that.

I will put up some photos when I get back home, and I hope at least some of my dahlias are starting to show.

Peter

PETER: your note came just in time.I was about to tell you it wouldnt be necessary to slam my mistake in my face more than once.
Apologies accepted.
Hope your dahlias show ,obviously you are passionate about them.

I bought a "breeders collection" and both the dahlias were in the un named 5 tubors. It was a guess on my part as to the names.I am always the first to sniff at others wrong identifications and am usually erring on the side of caution and wont post unless I am sure.
I dont know what was in my head that day.

Sorry, if I could send you a tuber through the site, I would. I am annoyed when we get plants delivered to us that are poor quality or not what we ordered.

Again, mea culpa, it was unwarranted and I apologise. I will do better in future.

Peter

The collection has been wonderful.I bought it from a respected bulb company .
Obviously I am not a dahlia enthusiast but do love the ones that dont have huge flowers.I have difficulty staking.
That said The collection has some very nice flowers including the 2 in containers on my front porch.
There is another cactus type bloomer in the garden,romantic color and as luck would have it goes with the blooms in that area.

I will make dahlias part of my garden theme from now on.

The way I stake is to go to Home Depot or Lowes, buy steel rebar about 2 feet long with a diameter of about a quarter inch. You could buy four feet and cut it in half with a little steel saw. It only costs a couple of dollars. I buy some longer lengths for Delphinium and tall Rudbeckia.

Then you can paint it black with hammerite or some other quick drying metal rustproofing paint. To make it stand up so you can paint it you knock it into the ground for three inches in the lawn. It dries very quickly and if a drop of paint falls on the lawn sure you mow it off next time you pass over it.

I do about twenty at a time, sit on a wee garden seat and just move along the little rebar posts knocked into the lawn in a line. painting as you go.

Make sure your eyes are covered, it is amazingly easy to poke yourself.

Since rebar has a twist pattern if you are of a design mind you could get a sponge and dry brush the rebar with gold so you have a sort of a very mild barber pole effect that looks quite rich.

Then for staking, just knock one close to the main stem of the dahlia with a hammer, or if using two stakes , one about six to ten inches from each other either side of the plant. Knock it into the ground six to nine inches. That will leave you with fifteen to eighteen inches of the black rebar above the ground, but with dark foliage you hardly see it at all, and it is low enough not to endanger you when you are around the plant.You are then able to brace the plant quite low down and largely invisibly.

When the plants die down you can take the rebar out, leave a piece of cane in the hole, just enough to show, and then over the winter you can paint your rebar again. Costs pennies, lasts forever.

I will post pictures of my dark dahlia bed with the stakes when I get back home next week.

Good afternoon ge1836, Jo Ann,

I am sending you some acorns to hope that you would see if you want to add the dahlia badge. With luck and your support as well we could maybe get a dahlia forum going. I have been reading your blog and am interested in your paintings and how they develop, I used to study art in school many years ago, and was accepted to art college, but went elsewhere to a dismal science instead.

I wish you every health and happiness, and that you keep your chin up and keep going. By the way a dahlia enthusiast is a person that grows dahlias, so that includes you of course.

I am not sure how to send acorns from my pile of nine, but it may be that I just click on the acorn below. If not, I know I can send them from elsewhere.

Kind regards and take care,

Peter

Thanks for your interest in my paintings.
You were wise to spend your college money on the sciences as the ability to make a living as an artist stays the same as 500 years ago.
I dont always plant dahlias but will support any efforts to establish the badge.
The Bishop image I posted was because in mid season Brent and Beckys Bulbs informed me there was a mixup at the fields where tubers were dug and the Llandaffs were not labled correctly.Sure enough my plants bloomed in a deep pink.

Hi, did you get the acorns? I am not sure how to send them.

I fell out with the review committee at the art college, as I wanted to start in second year and skip all that pottery and stuff in Foundation Year that I was not interested in, so when they would not let me go straight in I took my OCD somewhere else.

I think on the Dahlia forum it would be fun to have a "Name that Dahlia" feature once a week with maybe an acorn as a prize (assuming that some acorns could be accumulated for it). That would help the folk, like myself, who have some mystery dahlias in my garden I used to know the name of and have now forgotten.

Have you tried tyhe Plant ID forum?