Slow Life Blog from the Lake District
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Contact Me

Dahlia Fire Mountain

2/10/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture
In 1929 J C Loudon said that the dahlia was “the most fashionable flower in England”. It’s had its ups and downs since then, and when I first became an enthusiastic gardener 15 years ago, I was lucky not to know that they were, literally, beyond the pale. Gardening snobs wouldn’t have anything to do with the dahlia’s bright primary colours. As with everything else, the snobs were wrong. The first clink in their armour came when the dark leafed Bishop of Llandaff became fashionable. ​
Although the flower was red, it was a single, and not too flashy, so it was acceptable, just. On the back of the Bishop of Llandaff came the other Bishops, York and Lancaster, and before long all the dark leafed dahlias were in vogue.
​
My favourite dahlia supplier (and the best), Jack Gott (see link) lists 26 dark leafed dahlias, of which my favourite is Fire Mountain, pictured here. The flower is very similar to a cultivar named The Sovereign, of which the RHS has a watercolour, by James Sillett, made in 1823. The Sovereign seems to have died out long ago, and there’s no evidence that it’s related to Fire Mountain, but 190 years on dahlias are once again the height of fashion.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.


    ​About Slow Life

    The idea of Slow Life is to take the principles of Slow Food, which are “good, clean and fair”, and extend them to life in general.

    Here in the Lake District, the air is clean, the pace is slow and the atmosphere is calm. If we don’t grow food ourselves, we can buy it in friendly small shops, where you know the quality is going to be the best.

    This blog is a celebration of the Slow Life, with forays into the world of design, music, the arts, gardens, and my particular weakness, Japan.

    Archives

    June 2017
    December 2016
    August 2015
    May 2015
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009

    RSS Feed

Home   |   About Me   |   Contact Me

Jonathan Denby's Slow Life blog from the Lake District

© Copyright Slow Life 2020. All rights reserved   |   cookie policy    |   Site by Treble3
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Contact Me