Joe Swift’s Howler

I turned on the coverage of the Hampton Court Flower Show on BBC2 tonight, anxious for news of Philippa’s Girlguiding Centenary Garden (it turns out that we’ll have to wait until Friday’s show before Philippa’s garden is featured). The programme began with Rachel de Thame and Joe Swift enthusing about the highlights of the show and Joe Swift told us very excitedly that a species tree Dahlia, the Dahlia excelsa had flowered for the first time in the UK, in the Heritage Plants collection.

There then appeared on the screen a picture of a mauve dahlia flower with a yellow centre. Exactly the same flower in fact as in the photo here, which was taken in my garden a few minutes later. The plant in question is six feet tall and is one of three in flower at Yewbarrow House at the moment. I bought the plant from Crug Farm Plants several years ago and it is the first of the tree dahlias to come into flower. The RHS Plantfinder lists 4 nurseries which stock Dahlia excelsa, although none of them have any stocks available now, so it is indeed a rare plant, but it is one which has happily flowered outside at Yewbarrow House ever since I first obtained.