Dahlias

I'd say the star of this year was Karma Fuchsiana, exciting magenta and gold colouration and good long, strong stems. New Baby, the vivid orange pompom, hasn't such strong stems but is very pretty.  Autumn Lustre (described as orangey) was a good yellow with long stems, but I think Glorie van Hemsteede is better as a flower.  The big dark crimson pompom has good stems but not great numbers of flowers. Chat Noir had a few flowers but is not so interesting to me as that pompom.  Taratahi Ruby, so I thought, was nothing like as red as the one with that name last year. Hillcrest Royal, dark red cactus, was a bit disappointing. However, the plants didn't grow very well in the wet and cool summer. Actually, they grew a lot of leaves but the flowers were slow to open.