NEW BARBARRY DAHLIAS

by John Whyte

Once again I had the privilege of growing some of the new Barbarry dahlias raised by Mr. Barry Davies from Barnsley. I would like to thank Tom Pashley for the strong rooted cuttings which I received 24 hours after posting. Listed below are observations I made on these varieties during the growing season.

BARBARRY ORANGE GLOW: Min. Dec. dahlia. Orange Grown 12 up flowered 23rd August. All flowers were well oversize with elongated centres. Blooms on the second flush were a little better but 60% of the centres were poor.
Verdict: Makes a beautiful plant with great stems. It’s a pity the flowers were not as good as the plant.

BARBARRY RED: Min. Dec. dahlia. Red.
Grown 12 up flowered 14th August. No problems with size. As a show variety it will not make the top ten. Back petals tend to be a little loose as the blooms mature. As a garden flower you won’t find many better. All season both plants of this variety were covered in blooms.
Verdict: If you want a lovely little dahlia to add colour to your garden this is a banker.

BARBARRY TICKET: Min. Ball dahlia. Magenta and Lemon (reverse petal)Grown 10 up flowered 20th August.
Good strong grower. All blooms at first were oversize and the early indications were that Ticket would not make the grade as a show variety. However, the unusual colouring could make this a contender for the cut flower market.
Verdict: Would look nice in a border but not one for the show bench.

BARBARRY SUNRISE: Small Dec. dahlia.Orange/Lemon.
Grown 12 up flowered 25th August.  I made a silly mistake with this one and decided wrongly to grow as a miniature. Stems on this variety were good. The flowers which measured 5¼” across had lovely formation and very good centre. I like this dahlia very much and I intend to grow it 6 up next year.
Verdict: very promising.  Suspended sentence till 1991.

I would like to thank Barry Davies and Tom Pashley for allowing me to grow these dahlias on trial.

BARBARRY CLIMAX: Small Ball dahlia. Orange.
Grown 8 up flowered 24th August.  Having read glowing reports of this variety in the
January Bulletin I looked forward to growing this one. However, I was very disappointed. 70% of the centres were malformed and stems were suspect at all times.
Verdict: Not in the same class as Barbarry Olympic.

BARBARRY SIGNAL: Mm. Ball dahlia. Red. Ht. 3½’.
Grown 8 up flowered 26th July. First blooms were oversize but very good ball formation. On the second flush all blooms went under the rings and still retained their form. Signal makes a good strong plant with stems to match. I would recommend taking late cuttings of this variety and grow 12 to 14 up.
Verdict: Will do very well in this section.

BARBARRY LADY: Min. Dec. dahlia. White.
Grown 12 up flowered 20th September. Both plants of Lady suffered an early set back and were not planted in the garden until mid July. Steady progress was then made right through till flowering time. Although it flowered later than usual this little beauty was worth waiting for. No size problems; good stems and centres plus excellent formation. A very good miniature.
Verdict: This little dahlia Lady will become very popular when released to the public.

BARBARRY SPORTSMAN: Small Dec. Dahlia. Bronze.
Grown 8 up flowered 27th August.  I liked this one when I first saw it in Cohn Bailey’s garden in 1988. I do not see any reason to change my mind. In 1990 I grew 23 plants of Ruskin Diane and never put one vase on the bench owing to damp weather conditions. I had one plant of Sportsman and showed a nice winning vase at one of our local shows. This is a very good dahlia and will be very reliable in northern areas where wind and rain seems to be the usual weather pattern during the show season.
Verdict: In my opinion this is one of the best Barbarry dahlias to date.

BARBARRY MAESTRO: Min. Dec. Dahlia. Deep Pink.
Grown 12 up flowered 22nd August.  Good strong plants with stems to match. Angles of the blooms were not very good. Colour in the flower streaked badly as it matured.
Verdict: Not my cup of tea.