When John Jack rang to invite me to write an article for Impact
it was only five days after Scotland had been knocked out of the
European Cup by England so I presume that this was his idea of
revenge. However I was pleased to accept, so this is the story
of what went on in my garden and of my travels up and down the
country in 1999.
I live in a village called Thurlstone which is situated mid-way
between Sheffield and Huddersfield some seven miles west of Barnsley
on the Manchester road and must never be confused with Thurlestone
which is a small village in South Devon. It straddles the upper
valley of the River Don and I live at the extreme top of the village
which is some 850 feet above sea level and attracts it’s
fair share of wind which over the years I have learned to control
and turn to my advantage. My Dahlia plot is on a gentle south
facing slope and my soil is medium to heavy and some twelve inches
deep over clay and which is perfect so long as I keep my big feet
off it. Therefore I grow my flowers in raised beds some 42 to
48 inches wide planting two staggered rows to each bed. To the
west is an eight foot high beech hedge, to the north is my bungalow
and a conifer hedge, to the south is a five foot wall but there
is no shelter from any wet and cold winds we sometimes get from
the east. I also have a 25 x 10 foot polytunnel at the north
side of the bungalow in which I grow some 38 plants.
At the end of the 1998 season I took the drastic decision to stop
growing all other classifications and to concentrate entirely
on Giant Decoratives with which I have had some success over the
past few years and up to now I have not regretted it. So in 1999
1 planted out 226 plants under cover, 77 plants outside and about
220 pot tubers the majority of which were propagated in my greenhouse
- a lean to on the west wall of the bungalow and in which I have
mains gas, water and electricity. The list of plants grown under
cover for exhibition was as follows:-
Mark Hardwick 30 Hamari Gold 16 Mabel Anne 16
Alvas Supreme 18 Cream Alvas 18 White alvas 18
Sam Houston 16 Wandas Capella 16 Fairway Spur 12
Lula Pattie 10 Sir Aif Ramsey 9 Bonaventure 9
Almonds Climax 6 Kidds Climax 6 Go American 6
Hamari Sunshine 4 Winkie Colonel 3 Danum Gail 2
Big Orange 3 Sheila Mooney 3 Willowfield Mick 2
Gitts Perfection 2 Mingis Whitney I
The 77 grown outside were spares from the above list and from
which I hoped to save some seed but more about that later.
The beds were rotovated in April and a top dressing of Vitax Q4
raked in some 10 days before planting out which was completed
in the last three days of May. Some of the late flowerers like
Lula Pattie and Fairway Spur were stopped at planting out and
many more stopped before we went on holiday for the last ten days
in June with the rest in early July. 1 would like to be more
specific on stopping dates but everyone must have their own ideas
about these according to their own climate and other conditions.
I haven’t sorted my own out yet so wouldn’t presume
to offer advice to anyone else. It’s a not very exact science
with Giant Decs. as I don’t think they will respond to any
knockback system but I would like to hear other views on this
complex subject. It would be far easier if we knew what weather
we were likely to get in July, August and early September so come
on you weather forecasters get your fingers out.
During our holiday, part of which was spent in Essex I managed
a visit to see Peter Cleaver and his wife and due to his garden
being flooded in early June was still planting out on the 27th.
Also visited Rosemary and Robert Porter to see their first class
set up.
We returned from our first holiday to complete the stopping program
and mulch using all my old compost, some strawy horse manure from
my next door neighbour and finishing the remainder with fresh
straw and then we took off again with our caravan on a trip round
Scotland. We called near Stirling at an appropriate place called
Alva, then up to Braemar, way up to Brora, across to Shiel Bridge
(very wet), down to Onich (very, very wet) and finally for one
night at Gretna, altogether 14 days which we enjoyed for the most
part. Whilst at Stirling I visited John and Alison Jack at their
beautiful home but I have to agree with Doug Semple it really
is in the back of beyond.
Back home it was back to the every ten days feeding programme,
Chempak 2 in June, Chempack 3 in July then Chempak 4 or Vitax
103 in August and September. Also stripping the breaks down to
2 for the smaller flowering varieties like Hamari Sunshine, Danum
Gail and Willowfield Mick, 3 for the majority and 4 for half of
the Sir Alf Ramsey’s and down to 6 for the Bonaventures (what
was left of them - losing more than half to virus as is usual).
August turned out to be one of the hottest for years and the blooms
were coming out fast and furious and not very big either but towards
the end of the month we were having some very cool nights with
lots of condensation on the underside of the polythene and lots
of spoilt flowers. However, the blooms in the polytunnel which
included all the Mark Hardwick, 4 Mabel Anne and 4 Fairway Spur
were never spoilt which I could not understand since it was hotter
under there than it was under the rest of the covers. One possible
explanation was that our neighbours cat had often been on the
polytunnel roof and his minute perforations could have let some
of the steam out.
The first show on the last Saturday in August was a local affair
at Stocksbridge near Sheffield which had a two vase class for
GD’s and this I won with a couple of Mark Hardwicks which
also won the N.D.S. Silver Medal.
Next was the N. D. S. show at Shepton Mallet and for this I cut
about 36 blooms on the morning before the show and eventually
took 32. We hired an extended transit van for the trip shared
equally between Dave Fowler, Colin Bailey, N E D.A and myself.
I loaded mine at tea time and then set off to Dewsbury to collect
all the others. It was 10.00 pm before we left Colin’s with
an extremely packed van. Colin, myself and Bryan my son in law
and driver in front and Dave in the back keeping an eye on the
blooms. When we passed by Sheffield we noticed a temperature
display of 20 deg. C. a very warm night.
We did extremely well till we got just through Bristol and then
a combination of poor roads, fog and a bad road accident which
meant a detour spoilt an otherwise good trip. Arriving about
3.30 am we found an excellent venue for a Dahlia Show with plenty
of space for parking, unloading and staging. Quickly unloading,
Bryan took the van into a far quiet corner and managed almost
six hours sleep until the temperature woke him up on what was
a very hot day.
The only small quibble we had was the shortage of tables available
for staging but I’m sure that will be put right for next
year. bI managed an entry in the Barnes Trophy class for twelve
GD’s but I was three blooms short of a very good entry and
finished third behind Tony Kingdon’s winners and Ian Hill.
My second string entered the Maurice Lord Trophy for nine blooms
and were good enough to win and I supplied three Mark Hardwick
for N.E.D.A ‘s entry in the Herbert Brown Trophy class for
Societies where we just lost first place by two points but I had
the satisfaction of seeing my Giants given the highest points
of all the Giants in the class. I was well pleased with our first
trip to Shepton Mallet and look forward to the next visit.
The following week Bryan and I came to Stirling where I managed
three wins with three entries in the Giant Dec. classes the results
of which will have been well documented in this magazine. It’s
a long way to Stirling from Thurlstone but this was my third visit
and I really have enjoyed them all and I hope to come again this
year.
Sunday after the Scottish Show was our own N.E.D.A. show held
in the Zeneca Recreation Club in Huddersfield just opposite the
MacAlpine Stadium home of my beloved Huddersfield Town. Whist
we were staging there were two of the Town Junior sides playing
Manchester United juniors just outside on the Zeneca playing fields.
However they didn’t put me off and I won all the Giant Dec
classes again as well as the three vase Giant Semi Cactus class
with three Sir Alf Ramsey although there were some who didn’t
like that.
My final show was at Harrogate where I managed to scrape together
an entry in the Mawson twelve vase Trophy class and was lucky
enough to win that for the second year running but my entry wasn’t
a patch on the previous years. Again I supplied the giants for
NEDA’s entry in the Arthur Luck Trophy where again we came
second losing by two points. This was to be embarrassing for
me because Dave, Colin and I had previously agreed to enter our
best blooms in this class but one of my other Giants a Fairway
Spur won a Bronze Medal for runner up to the best Giant Dec. Bloom
in Show. I have often been asked why I don’t enter for the
N. D. S. judging exam but I know only too well why I don’t.
So having entered eleven classes in five shows and winning ten
of them together with eight trophies and four medals you could
say that I’ve had a good season and I have certainly enjoyed
it and look forward to next season.
I grew six new varieties (for me that is) this year and this is
what I think of them:-
Sir Alf Ramsey When I received my twelve plants from Mr. &
Mrs. Porter I was warned that they had had many problems with
stem rot and I was warned not to water them too much when I first
potted them up. So after potting up using damp compost I sprayed
with a fine spray and left them in the propagator for a week.
They grew and grew and made excellent plants and after planting
out grew into some of the strongest plants that I’ve ever
had. I grew three as pot tubers and of the other nine left three
breaks on four and four breaks on the other five. The resulting
blooms were very similar in size - very big! They had to be
dressed before showing as the first two rows and the centre rows
were full of petaloids and needed much tweezer work. Many of
the blooms were very course but I saw two outstanding blooms shown
by Dave Reid at Shepton Mallet which won the Giant Dec. Medals
these were produced by using “good old Leicestershire sheep
muck”. These very large blooms would look out of place in
a twelve vase entry so I shall grow some with three breaks and
some with six breaks this coming season.
Danum Gail This variety was given to me by Fred Oscroft who said
that he thought it was a Large Dec. but would I try it as a Giant.
So I grew three plants with two flowers on each and none would
go through a Large ring. It is a deep red similar to Zorro but
with much better form and not as much fading so will certainly
try it again.
Big Orange Another from Fred Oscroft which I grew three up but
they were grown too near some overhanging trees with plenty of
underground roots and didn’t get either enough feed or water
so I shall have to try again, but it’s a beautiful colour.
Willowfiled Mick Three plants sent by Mrs. Porter. There was
a picture of this in the Dahlia Winter Magazine and I thought
about trying this Large Dec. for myself so was pleased to receive
them. But what a disappointment, they barely made Medium size
but I shall try them again
Mingus Whitney Ian Hill gave me one plant of this variety to
try and I was very impressed. I grew three breaks on what was
a lovely plant, not too tall and all three flowers were very showable
had they been ready at the right time. I am hoping to grow ten
plants this next season.
Gitts perfection I saw one bloom of this variety at Harrogate
in 1998 and quite liked it although it was lacking a bit in both
size and petal count. However when Ian gave me a couple of plants
I gave it a try but I am not convinced that it will be good enough
for this section.
I shall be trying two new varieties this year, one from Mrs. Porter
called Campos Philip M which I don’t know much about and
the other is Reeses Dream which I saw at Cruickshanks Nursery.
John Jack showed one at Harrogate this year and has promised
to swap me a few plants for some of my Mark Hardwick.
I have modified some of my beds and cover frames recently and
have now space for 268 plants for next season under cover and
about 50 outside which I hope will consist of some plants from
some seed that I managed to glean from Mark Hardwick and Wanda’s
Capella
Altogether a very enjoyable year both for holidays and Dahlia
growing and I’m very much looking forward to this next season.
I have one or two new ideas to try out regarding cultivation
so I’m hoping to progress with my ambition to win the Triple
Crown although there is an extra show this year. The Millennium
Show at Wisley but with an early date of August 22/23rd. I’m
not sure that I can produce blooms so early. I know both Ian
Hill and John Jack have shown at Southport in recent years so
I will be asking their advice when we receive a schedule for this
early show.
I look forward to seeing you all again next September so Best
Wishes to you all and give England your best support in Europe
next Summer we shall probably need it.