Dahlia delights at Gilberts

My lovely chat with one of the Hillier’s staff trying to identify a rogue dahlia mentioned in my Sir Harold Hillier Garden revisited post, led to us leaving Hilliers to visit Gilberts Nursery, just the other side of Romsey.  Gilberts have a ‘dahlia field’ open from August to October, where they grow 400 dahlias which they supply as tubers and cuttings.  It was an amazing sight and a fabulous opportunity to see so many dahlias in one place.

Whilst catalogues and websites do a great job of showing the actual blooms, seeing them growing as plants – how tall, how bushy and how many blooms – was a completely different experience.  It not only made me want to buy dozens of dahlias, but rather tempted me to open a dahlia field on the Isle of Wight!

Here are a random selection of the ones that appealed to me

Barry Williams

GI Joe

Hapet Vinette

Crazy Legs

Athalie

Piper’s Pink

Coccinea

Danjo doc

Little Sally

Mels Orange Marmalade

Dark Spirit

Karma Naomi

Karma Chocolate

Black Narcissus

So, whilst I didn’t identify the mystery dahlia (on the right), I did discover the similarly shaped Coccinea (left) as well many others to tempt me.

Thanks Gilberts, it was an education.