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Sometimes, I find those are the best tuber producers. It seems when the mother tuber rots early on, the plant gets to work finding a replacement. I've been trying to put a star on the tags of the strongest plant of each variety from the farm. I've been surprised to find that many of these show signs of (early) mother tuber rot.
The flower is 18 inches in diameter and 12 inches deep and the plant is 12 feet tall!!! Flower on my plant is about 5 inches in diameter and the plants that are still immature are at 3 feet. I expect them to grow taller. That edge may well be called picotee but I believe it disappears at maturity.
We like to place a sign on our porch that says: We are in the garden. Really, we are always in the garden.
12 feet! OH my, what a glorious flower to edge the street side of the lawn with! I think that would be a kick out along the edge where the road runs... Folks would think you were most spectacularly talented! Mix it in with some of your hyper-tall Hollyhill ones and they would stop and gawk! They can have their sunflowers! Or intermix with the tallest sunflowers... Why even the deer wouldn't eat them after they got up above the fence!
Did Honnat ever find the shade of purple he was looking for? I grow a lot of Boogie Nites, it's a nice middle of the road purple. I also grow a lot of Purple Joy but it's what I would call burgundy or maroon. I have a few Taboo. They tend to be toward the dark iridescent end of the spectrum and seem to be very difficult to photograph correctly. They are also usually pretty small for me, around 3 inches across. I've got one Thomas Edison growing for the first time and it will be interesting to compare it's shade of purple with the others. Formby Kaitlyn is a gorgeous large iridescent purple but is too big for my purposes (cutting) and doesn't have much stem length.
If you are on a quest for purple cut flowers, there are very few, if any, that are as prolific and healthy as other colors. One of my favorites is Sharky. Purple Joy is very old and very fragile genetically. It is also not a prolific or consistent flower maker.
We like to place a sign on our porch that says: We are in the garden. Really, we are always in the garden.
Here is a picture of Sharky from Old House Dahlias. He got his stock of this one from me a few years ago. Mark Harvey sells dahlia flowers for a living. He loves Sharky and if you order, I suggest you order it from his company Old House Dahlias.
We like to place a sign on our porch that says: We are in the garden. Really, we are always in the garden.
When I ordered from Birch Bay I was on the fence between Sharky and Ms Zelda , I opted for Ms Zelda ( she is setting lots of buds right now), thinking we need to try Sharky next season .
I nortced the he petals on the back of Sellwood Glory turned brown within 2 days. Sun? Rain? its status as an Antique Dahlia? Who knows? But I don't know if it will be a good cut flower. We'll see how the 2nd bloom does.
Sellwood Glory was never known as a cut flower. Since it was originated by a Portland club member in about 1950, they had a revolving trophy for the best one in the show. It was one of those old fashioned, brass loving cup types. I wonder where it ended up? I saw it many years ago in a box of old club stuff. The Sellwood neighborhood association was looking for a bunch of tubers about 10 years ago as they were going to try to have it in gardens there. You could say that Sellwood Glory has always been a "cult classic". But never a prolific cut flower.
We like to place a sign on our porch that says: We are in the garden. Really, we are always in the garden.
My Boley award winners from last year are just starting to kick in good. Sandia Candy Corn started last week, I have my first Ms Lisa And Irish Blackhart is starting to put out more blooms. Sandia Warbonnet is going to be a bit later so I hope it is building up its strength to make some big blooms!
The Fertilizer program should spur it onwards and upwards.
Ms Lisa looks like a good substitute for Summer Rain since I don't have it this year. Its a bit smaller or at least the first bloom is but the wavy recurved petals in the soft pink/gold/ peach shades is similar.
Flower on my plant is about 5 inches in diameter and the plants that are still immature are at 3 feet. I expect them to grow taller. That edge may well be called picotee but I believe it disappears at maturity. 
sunflowers... Why even the deer wouldn't eat them after they got up above the fence!
And Irish Blackhart is starting to put out more blooms. Sandia Warbonnet is going to be a bit later so I hope it is building up its strength to make some big blooms! 
