Scrapbook image

Your scrapbook

Forgotten your details?

Enter your email address and we'll send your username and password to you

London

  • FairToday
    14°C/19°C
  • FairTomorrow
    12°C/20°C
  • See Gardeners'
    7-day forecast

Our Gardeners' 7-day forecast warns you of changing weather conditions (including frost, high wind and drought) and suggests actions to take to protect your plants.

Gardeners' World magazine - 3 issues for £1

Save 25%

Subscribe now

Advertisement

Gardeners World blog

Gardeners' musings

Seeing double

Posted by: Adam Pasco, 23 July 2007, 09.58AM

Sometimes plants do the strangest things, and some of these could make you a small fortune. One of the first dahlia blooms to open in my garden has put on more of a show than expected by producing a flower head with two faces! It looks as if two flowers have been stuck together, back to back... very unusual, and hard to photograph!

Unfortunately for me, further flowers have developed quite normally, which is a great shame. For a few days I held my breath, hoping every bloom would be two faced, but no such luck. For some reason just this single flower developed in this way, but once it fades my dream of naming a new dahlia in my honour fades with it.

Dahlia It's worth keeping your eyes open for changes in garden plants, as this is often how new varieties evolve. A variegated shoot on a plain green shrub or a differently coloured bloom, for instance, could both be the beginning of a new variety. Garden centres are full of varieties discovered this way, but these characteristics must be stable in order for identical plants to be propagated from them.

I can't be the only person making unusual discoveries in their garden this summer. As I write this, there are probably gardeners all around the country stumbling across our future 'must-have' plants...

Comments

  • Darren

    26 July 2007, 11.47AM

    My Dahlias have not got any flowers on and I dont know why?

  • Adam Pasco

    27 July 2007, 09.14PM

    Many dahlia varieties have just started flowering, while some dwarf bedding varieties have been in bloom for a few weeks. However, it could still take a few weeks for some dahlias to come into flower, especially tall varieties with large blooms. Dahlias started late in spring will also flower a little later. Be patient. I'm sure they will start flowering in August, and hopefully continue well into autumn. Deadhead regularly, and give a liquid feed to boost gowth.

  • Elizabeth Braithwaite

    31 July 2007, 08.25PM

    I too have these two faced Dahlias - I thought I had something very rare as I have gardened for many, many years (I am 81 years old), and I have never seen anything like this before. So I had better just go back to my garden and do some work as it would seem my double faced Dahlia wont make me a millionaire after all!

  • Adam Pasco

    01 August 2007, 05.54PM

    Thanks Elizabeth. And I thought mine was unique! I wonder how common this is, and whether other people have seen it in previous years? When strange things like this happen, and flowers develop abnormally, this can be called fasciation. A shock of some sort, or damage to the growing bud, causes abnormal growth. I know for certain that no hormone weedkillers have been used in my garden, so this can't be the cause. What do you think?

  • Dawn

    23 September 2007, 07.49PM

    you would think that having just finished a RHS level 2 certificate in horticulture that i would no what the dahlia is in my garden but i dont. but what i will say is that its a very larg plant standing in at over 5ft and the flowers are the size of dinner plates. they are of a very pale lemon yellow with a faint pink blemish on the tips of the petals. its a stunning plant and looks like a cactus variety of some sort,i just wish i could show you...

  • Tommy

    12 October 2007, 06.31AM

    I don't have a two faced dahlia but last year I had a two faced echinacea, just one bloom on the whole plant, I put it down to damage during the bud formation.

  • Tom

    21 February 2008, 03.48PM

    Hello Adam, I have a pink azalea in a pot and would like to put in 3 campanulas as suggested for your spring containers,as there are different varieties of campanulas could you please advise of the best one to buy. Regards Tom.

  • asha

    01 March 2008, 01.56AM

    hi all! i had a tulip stem with 2 flowers on it much like 2 headed dahlias some of you had.

  • Wendy

    27 April 2008, 12.52PM

    I was very interested to read all the previous comments, especially the last one, as I have a three headed tulip on one stem just about to flower.

  • Fran

    17 July 2008, 01.14PM

    Please can someone help with my Azalea? It only has clusters of leaves at the ends of the stalks - the rest of the stalks are bare. I'm afraid if I prune there will be nothing left as it doesn't appear to be forming any buds up the stems.

Leave a comment

We'd love you to post a comment, but please be aware of our Code of Conduct.

Please email gwremovalrequests@bbc.co.uk to report any comments you feel are inappropriate. Please detail the post title and the comment you are referring to in your email. We'll take a look, and take appropriate action.

By submitting your contribution to this site, you confirm your acceptance of the website terms.

Thank you for your comment

Thank you for your comments. All comments will be looked at by a moderator, however, due to the numbers of comments we receive, we can't promise that all will be posted on the site.

Advertiser Links

Subscribe to the magazine

August edition of Gardeners' World Magazine

In August...
The August issue is on sale from 30 July. Subscribe today and receive the next three issues of Gardeners' World magazine for just £1.

The UK's number 1 gardening magazine

TV & Radio

Television icon

What's on this week

Find out what gardening programmes are on TV and radio this week. And read more about the Gardeners' World programme.

Offer

Planter

Order five lavenders and only pay p&p.

BBC Magazines

© BBC Magazines Ltd. BBC Worldwide Ltd.

The BBC Gardeners' World Magazine word mark and logo are trademarks of BBC Worldwide Ltd.

BBC Magazines is owned by the BBC and our profits are returned to the BBC for the benefit of the licence-fee payer.