Pashley Manor Dahlia Festival - Sept 2024

Flora and Fauna Group 10th September 2024 Pashley Manor

Our September meeting was at Pashley Manor, near Ticehurst, for the dahlia festival.

As usual we began with a visit to the cafe and then we headed out to look around the gardens. There were eleven acres of sweeping lawns, gravel paths, ponds, bridges, sculptures, trees, shrubs and beautiful herbaceous borders to explore. Highlights from our initial walk around were pink cyclamen under the trees, a majestic Metasequoia Glyptostroboides (a redwood with spongy bark and lovely soft needles), the black swan and numerous huge goldfish in one of the ponds and a beautiful Hydrangea Annabelle with its stunning large white flower heads.

 

After that we joined one of the gardeners, Jo, for a fascinating talk and tour of the dahlias. We learnt that all dahlias originated from tree dahlias in South America, grown by the Aztecs who used to eat the starchy root tubers and used their hollow stems as pipes to transport water. We were later shown an example of a tree dahlia in the grounds, which apparently very rarely flowers. The Spanish colonists discovered them in the 18th century and took some back to the Royal Botanical Gardens in Madrid. Seeds and tubers from these dahlias were spread around Europe. Horticulturalists found that dahlias grown from seed will easily hybridise and over two hundred years 57,000 different varieties have been cultivated, in all colours except blue.

The dahlias at Pashley are planted, in areas of the garden which suit their various needs, in a gradual wave during June and July when they are considered sturdy enough to withstand harsh weather and pests. (They have no slug defences at Pashley, only the ducks!) Slow release feed and water are added to the hole before planting. They are staked at the time of planting to avoid disturbing the root formation later on . After the flowering season they are lifted following the first frosts. They are dried out, the soil is removed from them and they are packed into named boxes and stored in a frost free barn.

Our tour of some of the 900 dahlias in the garden took in many of the 60 varieties planted at Pashley. Some had very imaginative names such as “ Pooh Swan Island” and “Poodleskirt”. They were planted in groups of colours, fiery sections of oranges, reds and yellows and then cooler beds of pink, mauve and white. We were shown examples of the different dahlia shapes, including single, cactus, semi cactus, pompon, ball, star, lily, fimbriated (cuts in the ends of petals like a snakes tongue) etc. and we noticed how the bees were frequenting the more open varieties. It was spectacular and stunning display.

We finished our time at Pashley with a welcome lunch in the cafe.