Last updated 19th October 2007
THIS IS NOT BI-WEEKLY OR WEEKLY MAGAZINE BUT
WE ARE A DAHLIA MAGAZINE FOR PEOPLE WHO APPRECIATE THE DAHLIA
THE WORLD IS A MASSIVE STAGE SOMEONE SEND ME SOMETHING OF INTEREST
THERE ARE DOZENS OF CATEGORIES SO IN THE INTEREST OF THE DAHLIA PLEASE SUBMIT
SOMETHING THAT IS OF INTEREST TO THE DAHLIA GROWER WE ARE INTERESTED IN YOUR STORY
"FOR INSTANCE DID YOU HEAR OF THE GUY THAT CROSSED A POM WITH A MINIATURE BALL AND INVENTED A WHOLE NEW GROUP"
"After all half the World is at some time in a dormant state. Dahlia wise that is"
Managed by Ken Stock & Jack Gott
WHAT PROMPTED THE LAUNCH OF "JUST DAHLIAS"
On my birthday on November 10th 2004 I decided there wasn’t enough going on in the magazines of the world to promote our favourite flower the dahlia. The best we got was the odd article; okay we know the Garden News has a dahlia slot. For a while these kept me interested, especially when Dave Spencer wrote for them, and it was a weekly feature. Sadly this man was replaced, and I found I was going to have to manage with a bi-weekly article. I was furious the price was well over a pound by now, and all I was getting at the most, was a half page spread, not good enough I thought, and I promptly wrote to the editor Sarah Page. It did no good; I decided to cancel my weekly order, as if that would make any difference to the Garden News. However after a few weeks I was curious and missing my bi-weekly shot of dahlia, so it was lucky, when I decided once more to pick up the Garden News, because that week Jack Gott was featured. I stopped leaving the magazine on the shelf, and got used to reading what Jack, or Gotty as I like to think of him, had to say, well I’m known as Stocky to most of my immediate friends, so why not Gotty, but don’t tell him.
Then just before Christmas 2004 the last straw, I’d no sooner got used to Gotty’s bi-weekly articles, when I’m told by the man himself he was out of a job, as the Garden News were changing their format. You see I’d made a friend in Jack, found a bloke who was just as interested in keeping this fantastic hybrid in the news. That is when Jack and I decided that we had to do something to increase the popularity of this wonderful immigrant that continues to enthral us. The idea of producing an ever growing magazine, with features to keep even the most professional amongst us happy was born. Obviously we can’t do all this on our own; it is a major production, reminiscent of the film score to The Sound of Music. What we want is the worlds major dahlia growers to help by submitting articles of interest, you don’t have to give all your secrets away, the rest of us can help by emailing anything that seems of interest to the enthusiastic dahlia grower, such as news, snippets and tips. Jack and I will do the work, at seventy three years young I hope to have at least twenty years left, I’ve always been optimistic, and as Jack is about seventeen years younger we can’t lose. I read an article in a National Dahlia Society publication a year or so ago, by a gentleman who was pleading to our members `DON’T LET THE DAHLIA DIE’ and that’s what Jack and I say, please help us get this magazine off the ground. If I can do all this typing with one finger, you as dahlia lovers can contribute, it is our flower and it is grown all over the world, we need our own magazine, an email costs next to nothing to send, but don’t all hit the `Send Button’ at the same time.
At the moment Dave Bates is writing the dahlia articles for Garden News, and they couldn’t have picked a better guy, they don’t call him the Encyclopaedia Man for nothing, but come on, a small article every other week to get people interested in the most interesting flower in existence, this flower might not have the exotic charisma of the orchid, but it’s history alone is as interesting as nature it’s self. Why for instance couldn’t the Garden News have kept both men on their pay roll? They both have tales to tell, and more to the point like me they love the dahlia. To date the price of the Garden News is £1 -40 which for the dahlia enthusiast is expensive, because all we get for our money is a half page slot every other week. To it’s credit the Garden News is the finest garden paper in the world, and I still reach for it’s colourful cover every time I see it, but I’ll let you in to a secret, I pick it up, usually in Sainsbury’s or in my local news agents, I flick the pages over until I find out if there’s a dahlia article, if there is I’ll read it. Well it helps to passes the time while the wife reads her stars in the Women’s Weekly. See you at the trials. Ken
To Ken Stock or Jack Gott at JUST DAHLIAS
BOTH JACK AND I WOULD LIKE TO SEE EVERY CATEGORY BELOW HIGHLIGHTED
* READERS GARDENS * DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY * NEW DAHLIAS * WORLD NEWS *
*GARDEN DAHLIAS * READERS TIPS * JACK'S PATCH * READERS SNAPS * DOING THE SPLITS *
* KEN'S BACK YARD * BREEDERS COMMENTS * PLANT SUPPORT * WORLD SHOW DATES *
* FOLIAR FEEDING * PLANT VIRUSES * WEATHER PATTERNS * DAHLIA SUPPLIERS *
* DAHLIA GROWERS PROFILES * TALL STORIES * PEST PROBLEMS * WORLD CHAMPIONS *
* DAHLIA ENCYCLOPAEDIA * THE INTERNET DAHLIA SHOW * THE DUTCH TOUCH *
* DAHLIA SOCIETY PROFILES * THE SHOW SCENE * DAHLIA NURSERIES * THIS & THAT *
AFTER SUBMITTING MATERIAL THERE COULD BE A DELAY WHILE DATA IS TRANSFERRED TO THIS WEB SITE
this is the dahlia site of <www.kesdahlias.co.uk>
Dahlia sales at < http://www.kesdahlias.co.uk>