MAYAN PEARL RELEASED AT LAST
AND A NEW WAY OF FINDING OUT THE WORTH OF SEEDLINGS
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For anyone who has been waiting for this cultivar to be released I'm pleased to say it will be on sale in a few places I know of, and probably a few more I don't know of in 2011. Why I say this is anything of any good seems to magically appear in all sorts of places. Of course as it won an award at Wisley for garden use in 2006 I was hoping to have it for sale sooner. Then the company who where trialling it R. A. Meredith (Blooms) hit a problem after they'd given it an intensive trial. I won't give details, or names regards the losses this company ended up with, or who the guilty party was, but just say how sorry I was that my involvement with them ended.
Fortunately I was able to retrieve up to twelve different cultivars, and this super garden variety was amongst them. The Japanese are one source that are eager to purchase stock of it, or so Yusaku Konishi tells me - he has had it as long as R. A. Meredith (Blooms) and each year I'm told how much they love it - wondering why it is still not available. Every year since its seedling year it has been the last to finish flowering here in Bournemouth, and only frost halts its wonderful display. This variety alone has made me realise how important it is to give new seedlings a good trial period. It is no good letting others have a new seedling until you yourself know its worth. This seedling was even grown for a year on the great Verwer Nursery in the Netherlands, and if it had been six inches shorter I know they'd have added it to their catalogue. Oh it isn't a sophisticated exhibition type, but my God how it flowers - there is no holding it back, and just a regular removal of spent blooms is all it needs to keep it looking splendid.
While I'm talking new seedlings I realise how much I've put the onus on my local man Nick Gilbert - how he hasn't complained is amazing - every year since I can remember I've expected him to grow cuttings from seedling tubers that have turned out to be less than I thought. This is about to change next year I will trail all the best of the 2011 seedlings in more places than here, and discard any that are less than cultivars already in commerce. This way I'll test them in various areas of the country, and let others verify their worth.
To get back to Mayan Pearl pronounced Myan Pearl - it has had a very eventful life since its birth here at Little Wisley, and even this last escapade bought about a dramatic twist. I'd been trying to gain another trial ground, and approached a super organised nursery called Aylett's just outside London at St. Albans when I heard the news concerning R. A Meredith. (Blooms) All I did was mention my plight, and the fact I no longer drove, and the boss told me she would pick all the stock up for me. Which is some ninety three miles from them, and over one hundred and fifty from me. Not only that she would also take on the task of trialling said stock on the nursery with a view to sell it the following year. Talk about lift the weight off my shoulders - below are the only places this dahlia can be found in 2012 - least I think so?
Bob's Dahlias Nick Gilbert's Station House Nursery
Then when the stock from R. A. Meredith (Blooms) has been tested next year it will be available from Aylett Nurseries in 2013 among with some of this years seedlings - least that's what I'm hoping for, but until I've checked where the 2011 seedlings can be tested I can't say where they'll be sold. Any one near enough to Aylett's should visit this family run business - I've know about this firm for years - at one time it was the biggest dahlia nursery in the London area, but like most commercial businesses these day they've had to diversify. Anyone hoping to run their own business should read Fifty Golden Gardening Years it tells how Roger Aylett, and his wife Hazel started out many years ago - of course in business things are continually changing, but one thing remains constant, and that is the grit, and determination to carry on.