In our last newsletter our President, Roy Knight, gave us a very interesting insight into his many years of Dahlia growing. Well, this edition we are having a chat with one of our other top growers, Vice President and long-time CDS member, David Jasper.
Had you been growing Dahlias for a while before the CDS got going and if so did you enter local shows in the North Cornwall area.
Lorraine was a very keen gardener and started to enter local village shows with her cooking, crafts and flowers. l started to get involved in about the mid 70’s growing Antirrhinum, Aster, Gladioli and Sweet Peas. l needed some Dahlias but none of the older growers would give or even sell me any plants. Seeing an advert in Garden News for Halls of Heddon l sent off for a few. One old chap l remember had a beautiful dark red Pom and he refused to let anyone have a tuber let alone a cutting, sadly one year we had a very hard frost and he also had a heating failure in his greenhouse and the entire stock was lost forever!
What about at a national level
Well l then joined the National Dahlia Society in 1979, and in the following season, 1980, l entered the West of England Dahlia Society show over in Plymouth, winning the Miniature Decorative class for novices with Dahlia David Howard. Just goes to show how far the quality of blooms and stems have come since then. Only a few from this era still make it onto the show bench and they come from both ends of the classification range. Firstly, in Pompon we still see Hallmark and Willo’s Violet and at the other end of the scale in the Giant Decoratives we see Almands Climax and Alva’s Supreme.
The following year l won the 3 vases of 3 classifications with White Kerkrade, a white Small Cactus, Lady Linda, a yellow Small Decorative and Mistill Delight a Miniature Decorative. l wonder if anyone knows or remembers these? We then took a bit of a break from competing to start our plant nursery and Floristry business but in 2002 we were able to go again and what a difference we found, firstly no need to send away for stocks of standard varieties (sorry cultivars) as Cyril, Roy and Peter Bateson were all willing to supply stock. So then in 2005 l entered my first National Show which was held at Shepton Mallet and picked up 2 firsts and 2 seconds. In 2008 l won the Giant/Large Seedling class albeit the only one in the class however it did get runner up in the Best Seedling Award in all classifications. Then in 2009 my most pleasing result came in the Miniature Ball Class, requiring 2 vases 2 cultivars with 5 blooms in each, l beat 2 of the countries top growers Andrew Aspital and Dave Spencer into 2nd and 3rd place. Sadly for me the NDS moved the National show away from Shepton Mallet soon after to it’s current home RHS Wisley which was a drive too far for me.
I believe you and probably Lorraine are two of the longest serving members of the society, can you remember when you joined?
Yes l can, it happened in the spring of 1981. l had heard that a Society was going to be formed in Cornwall and a meeting was going to be held to start things off. David Beer a Council member of the National Dahlia Society along with Cyril Watkins and a few other growers had arranged the meeting and so l decided to go along with some friends, and l joined the Society and the committee all in one go.
Roy (Knight) mentioned in the previous newsletter that he been fortunate enough to have grown some of your seedlings, have you had a lot of success with your seedlings?
l haven’t grown any new seedlings for the last 10 years or so but still grow half a dozen or so of my Kernow varieties; Jazzy Bee, Tiggy Bee, Sen Lorraine (Sen is Cornish for Saint), Kernow Sarah Jane, Kernow Redruth and Kernow Sen Tetha. Roy has grown my Kernow Redruth for 10 years and it took me 8 years to beat him, he has now started growing Kernow Sarah Jane.
Of all the different variety’s which do you prefer to grow for showing?
Miniatures would be my favourite group for exhibition as you can grow more stems per plant and so a competitive vase can be produced from fewer plants
The popularity of dahlias in the garden is very high today, what advice and encouragement would you give to someone wanting to have a go at showing?
l would advise new growers not to grow too many varieties, say 5 or 6 of each of your chosen ones in the first few years so you get to know which ones suit your site, soil and growing methods. This should give you the chance to set a vase at either or both of our shows. Then after a few years grow a few more of your chosen varieties to enter the bigger classes.
Your dahlia growing is legendary within the CDS but do you have time to grow other flowers or even vegetables? Lorraine grows a few pot plants and some cut flowers but no Dahlias for the local shows, l just show Dahlias now at our 2 CDS shows.