Dahlia inspiration - part 2

So on to part two of my round up of dahlia inspiration from UK gardener Sarah Raven's garden. Part one can be found here. First up is this collerette variety Night Butterfly. While I am always a fan of the more simple things in life, including flowers, I do like the extra ruffles in these blooms in the contrasting colour. A good autumnal palette.

Night butterfly, this little red one in the front is charming

I liked this orange variety because its got a bit of a raggedy appearance. Its not too neat, much like myself. I also rather like the fact it is a light shade of orange on the top with a much darker shade on the underneath of the petals meaning, if like me, you're a titch and therefore spend time looking at the underneath of flowers there is a bit more going on.

Its raggedy and its orange and I like it

I think this one is 'shooting star', a rather prickly-looking semi-cactus variety with very spiky petals. The colour of this is what drew me in, the pale acid greeny-yellow with touches of pink. Its different, the colours shouldn't work but they do, and I like things that are prepared to make a statement.

This shooting star has an air of alien about it to me, but it breaks up
the usual pinks and oranges and is very zingy

I don't know what this pink one is but I rather like the shaggy-headed appearance, like a pompom made from cut bits of wool. I probably wouldn't rush out to buy this as I have seen others I would buy first, but I still think it is a worthy contender for a place in anybody's garden as it is quite fun.

This one reminds me of woolly pompoms. It wouldn't be my first choice
but I think its nice in its own way

The only white variety I took a picture of is this great big blousey number. I think if anything is going to add weight to my original arguement that dahlias are naff, its this one.  Yes im sure it would be great at a wedding, and white flowers are always nice, they are clean and provide a good backdrop to other colours, but this one is boring. Its big, blousey and boring. Its not doing anything I wouldn't expect it to, no unexpected ruffle, or sudden flash of colour underneath. I probably wouldn't find a space for this one either.

White and blousey, not much else to say

One thing I did particularly like about the way Raven grows her dahlias is that she grows so many of each variety. I know this is because she has the space to, and she is actively selling both the tubers and the cut flowers to paying customers, but it means she has these great blocks of colours all contrasting against each other. For example, im not particularly fond of any of the varieties in this photo, but together in the numbers they are I think it is really striking and pretty. Especially with the pink pompoms floating about in the background. Lovely.

I love all these dahlias grown in such numbers with great blocks of colours, even though im not so fond of the actual varieties 

This photo also demonstrates the numbers that she has. Its a riot of colour and just so darn pretty. I would love to be able to do something like this, but the coffers wont allow it and I would literally have to dig up the centre of the lawn. Im already champing at the edges! It would be amazing to go down into the garden and come back with great armfuls of flowers, some people are so lucky.

Its a riot of pink!

And there we have it. Although I said this was inspiration some of them I wouldn't actually buy, but that's also inspiration of what to avoid. Nothing like seeing a flower in the flesh for knowing if you like it or not. And next we are moving on to the four varieties I had a go with myself this year, oddly none of which are from my inspiration list!