Web Analytics
The Bishop Dahlias

24th September, 2018

Which Bishop is the Best?

This question will stay safely in the garden and not stray as far as the church I promise. I have not grown dahlias in my garden for many years which I realise now was a great mistake. It was the front cover of the Gardeners' World Magazine for April 2017 that illustrated the Bishop of Auckland dahlia. Inside was an offer of plants for this very rich flowered variety. After their arrival I potted them up and grew on before planting out in the garden. They were a great success with blooms that were a beautiful rich red colour. When I dug up the plants in October they had produced reasonable sized tubers. These I stored in compost in a dry cold greenhouse overwinter. I started the tubers off early in 2018 and took a few cuttings. So this summer I have had a slightly larger display of the Bishop of Auckland. On a visit to Gordale Nurseries on the Wirral in Spring 2018 I purchased a pack of the Bishop of Llandaff tubers. This is a name I had seen and heard of for many years as a recommended dahlia to grow. It also flowered well in two containers this summer so I was able to compare the Bishop of Auckland with the Bishop of Llandaff. Which Bishop was the best? Well for me Auckland won on the flower colour but Llandaff won on the colour of the foliage. So no outright winner. Which probably is just as well as I see that there are a lot more Bishops waiting to be grown. The Bishops of Cambridge, Canterbury, Dover, Cardiff, Lancaster, Leicester, Oxford and York are in the queue. They are not all red but include the colours of yellow, mauve and white. Looks like a colourful congregation is a divine possibility.

  • Bishop of Auckland

    Bishop of Auckland

  • Bishop of Llandaff

    Bishop of Llandaff

The Bishop Dahlias

We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, analyse site traffic and understand where our audience is coming from.