Strange Dahlia

d.rees559

Last year we received a beautiful yellow dahlia which flowered profusely. It overwintering in the garden shed and was very slow to grow this year. Eventually it flowered but strangely it has some orange flowers and some pale purple flowers. Any idea why this has happened? Thank you. 

B3

Photo would be helpful😊

d.rees559

d.rees559 said:

Last year we received a beautiful yellow dahlia which flowered profusely. It overwintering in the garden shed and was very slow to grow this year. Eventually it flowered but strangely it has some orange flowers and some pale purple flowers. Any idea why this has happened? Thank you. 

SueAtoo

Looks as if you've got 2 different dahlia tubers got tangled together.

JennyJ

My yellow single dahlias (Bishops children strain) tend to develops streaks of orangey-pink-ish colour when there's a spell of hot weather. But I think the pale Lilac flower and the darker leaf is a different plant. Possibly the nursery put several cuttings in one pot to make a fuller plant and got them mixed up?

TenN

Looks like two different sets of leaves.

d.rees559

I know it looks like two different plants but they are in the same pot as last year and we haven’t touched them. Both plants were yellow last summer. The plant was a retirement present and we are so disappointed. Still, it still pretty. Many thanks. 

2 point 4

@d.rees559 - dahlias can ‘sport’, I.e. put out a different looking flower to the parent but the sport will have some similar characteristics by way of colour or flower form.

My initial view is that it is probably two separate plants as the flower formation of the lilac flower doesn’t look (as far as I can tell from the angle taken) to be the same as the peach one.

Did you dig up the tuber(s) last year or was the plant left in its original pot until growth reappeared this year?

Do you have a picture from last year?

Chris314

SueAtoo said:

Looks as if you've got 2 different dahlia tubers got tangled together.

or maybe 3 and the yellow one died 

d.rees559

We left the tubers in the pot in the compost and put them in the garden shed for the winter.