This little cutie is only three inches wide, but is an intense dark blend that complements a lot of my other favorites, like Normandy Wild Willy and Wyns Eeek!

This post was edited by CCvacation on Thu, Aug 21, 14 at 22:24

I guess I should show the other two...

This is a young bloom, but it gives you an idea of how wild it is! This is already around ten inches wide, still opening.

Your dahlias are so gorgeous, CC! I have never grown these unusual shapes dahlias, something that I must correct next year. My favorite this year is a dark red called Karma Chocolate. and Keith H dahlia.

Here is Keith H.

Here's another odd one, that is new to me this year. This bloom is a touch young, and should have been left on the bush for another two days, I think. The petals start swirling around the base more.

Still trying to decide if I like it.... Definitely growing on me. It makes a statement, that's for sure. I'll probably grow it again next year.

That's a tough one...I have quite a few favs!

Mingus Mike B is a surprise favorite! This bloom is a bit immature still. It gets very full & round. Beautiful raspberry & yellow.

hmmm...I can't figure out how to add more images to this post. Guess you need to do a separate post for each image.

Narrows Dawn Marie is nice! It's my hubby, son & brothers favorite.

Wow all of these are so beautiful, I love the odd shaped ones and Karma chocolate. I think it is my karma to go have some chocolate right now! Thank you for sharing

This is difficult. It's heads up between my Sky Angel and the new Blue Boy. Both are semi-formal.

If you made me choose? The Blue Boy. I tend to lean toward fully saturated, very noisy colors.

Why choose? My favorite changes day by day, as more open up and regale me with their beauty.

I saw this one last year in two other gardens, as well as in a dahlia show, and each time I would run right over to this variety to find out who it was. It just had to come over to play with me this season...

These are beautiful dahlias. Does anyone know anything about the Hawaiian Dahlia? I found a picture of this on the internet but I have not been able to find a source for it or any other info on it.

There's a 'Hawaii' variety that looks very different, but no sign of 'Hawaiian' in multiple dahlia vendor lists or two different years of the American Dahlia Society classification books.

At first I thought it might be an Australian or New Zealand variety, but no luck there, as this gentleman seems located in Virginia, USA. It's possible that its a Dutch variety, not sold out of the US because of lack of good show qualities, or that he nicknamed an unknown variety based on the hot color scheme.

Thanks for the response. I appreciate it. Maybe I will run across something similar some day. I just love the bright colors!

>>Why choose? My favorite changes day by day, as more open up and regale me with their beauty.

Good point, because I just changed my mind. The Color Spectacle burst into first bloom today and just took favorite first place.

Although I have a faint suspicion that it isn't a Color Spectacle, so I may have recorded it incorrectly or the package didn't happen to contain Color Spectacle when it should have. No matter, I love the blossom.

Yes, there are so many pretty one's you are right. I was just seeing if anyone had ever seen that one before. I just looked up Color Spectacle. It is a really pretty one.

What's even worse is that some dahlia varieties really shine in pictures, and actually make them look better then they really are. Then there are the varieties with hard-to-record colors that look awful in pictures, but are so jaw-dropping that you'd need a clamp to shut your mouth properly!

Show & Tell is one of those hard-to-record ones that is worth going WAY out of your way to grow. I need to bring one inside with proper lights and camera to try to capture its true splendor, but here is an inadequate garden shot... It's about eight inches across, by the way, and about six inches deep. Spectacular. I'll try to post one when I get the lighting right.

Be still my beating heart the pictures are great I am so enjoying all of you on this forum. Thank you

Okay, my favorite of the day...

for drgulley-friends in england say they think your flower is kilburn glow- to me the pics dont seem close but steve says he saw it at southport show and it is the same-kilburn won best of show a couple of years ago so probably worth growing anyway

Thanks davids 10 for the reply. That is really interesting. It does not look like the same one to me either but I know that flowers can look different from one picture to another.