PLANT OF THE WEEK

DAHLIA ‘THOMAS EDISON’

IF you like your dahlias big and bold, here’s a great one for you. It has quite a big head on it with beautiful dark violet petals.

It stands tall at around a metre in height so may need staking in windier or exposed situations. This will make a stunning cut flower and cutting it will encourage a few more blooms on their way.

QCAN you identify this plant for me?

I bought it when it was tiny and had a name tag, but this has been lost.

I’ve had it three or four years and it’s still quite small so grows very slowly.

In the winter it loses its lovely colours and becomes mostly green but the hot weather this year has worked wonders for it.

Avril Brown

ATHIS has been a tricky one to identify and without a close-up I can’t be certain but I’m going to attempt anyway!

One contender is Houttuynia, the chameleon plant, a semi-evergreen perennial with brighter leaf colours in sunshine.

Another possibility with colourful foliage is Leucothoe fontanesiana.

But it also could be an Abelia ‘Kaleidoscope’, a dwarf evergreen shrub.

Does that ring a bell?