Tree Dahlia

[Lehaut]

Would  not describe myself as an avid gardener, but we do enjoy wandering round public parks.  Yesterday, in the "Jardin Extraordinaire" here in Nantes (re-use of an old quarry) we came across a Tree Dahlia in full flower.  The picture was taken of the blooms well above my head.  I don't recall seeing this before, they looked magnificent in the November sunshine, next to the cascade.

[DaveLister]

Beautiful 📷

[menthe]

Thank you, Lehaut.  You do take some stunning photos.  But, I can't make out the height of the dahlia; so roughly what height would you say it was?

BTW, it made my morning as they are amongst my favourite flowers, if only because there are so many varieties.  Had to show it to OH because our dahlias haven't even put in an appearance this year.  In our previous house, we did have some very beauriful dahlias which were grown by the previous owners.  Maybe we do not have suitable soil here or maybe the bulbs were not of the best quality (bought on line from leboncoin).

[Lehaut]

Thank you too menthe.  It can grow up to 8 to 10 meters in the right conditions.  I had to use the telephoto lens on my phone to capture that picture - so I would estimated it was about 4 meters (12 foot) in total.

One of my favourite tree photos is this one taken last April in " Parc de La Gaudinière" to the north of Nantes.  The so called "Judas Tree" was in full bloom.  Supposedly Judas hanged himself on such a tree  - he must have been a very short chap if that was the case!

[menthe]

I agree, absolutely gorgeous!  And the house looks OK too!

It's at times like these that I envy the moneyed....want a Judas tree, well just send off for a mature one and have a great, big camion bring you one from wherever😄

OTOH, maybe not as I don't think "plant a tree" means going through the process I have described.

[Lehaut]

And not as easy as you might think!.  The local council here put in a new road and chopped through the roots of a very old yew tree in the ground several years ago, which eventually died.  We got permission to replace it by an oak tree, over 10 years old.  Cost nearly €2000 and came with a one year guarantee.   As you say, a big truck arrived and a digger to plant it.  Despite watering, the thing died.

We got the company to admit it was indeed dead and not just sleeping and they replaced it in spring this year.  Myself and other Members of the Conseil Syndical here in our complex took turns all through the summer watering this one during the heat wave.  My turn coincided with a hosepipe ban, so wife and I used buckets.  Hopefully this one will come back into leaf next year.

[menthe]

I do hope you have managed to save your tree; Lehaut.  We have a large murrier in our front garden and we did have to water it this summer as it looked so sad and its leaves were yellowing.

And now, it's full of thick green leaves.  When they do eventually fall, it wil be a big job to clear the leaves, dozens of barrels' worth. 

[gncbrule]

Wow! What a beauty! And it's even more appreciated when you realise how much work went into it...  Lehaut, great photos!

[Lehaut]

Glad you liked it gncbrule, this one, however, is all down to nature: