Part 3 Progress UPDATE “GARDEN4LESS” Dahlia Tubers (NATALIE G, LINDA’S BABY, CHOCOLATE & CANDY)

In April I ordered 3 dahlia tubers from garden4less. (http://www.garden4less.co.uk) and reviewed them:

1. Natalie G (Ball)
2. Linda’s baby (Ball)
3. Chocolate & Candy (Decorative)

See original post Part 1 here:

https://stunningdahlias.wordpress.com/2014/04/25/product-review-garden4less-3-dahlia-tubers-natalie-g-lindas-baby-chocolate-candy/

The tubers were poor quality, but once they started growing I thought the foilage looked healthy and assumed the dahlias would do well.

However 2/3 produced the wrong type and colour of Dahlia!
I wrote to Taylors and their customer service is non-existent. Even though Taylors have the Queens Warrant, their quality control is poor and they have done nothing to rectify the fact I have been sent the wrong type of dahlia – probably against trading standards.

1. Natalie G (Ball)

This is the only tuber from the 3 that produced the correct dahlia.

2. Linda’s baby (Ball)

I was really looking forward to growing baby pink ball flowers, and was somewhat disappointed when some minuscule tiny purple flowers appeared for both tubers. I think it might be Dahlia Rocco?

3. Chocolate & Candy (Decorative)

Only 1 out the 2 chocolate & Candy tubers grew, and the one that did grow produced only 1 flower in late September which was the wrong colour and variety. It produced a stunning flower, though I don’t know what variety it is? So if you know please leave a comment. Taylor’s bulb didn’t respond to my email about this.

Overall, I did eventually get some flowers from these Taylor’s dahlia tubers, however I think its shocking that 2/3 were labelled with the wrong colour and variety and Taylor’s QA/QC and customer service is non existent.

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Dahlia’s Wrong Colour & Type?

I wonder how many of you have been sent Dahlia’s the wrong colour and type? Or how many people have experienced this with other types of flowers?

I was shocked this summer, out of 13 new dahlias purchased this summer (6 tubers & 7 cuttings), at least 4 of them were the wrong colour! That is a phenomenal error. Three varieties still haven’t produced a flower yet so the result could be much worse.

I think the Quality Control (QC) and Assurance (QA) process is crazily poor, imagine buying something from a shop, getting it home and it not matching the description or colour? Yet the suppliers think this is acceptable. Taylors bulbs even holds the Royal Warrant crest, yet its QC is poor and its customer service dissapointing. See previous post where I wrote to them regarding being sent the wrong tubers:

https://stunningdahlias.wordpress.com/2014/08/10/taylors-bulbs-wrong-dahlia-tubers/

Here are pics of dahlias I should of been sent (picture on left) versus the actual flower produced (picture on right).

Amberley Joan cutting – should have produced a pink flower – but produced a white flower

Bergers Record Cutting – shows Orange flower, but it is more red (minor difference)

Linda’s Baby Tuber – should have produced baby pink flower, instead produced minuscule purple flowers. 

Chocolate & Candy Tuber – Should have produce peach flowers, instead produced purple cactus style dahlias.

Has anyone else had this problem? Is this more common than we imagined?

 

PART 3 – PROGRESS OF PURPLE GEM (CACTUS) & NATAL RED (POMPOM) – 5 MONTHS ON

5 months ago I purchased the following 2 dahlia tubers:

1. Purple gem (Cactus) Dahlia from ebay.co.uk
2. Natal Red (Pompom) Dahlia from Wilkinsons online.

Both tubers have grown great!

For Part 1:
https://stunningdahlias.wordpress.com/2014/04/17/17-apr-new-tubers-purple-gem-cactus-natal-red-pompom/

For Part 2: https://stunningdahlias.wordpress.com/2014/07/05/part-2-progress-of-purple-gem-cactus-natal-red-pompom-3-months-on/

 

1. Purple gem (Cactus) Dahlia

I love Purple Gem, possibly my best growing Dahlia this year and in my top 3 for visual impact. This will definitely feature in my garden next year and I would buy again from the ebay farm-shop I purchased this from. The only negative is it isn’t purple like the packet, but more of a pinky purple.

Here is Purple Gem growing in my garden.

This is what Purple Gem should look like according to the packet.

 

2. Natal Red (Pompom) Dahlia

Natal Red Grew really well and produced tonnes of flowers. This will definitely feature in my garden next year and I will definitely buy Dahlia tubers from Wilkinson’s again.