Peaches N Cream Dahlia Tuber
If you know, you know. And if you don't know, just look through my obviously obsessed photos and then you'll know.
This dahlia is GORGEOUS.
Peaches N Cream ranges from 2 to 5 inches wide with the most sumptuous peach/cream bi-coloring. It's like she's frosted. You will spend hours staring at this flower, mesmerized. In the light, in the shadows, in the evening, even in a cooler under florescent lighting, I have been caught by this bloom and felt compelled to take photos and marvel. I especially adore the backside of the blooms--there's something about the way the colors move over the petals, and the motion of the petals themselves that utterly beguiles my mind and heart. (Check out the photos toward the end, you'll see what I mean.)
Her appeal in wedding work for growers and florists alike is perhaps obvious, but cannot be overstated. Aside from Cafe au Lait, this is the other flower folks ask for by name and there are no substitutions.
Aside from her visual miraculousness, she's a darn good performer in the garden and production field alike. She's tall, very productive, tolerant of all kinds of mischief from the skies, her stems are strong and slender and quite tall. No complaints at all. She even rebounded super quick from a gnarly gopher attack, when I thought those plants were goners. Some support won't go amiss for the tall plants, but I often grow her without and while there is some toppling over, she still sends up tall straight stems.
And, she's so dense with petals that when the occasional and sad decapitation happens, she's makes an admirable snowball :) ...beautiful petals flying everywhere and giggling in the flower field.
The last photo is Peaches N Cream alongside Strawberry Cream.
P.S. I take a special interest in the ones with irregular cream expression, most of the flowers have an even presentation, I just find the ones that are different to be special, and end up taking a lot of photos of them. Peaches N Cream is prone to creativity. Occasionally you'll even find a solid peach flower--they're lovely. The the photo of the bucket of blooms, there's a solid peach in the center.
P.P.S. My stock originated from both US grown farms as "Peaches N Cream", and from a European wholesaler as "Peaches". I kept them separate for several seasons and could never determine a difference between the flowers. They performed and bloomed as a monolith in timing, genetic expression, and general fabulousness. I have read that European growers changed the name from "Peaches N Cream" to "Peaches" to differentiate it from other closely named, but very different flowers, to reduce confusion. I just wanted to fully disclose it to y'all. If it matters to you, now you know. I expect most of you won't care. But there it is.