Coralie Dahlia Tuber
She's tall, she's early, she's an abundant bloomer of perfect 5-6 inch blooms in a gorgeous color, her formal decorative geometry is mesmerizing! She even performs really really well in poor soils! And even beyond that she's an abundant tuber producer AND her tubers are nearly winter-proof (at least for me); they don't rot, desiccate, or even wrinkle. Coralie is is a must-grow.
My only complaint about her is that she loves to fall over, so support her well and you'll be fast friends. But, even when she does fall over, she just keeps on growing and sends up more perfectly straight stems from the fallen branch--she's not a brittle cracking wilting mess, she's polite and real and keeps on going. And really, friendship is all about support and mutual tending anyway right? So, she more than holds up her end of the bargain, we can certainly give her a stake and some twine, right? Right! We all need to be able to fall down sometimes and rely on our people to still love us from the bottom of the garden path. Coralie will be there for you when it's your turn. (Like literally--I had just such a moment this last season, lying in the row, at the bottom of a passing existential crisis, and looked over to see a perfectly unblemished, straight as an arrow, 18-inch cutting stem staring straight at me two inches above the mulch. So I picked us both up and carried on with my day. She's a good friend.)