Senior's Hope Dahlia Tuber
Deep, smokey raspberry with a dark burgundy eye, and a strange metallic quality with a warm coppery undertone. Such a unique bloom. I'd put Senior's Hope in a family group with Night Silence and even Creme di Cassis, with those dark petal-reverses and high contrast motifs, but Senior's Hope is her own creature entirely. 3-4 inch blooms on nice dark cutting stems. The plants can be on the later side, but not too bad. Productive.
They do seem to have some semi-doubling qualities, in that they show their centers when stressed or late in the season, however, it's not the same bright yellow that you'd expect when a flower opens to the titillating seduction of bees--the center isn't actually open and shedding pollen, it's just bare and bronzy and deepens that metallic feel of the bloom without adding a bright yellow to an otherwise delightfully moody moment.
Excellent.
