Last Friday and the French Dahlia Conservatory

I was so excited about getting an email last Friday from, Michel Robert, the President of the French Dahlia Society. He wrote:

"Dear Jan,

Maybe you know I am in charge of the conservation dahlia garden of the FrenchDahlia Society, which is approved as "Collection Nationale" (no need to translate!).

Looking attentively to your dahlia list I saw you grew some cultivars we are looking for. Would it be possible to buy or exchange the sevarieties with some we grow ? Of course, we would pay the phytosanitarycertificate.

These cultivars are :

ABRACADABRA

ALICE MAY

BELLEFLEUR

BLOOMS XL

CAP'N HERSCHEL

JEWEL K

JR'S FLASH

ORANGE BOUNTY

PERSIAN MONARCH

You can see the conservation garden web page at http://sfddahlia.free.fr/Conservatoire/leconserv.htm

Regards from Paris,

Michel ROBERT

President of the French Dahlia Society"

I called the WA State Dept. of Agriculture about getting a Phytosanitary Certificate and a guy from the Dept. is coming to the garden tomorrow afternoon for an inspection. I won't be able to provide the tubers for a year though, because my garden needs to be inspected twice while actively growing during the summer.

I emailed Michel and told him I would prefer to trade... he is a hybridizer and has some BEAUTIFUL dahlias that I would love to have in my garden. Gotta to get to work in the potting shed now.

Up with dahlias!!