The Country Dahlia Nursery

Just before the Coronavirus restrictions came into force Criss and I drove down to Lorne, a town on the Great Ocean Road, to have a picnic on the foreshore. On the way back we visited Country Dahlias as we do most years during early autumn.

It’s an extraordinary nursery. The proprietor, Jenny Parish, maintains stocks of an astonishing 1500 varieties of dahlias. Not all are on display but many are. Row after row of well grown Dahlias are neatly staked and clearly labelled. The dahlias are also dead headed which is a formidable task in itself. The display gardens are laid out in ordered ranks. There are row upon row of giant dahlias, ball dahlias, cactus dahlias, decorative dahlias, dark foliage dahlias as well as all the new forms that the ingenuity of the dahlia breeders have conjured up such as colorette, anemone, orchid and stellar dahlias. 

There are so many to choose from, each as beautiful as the next, that on our last visit we made a list of varieties which we coveted and I’m just about to order today. 

My uncle who had a nursery and flower farm in the East Midlands of England used to grow about half an acre of dahlias a year for cut flowers. I worked on this nursery as a young boy and loved to see bucket after bucket filled with sumptuous dahlia flowers ready to take to market. The only variety my uncle grew in the 1950s which is still grown today is the formal decorative variety ‘Edinburgh’ with its bold or should I say brazen white tipped purple blooms.

Country Dahlias have a webpage www.countrydahlias.com.au but orders have to be posted and payment is by cheque, money order or cash.

Jenny Parish should be supported for if not this amazing collection will be lost.