Wishing on a Star…

What would you do for the right dahlia? Toby reveals how far he’ll go for one of his all-time floral favourites

- Toby Buckland

THE 1986 Salmon Act states – as if you didn’t know – that anyone ‘handling salmon [or fish] in suspicious circumstances’ will be punished. That’s why you shouldn’t loiter outside a bank or betting shop to eat a salmon sandwich – just in case.

Some rules, though, are made to be broken, and this week I’ve been in flagrant disregard of the conventions of dahlia cultivation. After a summer of searching, I’ve finally tracked down one of my all-time favourite varieties, Dahlia ‘Magenta Star’.

With deep-pink petals suffused with silver, the flowers glow like Orion’s Belt in a clear and moonless sky, and being a single, they’re a magnet for bees that harvest pollen from the fluffy buttons of golden stamens.