Dahlia Profile - Keith Hammett Mystic Sparkler
Hello friends,
Today's dahlia is a Keith Hammett bred Mystic Sparkler.
I bought the Keith Hammett Mystic Sparkler dahlia from Mitre 10 back when I lived in Wellington. When we moved back home to Dunedin in winter 2019, I dug up all my dahlias and brought them down with me.
According to the breeding notes: "Dahlia variabilis ‘Mystic Sparkler’
features unique single hot
flamingo pink flowers with warm yellow halos and dark central discs on
glossy mahogany-black foliage." Mystic Sparkler will reach 51 to 76 cm
high and has flowers 10 cm wide. Mystic Sparkler is planted in the
middle of my back garden in full sun.
Flower Bud Opening:
Mystic Sparkler in full flower:
As you can see Mystic Sparkler is stunning, with it's super bright colours of pink and yellow, with beautiful striping in the petals. It really is one of my favorite dahlias of all time. Mystic Sparkler is an absolute bee magnet all summer long.
Comparison with the self-seeded seedling of Mystic Sparkler:
Comparing Mystic Sparkler and a self-seeded seedling of Mystic Sparkler, you can really see the difference in colours, but otherwise the flowers are the same shape and size, and the beautiful striping remains. I'm very happy to keep both in my garden.
Multiple other dahlias are about to flower now, so you may see another dahlia profile tomorrow...
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
Want to discuss my post? Feel free to chat with me on Instagram or Mastodon or Bluesky.
Dahlia Profile - Keith Hammett Mystic Sparkler Self-Seeded Seedling
Hello friends,
Today's dahlia is a self-seeded seedling of one of my other dahlias, Mystic Sparkler.
A dahlia with dark leaves popped up in my back garden over spring, and since I didn't plant a dahlia in that position, I concluded that it was a seedling from another dahlia in the garden. And considering that I only have two dark leaved dahlias in my garden, it was either a seedling of Mystic Sparkler or Dream Seeker, which are both Keith Hammett bred dahlias.
I bought the Keith Hammett Mystic Sparkler dahlia back when I lived in Wellington. When we moved back home to Dunedin in winter 2019, I dug up all my dahlias and brought them down with me.
According to the breeding notes: "Dahlia variabilis ‘Mystic Sparkler’ features unique single hot
flamingo pink flowers with warm yellow halos and dark central discs on
glossy mahogany-black foliage." Mystic Sparkler will reach 51 to 76 cm high and has flowers 10 cm wide. Mystic Sparkler is planted in the middle of my back garden in full sun.
My Mystic Sparkler seedling:
Flower Bud Opening:
Mystic Sparkler Seedling in full flower:
As you can see, the Mystic Sparkler seedling differs from the breeders notes. The flamingo pink and yellow colouring has been diluted into soft rosy pinks and yellows, but it has the most pretty striping ocolours. Unfortunately it looks like some earwigs have had a chomp at its flower petals before they unfurled, so she's not perfectly rounded.
I'm quite happy with the Mystic Sparkler seedling, it has more muted tones than Mystic Sparkler, and I love both, so I will keep them both in my garden. You will very soon see a dahlia profile for Mystic Sparkler, as I saw her first flowers unfurling this morning on my walk around the garden.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
Want to discuss my post? Feel free to chat with me on Instagram
or Mastodon or Bluesky.
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