Chimeric dahlias

Just spotted this interesting snippet on the National dahlia collection newsletter www.national-dahlia-collection.co.uk

Chimeric dahlias
Chimera - definition - a single organism that is composed of two or more different populations of genetically distinct cells

There are quite a number of these chimeric dahlias and whilst they are of great garden interest you will never see them on the show bench because individual flowers are rarely the same colours.
Although we call them chimeric, which really just indicates unstable genes, you will often hear them referred to as varieties with, "jumping genes".
One of the difficulties we have is the website photographs. We try to show the varieties to best effect but, as we ourselves found at Chelsea Flower Show earlier this year, sometimes the variation is significant and Twyning's Smartie came out almost entirely purple! Also we know from you that some of the Blackberry Ripple supplied this year flowered entirely purple this Summer. The problem is that by the very nature of the plants themselves we can never be sure exactly how they will turn out.
Nevertheless, they make an interesting addition to your garden and are worth giving a go.


I would endorse that!