Camborne horticulturalists grow blooming dahlia collection

Louise and Chris Danks have been taking care of the National Dahlia Collection for two years

Two years ago horticulturalist Louise Danks persuaded her father to help her take on the National Dahlia Collection in west Cornwall.

Ms Danks had been working at the collection on a farm near Penzance where it had been for 20 years, but it was no longer possible for it to be kept there.

"I knew how much it meant to people and how loved it was and I kept having this niggling feeling that maybe we could do something," she said.

The 43-year-old persuaded her father Chris, a landscape gardener, to step in and help her and the collection is now at Kehelland Trust, near Camborne.

The collection, which is accredited by Plant Heritage, safeguards dahlia species and currently has more than 1,700 varieties.

Re-planting hundreds of blooms was a mission for the pair but now, in their second year, its reputation is growing and visitors are coming from all over Europe.

Mr Danks, 67, said: "Last week, we had someone from Holland. I said 'You haven't come here especially have you?' And they said 'Well we're travelling around the UK but just had to come to Cornwall to see the dahlias'."

Ms Danks has bred a new dahlia which she has named Lowen after the cancer ward at the Royal Cornwall Hospital

This year Ms Danks has bred a new dahlia, which she has named Lowen after the cancer ward at the Royal Cornwall Hospital, following her dad's diagnosis with the disease.

"It's a collarette dahlia, a single dahlia with a little collar around it," she said.

"We're calling it a Dahlia Lowen and it's named after the Lowen Ward at Treliske to help raise funds following dad's leukaemia diagnosis."

Lowen Ward sister Elecia Duffy said the whole team was "very touched by this gesture".

"This has particular relevance as spring 2023 is fast approaching when we will move to our new purpose built Lowen Ward," she said.

"As part of this re-provision we will be having a palliative care garden in which we would love to include the Lowen dahlias."

Mr Danks said being among the dahlia's was very therapeutic.

"You can lose yourself here, they all make you smile every time you look at them, so it does take your mind off things," he said.

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