Even the toughest have their limits

A decade ago I thought that while New Zealand’s dahlia bushes might be larger, size isn’t everything. New Zealand’s dahlia bushes have a longer blooming season than ours too, unless cared for by a dedicated gardener with a hose. But our Canberra-region dahlias are tough, I thought, surviving everything from frost, neglect, drought, heatwaves, to even the more wimpish kind of bushfire.