Dahlia coccinea 'Lady Mary Keen', mid October. "Coccinea is a highly variable species in the wild and in cultivation. This superior form given to us by Lady Mary Keen is tall, elegant but not too wispy and wonderfully robust, making a dramatic show of ruby red flowers above filigree rich green leaves. The single flowers are delicately nodding, giving the plant a bashful and self-conscious expression making it ideal for an informal situation. The flowers are free and not stiff with an overlapping ring of long, gently twisting ray florets incurved around a central yellow disc and carried on long stems." [Fergus Garrett, Great Dixter, Nurseryman's Favourites, Gardens Illustrated magazine, August 2013]