Rock Star

Swan Island Dahlias introduced Rock Star in 2008, marked S.I.D. Created in their catalog. Anemone dahlias are a small and underrated corner of the classification, and their appeal is textural rather than architectural: the pincushion center catches light in a way a fully double bloom cannot. They also read as approachable in a way big decoratives do not, which is why they turn up in gardens more than in wedding work.

Rock Star is an anemone, the form with a flat collar of outer petals around a raised cushion of tightly packed florets, and it is a garden plant more than a cutting plant. That is not a guess: Swan Island, who bred it, rates it yes for exhibition but explicitly no as an excellent cut flower, which is a rare piece of honesty in a catalog and worth taking seriously before you plant a row for market. Floret does praise its long stems and calls it an adorable garden workhorse, so the disagreement is real and the safe reading is that it performs better in the ground than in a bucket. Blooms are about 3 inches on a 3 to 4 foot plant, timed at 90 days. Swan Island notes the outer petals fold back toward the stem as the flower ages.