Nine dahlias dancing
And a partridge-less wonky pear tree!
The dahlia bed really is one of the stars of the garden, especially in late summer and throughout the autumn until the very first frost. It’s a completely random mix, and there’s nothing very stylish or organised about it. Yet, the flowers are so lovely, from the singles through the semi-double hybrids through to the full-blown cactii.
The white dahlias stole the show this year; they came through, even though I had grown them from seed. They put on a firework from early July through October until the first frost killed them off.
Still, once they died off I could dig up some wonderful tubers to safe for next year. (And since we don’t have a frost-free shed to keep them in they’ve been sent on a winter holiday at my Mum’s and she’s taking good care of them. She’s already re-packed them once because they were getting damp, and I think she deserves credit for this.) Of course I might just buy some more dahlia seeds this spring so we can have even more of these wonderfully diverse flowers next year. They come in so many shapes, so many colours, and I love them all!
the drought kept all but one from growing
Whereas my dahlias were stinted from a bout of flooding… Shit happens, and some flowers pull through while others don’t! Thankfully, my dahlias did pull through standing in 6″ of water!
This was a great idea for a series of posts. I like dahlia and grow them each year. What I don’t like is having to lift them each Fall.
Hi there, wanted to let you know I nominated you for the Sunshine award. If you are interested click here for details. http://ourgrowingpaynes.wordpress.com/2013/01/02/sunshine-award/
I was surprised my dahlias did so well last year considered the summer was so awful. I’ve got the tubers in the shed. So far we haven’t had much frost so they’re fine in there. May need to bring them in if it gets colder. I’ve just ordered some more tubers for this year. Not quite sure where I’m going to put them yet but I think about that when the time comes.
Poor Dahlias! They will be back though 🙂 Beautiful summer blooms.
Give them time and they will be back, always look great quite quickly for me.