For the September 2008 Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, I'm sharing with all of you one of my favorite late summer/autumn flowers--dahlias (another favorite are the sunflowers that I recently posted about).
I plant the dahlia tubers in the spring and watch them grow, grow, grow. The tallest grow to be over six feet tall. They are the perfect cutting flower: the more flowers you cut, the more they bloom. I plant them throughout my garden--throughout the mixed borders, in the Rose Garden, in the Cutting Garden, in the Children's Garden, really everywhere. At the end of the season, I dig up the tubers and over-winter them in my basement.
The varieties you see here are from Brent and Becky's Bulbs, Old House Gardens, and Plant Delights. I am particularly fond of the dark-colored ones.
Check out all of the Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day posts at May Dreams Gardens.
Arab Queen.
Arabian Knight.
David Howard.
I forget.
Betty Anne.
Giraffe.
Old Gold.
I forget.
Prince Noir.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day: Dahlias in New Jersey - September 2008
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11 comments:
Very nice. I haven't grown dahlias for a couple of years, and it seems like I'm missing out on a good flower.
Thanks for joining in for bloom day!
Carol, May Dreams Gardens
Lovely dahlias - orange and nearly black are most beautiful to me.
Greetings,
Ewa
Hiya,
What a lot you got!
I still have your lovely phlox August BD post in my mind's eye.
And now here is another collection of treasures in one genus alone. An exceptional garden you have.
I won my first flowershow ribbon with a deep purple dahlia, at the age of ten ;-) here in the UK.
And then a second one in upstate NY again with the same Dahlia umpteen years later. So I am quite partial to large cactus dahlias in deep purple.
Know what? I have never ever dug up dahlia tubers. Even in Corning, NY, I left them outside to overwinter without losing any. Was I just lucky all these years?
Lovely blooms, I esp. like the pink one.
Jan
Always Growing
Oh my goodness! Your fall blooms are lovely! All I have going on in the way of flowers in bloom this month is lavender, hyssop and sedum autumn joy. That's it - didn't even do a garden bloggers post about it this month. :( You're pink and peach flowers are just amazing...what variation of flower it the "betty anne"? I MUST have it in my yard!
Joco,
I have to try leaving some of the tubers over the winter--that would save so much work. I thought they weren't hardy in my zone 6b garden.
-Heirloom Gardener
Stacy,
Betty Anne and all of these flowers are dahlias. You can buy it from one of the nurseries I recommended in the post.
-Heirloom Gardener
In years gone by, I didn't much rate Dahlias, but the past two, they have come into their own, and I cherish the late summer colour. You have two of my own favourites, Arabian Night and David Howard. I love Murdoch too, which is a very similar colour and form to your bright red decorative type.
I've always immediately dismissed anything that I have to dig up and overwinter, but I may just have to reconsider dahlias after seeing these.
JGH,
As per Joco's comment above, maybe you don't have to dig them up and over-winter them. It's worth a try.
-Heirloom Gardener
Wow a dahlia huh? I didn't know they came in so many pretty varieties! The one I have is all pointing in the petals - not at all as lovely as that pink. Thanks!
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