My earliest blooms ever

I lost it in the past but bought it again this year. I like the vibrant color.

I probably should also but I have some others that are very similar.

Lovely images Oberon and Arlene.

OMG.......those are so beautiful Pirl and Oberon.

Thanks. 'Tis the season where we can enjoy them in our gardens and share them here.

I'd like to have shared two others but the deer decided to devour them so I'll spray the deer repellant tomorrow and hope more buds open.

I need to get going on the blood spray as we have spotted moose in town and they always make it here. Note to self tomorrow.

That doesn't stop the deer. I've tried so many products that just ended up being a waste of money. The Blood Meal does stop the rabbits here.

Huh. I wonder why it works on moose. They are just really big deer.
I am having the devil's own time telling one rust color dahlia (cactus type) from another. One of possibly three different names. Or perhaps they are two... I will cut a bloom from each and line them up.

Even Deer Scram, which is supposed to smell like dead deer and frighten deer away, doesn't work and we've tried it a few times.

Post all three and we'll see if we can help with any ID's for you.

I hope everyone has had a great holiday weekend. I'm just catching up with this thread. Mary, that Marble Ball dahlia is a pretty little flower. I like the colors whether they are red or purple. Arlene. that Michael C is beautiful and I wouldn't be disappointed with Raz Ma Taz. I have received many that didn't look exactly like the catalog photo. That's why before I order a new one, I google as many pictures as I can until I decide if I want it or not. I no longer trust just one photo. Even then, I'm often surprised at what grew. I just tell myself, "There are no ugly dahlias." And Firepot has to be one of the most beautiful dahlias ever.

A couple new blooms and some I've posted before. 1) Juanita. 2) Lemon Meringue without the white tips. 3) Bodacious is getting bigger. 4) Group shot of Hilltop Lost Treasure 5) This is another of several Kelvin Floodlights I have. I love KFL but this one is a little weird. It has a 8"-9" flower on a plant that is barely 15" tall.

I almost forgot this poor neglected plant. It's Penhill Maroon Globe and I've had it three years and finally have my first bloom. The first year it was planted in too much shade and never budded. Last year I planted it in a pot since I didn't have room anywhere else. Again, it never bloomed. This year is it's "coming out" party. Never give up!! lol

Dan is that straw mulch I see on the ground in the last picture. I was going to grind up the bale of straw I bought. The ground mulch I put down earlier this summer slowed up all but the weeds growing from roots. I need to do it all over again. Well, maybe it doesn't make sense to waste effort on seed grown ones that will die soon. Soon enough to deal with them in the spring. Should focus on the ones with roots. Dandy Lions and such. Hilltop lost treasure is great. So prolific with blooms. That is why I love Rosemary Webb. It is full of flowers all the time. My Ivory Palace which is open now is yellow not white as it shows on line. Will post a pic.

That is baled straw. It was nearly impossible to find a while back. I finally located two bales. Wish I could have gotten a couple more bales and been able to put down a thicker layer. As you can see the weeds still grew through it. I had even sprayed Roundup around the perimeter of the bed. With a lot going on now, I've fallen behind in my weeding. But I am a great weed grower! lol

Dan - you are the ultimate in patience to wait three years for a bloom!

Mary - getting the roots of the weeds out just makes the whole process smoother, not really easier, but after using Preen and mulch the weeds tend not to come back.

We had high winds to day with rain. Fortunately it was light rain while I worked the beds, dug up vegies, etc. Dug up two new beds within a bed for vegies next year. Moved my asparagus into one and put a pot with the bottom cut out for chocolate mint (really spreads with runners and roots). Moved lilies... oh just lots of stuff. About the time D and I came in the wind really kicked up and it blew over one of the really pretty rust colored dahlias. I definitely have two different ones. I had Punkin Spice, Neon Splendor, Dr. John Kaiser. It isn't Dr. John so must be one of the other two. No sign of Mardi Gras yet. I got crabapples from Thunderchild tree and the last of the green beans plus the last of the rhubarb. So jellies are coming and I may try canning the green beans. A first.

Working in drizzle shows real dedication! Good luck with canning green beans. You worked hard and deserve a good night of sleep.

Yesterday I worked outside for 8 hours and dug out a lot of daylilies and potted them, weeded, used cardboard to cover a path and clipped back a Tardiva hydrangea. This crawling around to do some jobs has to come to an end!

Dahlias are in beautiful bloom now and with typical autumn storms I need to check every one of them today and restake if required.

Well, crawling works for me as the continual up and down motion tends to be a bit painful. Although I was surprised at how little it bothers me in the garden; more so in the house. Odd. I only have the one rust colored flower left. The other bush was taken out by the wind. I still have the tuber of course. They are two different flowers so that leaves me with Neon Splendor or Pinki'n Spice as I don't think I had any other of that color. It must survived unbeknownst to me.

Working digging up daylilies is rough duty. They have such huge roots and they go down a ways. I had rearranged a bed that left a root outside the little brick edging I put in. It grew up in the walk. I finally got around to digging it up and placing it back where it belonged after looking at it (and dodging it) all summer. lol

After having fresh vegies, however limited, I wonder that you don't really miss what Jack grew in his gardens. They looked so well kept and bountiful. How does he manage now that he isn't slaving over his vegie gardens.

My reaction is the same. The things that bother me in the house do not annoy me outside.

Sorry about the lost dahlia but you do have the tuber, thankfully. Maybe it will continue to puzzle you next year.

Very rough work especially with major 55 year old spruce roots in the soil to work around them.

He copes by having his 4 to 6 hour breakfast with the newspaper. I'd go insane but it's fine with him. Yesterday he did plant an azalea that had been waiting for months. We had it removed from the area with the new bluestone paths. It looks better than ever but it was another target for the deer and now that I have trellises blocking all entrances to the rose garden, the azalea will be safe there.

We still have cukes, tomatoes, peppers and basil growing (I planted them in spots other than the old garden) and he's on Coumadin so can't have any spinach so we don't feel we're missing anything.

Yesterday I planted more basil, lettuces and "spring" raab. All were old packages of seeds so there's no big loss if they don't grow. I used them all as edging in the dahlia garden.

Now we're in the midst of a very noisy rain storm, complete with thunder and radio static. I'm working off the battery. That seems to be the only feature I like on this machine.

No idea of the name of this one that I saved from last year and gave it a spot for itself but I do like the variety of yellow-orange flowers on it.

You all have the most violent storms. Losing power and static etc. Quite exciting.

I like your little noid. I really feel like it is almost impossible to identify them unless they are truly unique which is becoming less and less likely except for the very newest ones. Pick a color, form, height and you can find at least half a dozen that could match. This year (ordering for spring) I will concentrate on height (though it is a crap shoot as to whether it will attain it - if they stayed in the ground year round then they could maybe gain the roots to get the height the growers taut), color and form. With a list next to me so I know what I have (or hope to salvage) from 2013. It passes the time. lol. More effort on where to plant them. And of course new plans for the vegies. I am really happy to have developed sections in my flowers for vegies. More challenging on the ground due to our miserable slugs but I will just have to be more assiduous about putting down stuff to deter them. Sluggo or what ever.

Not much lightning today but a few nights ago it was wild. No loss of power yet this year but this is the season when the storms hit and we can lose power for either hours or days.

I agree about the height. Then I add my own problem of not tying them to the stakes. One day they don't need it and next thing I know they're blooming at ground level.

Slug bait works! I hate them, too, and abhor touching them by accident.

"blooming at ground level" -- that is hysterical... well, not funny exactly but I really laughed at your description. I used to walk in the mornings, really early, with a pair of scissors and cut the little buggers in half. Didn't really put a dent in the population but gave me a world of enjoyment.

That's what I have, ground level big dahlias. The combination of wind and rain knocked over AC Rainier right to the ground, exposing the tubers but it didn't break or hurt the trunk or any side branches. I added another stake and it looks fine.

Gross but I've done it many times. You do know they do not need another slug to reproduce, right? Now, that is really gross!

Hermaphrodites?? Is that the right word. Yeahl Gross....

Yes. No need to go to dating sites.

LOL

To quote the Seinfeld show, "Not that there's anything wrong with it".

Gee,thought we lost you there Dan. lol. I have a lot of lovely blooms in my house now as the wind knocked down many that had particularly stems and largish flowers. Seeing many in one spot I have to say Falcon's Future, Dr. John Kaiser and Phoenix are my favorites. Not the biggest but the colors are complex especially Phoenix. Really difficult to describe it and it recurves to form almost a ball.

I had the most delicious tomato, cheese, lettuce sandwich today. My very own first tomato from my garden. When I cut into it and smelled that fresh out of the garden tomato I had to have a sandwich. Even if it was10:30 in the morning. Course two pieces of toast at 6am was not holding very well.

Cute, Dan.

Oh, no, Mary! Weren't the stakes strong enough? What went wrong? Just too much wind?

I was out putting in more stakes and tying up dahlias today...again. Many times just one stake really isn't good enough for the dahlias.

Do you use twine to hold the stems to the stakes or do you have something you like more?

I used to stake mine with garden twine but it seemed to cut into the stems and branches when they got blown around in heavy winds. I now use green plant tie tape. I bought it at Lowes for $3-something for a 150' roll. It was only 4 mm thick and was much too stretchy. I found the 1/2" 8 mm heavy duty tape on A.M. Leonard's web site for a little over $2.00 a roll. I also used it for staking my tomatoes. Good stuff. I have a few more buds starting to open and hopefully will post photos soon. This photo shows a Hollyhill 6-in-1 Yellow that's gone a little wild. I like the different variations.

Wow! That's a garden all by itself!

Thanks for both tips, Dan. I've been using telephone wire (the rubberized coated one) but it's white and I hate it. I tried the velcro tape and that worked well for lightweight dahlias but some of these stalks are 2" wide! I'll go to A.M. Leonard's after dinner.

Biggest problem I have with staking is when some plants get beyond 4' or 5' tall. I use 5' stakes with about a foot driven into the ground. Any plant much taller than 5' are at the mercy of the wind and rain. I have a few AA dahlias that didn't get much over 7"-8" wide this year and it's probably a good thing since for some reason the stems seem smaller and weaker. I meant to add in the last post that I use the 1" wide tape for tomatoes.

I just came here to get the size so thanks for your post. I may buy a few widths since the lower dahlias don't seem to be as damaged by winds as the taller ones.

One of the tallest ones this year is around 5' and that's Peaches 'n Cream. As I previously mentioned, the packaging said 18" for the height.

Just sitting here watching a gully washer outside. Got home just in time. One bush went over but it wasn't staked. Didn't seem like it needed it. The others were just blooms on 6-12" stems that just got bent over. I use green cages for some, 1/4" stakes from 36 to 60" tall. Looks pretty dumb if I put a 60" stake on a plant that is to be 5' and it turns out to be 20".

We had one the other day, immediately after I planted lettuce seeds for a fall crop. Either they got watered in very well or washed away.

Green cages as in tomato cages, Mary?

I agree about the height of the stakes. It's rough to know what size stake to use unless we've grown that particular cultivar previously and made efficient notes, as you do, Mary.

Ordered 4 rolls of the 1/2" wide and 4 rolls of the 1" wide. Watch as I lose them between receipt and next summer!

I buy 50' rolls of both 48 and 36" high fencing. They are green and have 4x4" spacing, holes, whatever. I cut them to the size I want for a lot of my plants, The delphiniums take the 48" and I make them about 2.5" in diameter then wire them to the fence. I do the same for my bleeding heart as it gets huge and then spreads out as the boughs get longer. This way they grow through the holes and partially hide the fencing support and I can trim when they get too spread out. Other things like lilies do better with stakes probably but I am 'Johnny one note' when it comes to supports.

I agree. I buy the neatest stuff in the fall and winter, put it away til spring then forget I ever bought it. Now that I have my rolling grow light shelves I store that sort of thing on the shelves til I need them in the early spring to start my plants.

I like the 4 x 4" spacing and would like to make peony supports with them. They don't carry it locally so I'll get around to making a trip to HD and Lowe's to see what they have.

Late January to late February is my weak time so then I'm prone to buying things for the gardens and when it arrives it gets stored. I only got around to putting up one item in August! I thought it would be a job and it couldn't have taken five minutes. It was more work to unpackage it. This is from the ad.

That is attractive. I just don't seem able to maintain pots very well. Oh, pots with big stuff like dahlias or roses yes. But ones with all sorts of smaller plants - not so well. I think I either over water or under water or forget to fertilize. I may buy some pre-planted baskets next year and then pay more attention to them. Brilliant idea! Pay attention. lol

Last year I got so tired of seeing so many pots in photos that I used fewer this year and put 8 in gardens. At least the irrigation system tends them there so it's not up to me. Two others died of neglect. We can split ourselves just so many ways and gardening shouldn't feel as much like a juggling act as it's been.

It's the "pay attention" where I fall down on the job.

This is one that died of neglect.

How sad. It would have been so attractive with all those purple petunias framing her face.