Close to the last hurrah

With all of the heat and all-round diabolical weather we've had down here this summer I was hoping for a recovery for autumn. It looks like they're going to go vegetative a little early this year. Our dahlias were a lot of fun this last spring and it was a real joy that doss and the rest of you got this forum started. It has turned out to be lively and a true testimony to 'eye candy'.

I took some pics I think will be the last until the tree dahlias bloom.

Here's a pic of the dahlia plot near the kitchen door. As you can see they're laying on top of each other...lol. I've always thought of them as 'close'...lol

This one kept on blooming even when the heat was making the cactus garden sweat. Not the most impressive flower but I'm keeping just because it's such a trooper...lol.

This one is a treat. It got some shade from the Wisteria so it stayed pretty lush. The color was something this garden was lacking with all of the Salvias and stuff back in this garden.

Big arse white has deteriorated to Medium tooshie size....lol.

I like this one. Not much color during the heat or the spring, but it is its' first year in the garden.

This little one never stopped blooming even though the flowers wilted in the afternoon swelter, it just kept coming. The plant ended up about 3ft tall.

Fall Sprawl...lol.

These whites are all over the place. It's hard to imagine that during the spring I was measuring flowers over a foot across. Now it's just storing energy and giving a few medium size flowers.

The tree dahlias are up around 12ft tall and will be producing bud in about 2 weeks.

I've really enjoyed and will continue to enjoy all of the incredible flowers you all grow. This dahlia thing is really fun.

best to all,
don

Oh yeah, and Dahlia the doggie says well done to all.

Dr. Don- you saved the dog Dahlia for dessert! What an adorable scruffy moppet! And I mean scruffy and moppet in the best possible way. I learned last night that there used to be a rivertown in WA named Dahlia. It has faded into history (or maybe the mighty Columbia river,) but a bit of trivia for dahlia fans anyway.

Love the intense red and, of course, the lacy pink and yellow. I don't know why I love the laciniated ones so much, but I do.

I have B.A.W here too. 4 huge blooms including one that I believe might have been the biggest dahlia ever to leave my garden, and now M.T.W.s are getting ready to bloom as the season winds down. Not nearly the prolific blooms you've got going on there- a wonderful plant for you!

How hot has it been there anyway? Have you ever tried using an umbrella to shade some of those plants with brighter colors? It's a pain in the Big Arse, but helps the blooms retain their color/not wilt so badly.

Be sure to give Dahlia the wonderdog extra water and a big huge pet from Poochella- lover of all things canine. Can't wait to see the tree dahlia too.

hiya Poochella,

nice to see you.

In the gardens here, if you're not man, woman, plant, dog, horse enough to handle this heat (btw six weeks of temps over 100+). We, the doggies, the horsies, and the gardens got our collective tooshies kicked this year. The only gardens that thrived in the weather were the cactus collection and the salvia collection. For a few weeks I thought the dahlias were just going to lay down and say ENOUGH! They just layed down. Temps down into the 80s for about a week now and they've perked right up. We mulch so heavy that their root systems stay pretty cool and we mix them up with other stuff so they get some protection from above (except for BAW).

Dahlia (the doggie) is a PeeBeeGeeVee or a Petite Bassett Griffon Vendeen. She looks like a mix of a Bassett Hound and Benji...lol.

BAW is a real favorite of ours and this year we should be able to share a few tubers. We also have a BA-Yellow that didn't take the heat and went entirely vegetative during the heat. It probably won't do much for the rest of the season. It produced some monster flowers in the late spring, but summer was a tad harsh. I'm considering moving it to a little more protected area during dormancy.

Dahlias for us are a purely aesthetic gardening endeavor. I feel a little puny not knowing the names of my hybrids so I give them nicknames instead.......no patent infringement intended...lol. But as the name of the doggie shows, we do love them dearly and hope to do more species dahlias in the years to come. I will be making root cuttings of D. imperialis and D. exelsa this winter to see about sharing a few with true lovers of the flowers. I'm excited to see doss' tree dahlia, her foliage earlier this year looked like the plant had tapped into Pizarro's fountain of health. But then again doss just grows really good stuff. My tree dahlias drop a few lower leaves this time of year and the heat exacerbated the leaf drop. Yet they are at least two feet taller than last year and are starting to push a ton of growth out of axils which is the telltale sign they are setting up for bloom. You must tell us about the 15 footer you heard about.

best to you, and thank you for sharing so many inspirational dahlia pics.
don

I knew it! I knew if I called Dahlia a scruffy moppet , she would turn out to be a $5K hybrid collector dog! She's still cute: the only requirement to entering the Poochella Fan Club for dogs.

I will eagerly await photos of Doss' and your dahlia tree blooming. And here I was impressed by the tremendous cellular growth rate of the average run-of-the-mill 4 foot dahlia to go from tuber to robust plant in under 90 days- but a tree with 5 inch 'stems' regrowing in one season is beyond my reckoning.

Glad you enjoy the photos. If I could focus better with my own poor eyes I would have better pictures!

Oh Don, love the pooch!
He looks so cute and happy. Plus I love his name.
Hum, maybe the next cat I have will be named Dahlia, lol. Not a bad idea.
Don, I love the way you write. You are so entertaining to read!
But love seeing your dahlias in your actual gardens. I have one just like that orange one that you say just keeps blooming. That BAW one sure has a beautiful bloom.
So thanks for sharing with all of us your beautiful dahlias and gardens.
I am not looking forward to the dahlias drooping due to the rain. I have enjoyed this season with them and the new ones.
But there is always next year. Especially with the new dahlias, like from you!!! And others!!!
Later,
Carol

Don - you always pick things up and make them fun. I love your sweet end of the year dahlias. I'm hoping that mine will hang out another month. I'm giving DH a birthday party and am hoping that I can use the dahlias for that. My daughter is getting married in May - she was very disappointed that I wouldn't have dahlias for her. Now that's wild.

I realize that I haven't had a look at my tree dahlia recently. Have to go look at it.

D

hiya gang,

Dahlia (the doggie) is a wacky girl that loves to get dirty and has an odd taste for eating earthworms.....go figure...lol.

B.A. Yellow is opening it's final bloom today because I'm cutting off all the buds and keeping it vegetative so it can store more energy for next season. This spring it was slow to emerge and I think it was due to me allowing it to bloom until all the others were spent for the year. I was digging around B.A. White to sow some seed heads of Lobelia cardinalis today and holy smokes the tuber is enormous. I'll probably get six to ten divisions from it this winter. I'm jazzed about that.

I've been hunting for some species dahlias on the internet to add to our other species in the collection and I'm really having a hard time. Is that Swan place up north growing anything other than all those fabulous hybrids I see?

best to all,
don

lol @ 5K pure bred....She wasn't quite that much, but she acts like she's related to Leona Helmsly...lol. Hard to take that face seriously.

Hi Don, as far as I know they only grow the hybrids but they very well might know where to find the species dahlias. I bought a couple of them from Plants Delight. Tony Avent owner of Plants Delight might answer an email. I am sure their website would have a way of contacting him. Good Luck.

Well, we are still dry here and warm in the day but getting chilly at night so I don't know if my imperialis will make bloom or not. It sure looks great even if doesn't bloom. One of the stalks on the thing must be an inch and half or a bit better in diameter. When daisyruffles was here she thought it reminded her of bamboo.

Dahlia Pooch is certainly a unique species. LOL