November Dahlia Update
Hello friends,
Yes, I did buy more dahlias after I said my garden was completely full and I couldn't fit any more in, but I promise this time I had good reasons to do so...
First of all, I lost a number of dahlias this spring due to tubers rotting/eyes not forming, including:
- Arthur Hambley (DP)
- Cafe Au Lait (DP)
- Islander (DP)
- Muchacha (Dec)
- Salmon Runner (Dec)
- Tranquility (Col)
- Impression Fomoso (Col)
- The Phantom (Ane)
From my observations over the past couple of years, dinner plate dahlias seem more prone to rotting, and for this reason I am not planning on buying anymore dinner plate dahlias in the future, they're just not worth spending all that money on, just to end up rotting in spring.
Secondly, when my NZ Bulbs dahlia order arrived in early October, one of my collarette dahlias, Dark Tiger, was not in the package due to them being out of stock, and they replaced it with the waterlily dahlia, Twiggy. The dahlias in this order weren't in the best condition, and two of them (Tranquility and Impression Fomoso) are actually in the lost dahlias list. They didn't form any eyes at all, and then they rotted. I don't think I'll buy from NZ Bulbs ever again when it comes to dahlias.
Twiggy is a waterlily dahlia with warm pink suffused petals and a light yellow center.
And thirdly, I got rid of our small plastic pond in the back garden. When hubby installed it three years ago, he promised he would take care of it, and keep it clean, and that just didn't happen. So after I cleaned it out this spring (again), I talked with hubby, and he agreed with me that it was time for the pond to go. This freed up a large space in the right part of the back garden, and after some rearranging of dahlias in that area, it gave me more space for dahlias to go into the ground.
And fourthly, during the big North West storm in October my Avalanche camellia snapped off at ground level, and it left an open space in the garden which I could fill with another dahlia.
Luckily this all happened around the time that Bulbs Direct and Mount Mera Botanical restocked their dahlia varieties on their websites, so I bought some dahlias I missed out on earlier in the year, and with discounts too.
From Bulbs Direct I picked up Purple Haze, an anemone dahlia with deep plum-coloured blooms, darker in the centre, and rich dark green foliage.
From Mount Mera Botanical I picked up the following dahlia varieties:
Muchacha a small decorative dahlia with shades of rose pink, violet, and white, to replace the one I lost this spring.
Bacardi, a decorative dahlia with muddy-rose colouring and dark raspberry tips and centers. I lost this dahlia last spring due to it rotting, and I really wanted to replace it.
Platinum Blonde, an anemone dahlia with a fuzzy butter cream center and white petals.
Rockstar, an anemone dahlia with beautiful deep cranberry petals and fuzzy cushion centers.
Take Off, another anemone dahlia with soft, orchid-toned petals which encircle a lighter, fluffy center.
Princess Nadine, a collarette dahlia with double ruff of pink and plum petals and an apricot center.
And lastly, Skyfall, a collarette dahlia with luscious crimson petals and a gold heart.
As soon as these dahlias arrived by courier they all went straight into the ground, and they have already sprouted and begun to grow.
And finally just when I thought all my dahlia buying was done for the year, an opportunity came up that I just couldn't turn down. Emerden Flower Farm had Floret Petite dahlia seedlings for sale, and I couldn't miss out on buying some after I missed out on buying their Floret Petite Dahlia seeds last year. I bought 8 Floret Petite dahlia seedlings, and when they arrived by courier a couple of days later I planted them into a small section of our vegetable garden (bad of me I know, but I was desperate), and gave them a good watering. I'm excited to see what flower types and colours I'll get from them.
With summer fast approaching now, I can't wait to see all these new dahlia varieties flowering in my garden.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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I've Gone Completely Dahlia Crazy
Hello friends,
If you were to ask me about my top 5 favorite flowers of all time, the list would be something like this: Roses, Lavender, Dahlias, Daffodils, and Cosmos.
But over the last couple of years dahlias have crept up to the top that list, as each of the gardening projects around our home ended up giving me more and more space to grow dahlias. It also didn't help that I started following a bunch of dahlia growers on social media, and also especially, Floret Flower Farm in the USA, on both Instagram and YouTube. I became especially fond of anemone dahlias, collarette dahlias, and single dahlia varieties, of course in a large number of colours and sizes.
It got to a point that I had developed a wish list of some very cool, but rare dahlias I just had to have...and come dahlia bulb pre-sale time this winter I went a little nuts buying them.
The next problem was figuring out where to put them, so out came my trusty Instax photo printer, and I got to work printing out photos of all the dahlia varieties I had, and also the ones on their way to me, and then I got to work organizing them. First up was developing a dahlia database based on type and colour and size.
The colour coding in the database give me a quick idea of where my dahlias are in terms of where they are in the world. Sage green are dahlias already in place. Bright green are dahlias which have to be moved. Apricot means that the dahlia is in storage in the garage. Peach means that the dahlia has not arrived yet.
Next up was to break down our garden into sections, and then arrange the dahlia photos in each area of the garden to get an overall plan. I'm going to use the following abbreviations for the different dahlia types: Anemone (A), Collarette (C), Decorative (D), Dinner Plate (DP), and Single (S), Waterlily (W).
Front Garden Right: Peaches and Cream (D), Penhill Dark Monarch (DP), Totally Tangerine (A). I grouped these based on similar colouring.
Front Garden Middle: Iced Tea (D), Keith Hammett Dream Seeker (C), Joal Kaitlyn (D), and Sweet Nathalie (D). These all have similarish apricot colouring.
Front Driveway Road: Yelno Harmony (W), Cafe Au Lait (DP). These have light apricot colouring.
Front Driveway Middle: Lucky Number (D), Aporo Road Strawberry (D), Molly Raven (D), Cafe Au Lait Twist (DP). All these have dark pink shades, and should look amazing together.
Patio: Zahra (A), Floorinoor (A), Misses Amy (A). Three anemone dahlias I bought very recently, so they go into pots this year because I have no more space in the garden.
Back Driveway: Silver Years (D), Strawberry and Cream (D), Dutch Pearl (D), Muchacha (D). A gradient from light pink to dark pink.
Back Garden Back Fence: Rosemary Webb (W), Islander (DP), Bonesta (D), Bumble Rumble (C), Cafe Au Lait Royal (DP), Sweet Sanne (D), Cafe Au Lait Rose (DP), Arthur Hammerly (DP), Mambo (A), Misses Miley (D), Impression Famoso (C), Fenna Baij (A), Julie-Ann (S, a dahlia I hybridised last year), Keith Hammett Mystic Sparkler (S). A gradient of colour from left to right along the back fence. It's a bit more loose in terms of shading toward the right side, with dahlias I didn't know where to put elsewhere.
Back Garden Far Right Corner: Keith Hammett Butterscotch (C), The Phantom (A), Dark Tiger (C). Collarette and anemone dahlias that are small and fit under the small tree in that space.
Back Garden Right Fence Back: Keith Hammett Protegee (S), Keith Hammett Delicacy (C), Pink Magic (D), Keith Hammett Tranquility (C), Lady Liberty (D), and Polka (A). Shades of pink and white.
Back Garden Right Fence Front: Great Silence (D), Fancy Pants (C), Salmon River (D), and Fairway Pilot (DP). More peachy tones.
As you can see I now have 48 dahlias in my garden (which don't include the seedling dahlias I'm growing in pots right now). In this second spreadsheet I've organised the dahlias based on where they are in the garden, and which direction they are in. It's a good idea for when labels come off the dahlias, and I can't figure out which ones they are after they die back in winter...
With this large amount of dahlias in my garden, I now have no space for any more dahlias (or any other plants really), even though I do have some more dahlias on my wish list like Rhubarb and Cream, Appleblossom, Thomas Edison, Marshmallow Baby, Negroni Sunset, Klara Zak, Dutch Delight, Breakout, Purple Flame, and Labyrinth.
Either I need to dig up what little grass space we have left, or I would need to get rid of our long, side hedge, and then build a new fence between us and the neighbours, and then make another garden...
For now I'll just have to pit the dahlias up against each other Hunger Games style, and see which plants survive each year.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
PS - After this post was written I got word from NZ Bulbs that one of the dahlias that hadn't arrived yet, Dark Tiger, was unavailable, so I had to choose another dahlia to replace it with. I chose the waterlily dahlia "Twiggy", but then had to rearrange a couple of dahlias in that area of the garden to fit this change, as Twiggy grows much bigger in size than the space I had chosen Dark Tiger for...
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Some of My Favorite Dahlias This Summer Season
Hello friends,
Today I wanted to share with you some of my favorite old and new dahlias for the 2024/2025 summer season that I didn't get a chance to do a dahlia profile on, because life is always crazy busy in the garden over the summer.
First up is Strawberries and Cream, a decorative dahlia I bought on a whim after a couple of dahlia tubers died last spring, and I needed to replace my Cafe Au Lait dahlia. The shades of white and pink are just so pretty and girly, and the flowers have nice long stems, which make them perfect for cutting.
Next we have one of my favorite old dahlias, Protegee, which is a pretty single dahlia bred by Dr Keith Hammett. This dahlia is a bumblebee magnet all summer long, and really stands out in the garden.
Next we have another old favorite, Penhill Dark Monarch, which is a huge dinner plate dahlia with just wonderful shades of purples, pinks, and apricots.
Next we have another new decorative dahlia, Iced Tea, which I've really fallen in love with over this summer. I am quite happily keeping this dahlia for next year, and can't wait to see it with lots of bright peach flowers.
Next up we have one of my first new anemone dahlias, The Phantom. It's pop of bright purple flowers is a great sight to see in the garden over the summer. Unfortunately I planted it in the wrong place, so I'll move it to a better position in winter.
Fenna Baij is another new anemone dahlia, with very pretty light purple and gold shades.
Pink magic is a floriferous waterlily dahlia which brightens the garden all summer. I've really fallen in love with waterlily dahlias this summer, so I think I'll invest in more next season.
I replaced my Cafe Au Lait dahlia this season, after the old dahlia tuber rotted last spring in October. I replaced it, and this dahlia has the purple-tinged shades my previous dahlia didn't have. I'm very happy about this, and will be moving this dahlia to a better position over the winter.
Next we have Silver Years, which is a mostly white decorative dahlia with pink vein striping, and a cream center. I really like this dahlia as a pop of white in the garden, and am quite happy to keep it for next year.
Dutch Pearl is another new waterlily dahlia, and it really is stunning next to my Little Miss Perfect rose. I can see why this dahlia is very popular in dahlia circles right now.
Next there is my new Cafe Au Lait Royal dahlia, another dinner plate dahlia to add to the Cafe Au Lait dahlia family. The light pink colours and striping are just stunning. I need to find a better way to stake the plant though, the flower heads are huge, and the dahlia has some trouble holding them up.
And finally we have another new dahlia, Pinky Swear, which is another large dinner plate dahlia, and the striped pink shades, along with yellow are just florescent. I'm very happy to have this dahlia in a darker part of my garden.
I'm just so pleased to have so many beautiful old and new dahlias flowering this summer, and hope to have some more new ones next season...
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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Dahlia Profile - Totally Tangerine
Hello friends,
Today's dahlia profile is for the anemone dahlia Totally Tangerine which I purchased this year from Bulbs Direct.
From the Bulbs Direct website: "Add a splash of tangy citrus hues to your color palette with this lively and spirited flower, Dahlia 'Totally Tangerine'. These vibrant
blooms create a buzz in any garden, flaunting coral pink petals and a bright neon orange ruffled center. This playful dahlia is always ready for a good time - let it loose in your garden and enjoy the lively show!" The plant will reach 50 - 60cm high.
Flower bud opening:
Dahlia Totally Tangarine Fully Flowering:
Totally Tangerine is just amazing. Not only am I loving the bright citrus hues of the flower petals, but I'm really now obsessed with anemone dahlias in general. This dahlia is a total keeper for me, and I can't wait for my other new anemone dahlias to start flowering in the garden.
There are five more dahlias about to flower, including some of the Floret "Bee's Choice" dahlias I grew from seed, so it's super exciting to go for a walk around the garden each morning to check them out.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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