A Last Hurrah for the Dahlias.

We have been threaten with frost this weekend and so I guess my dahlias are probably living on borrowed time . But what an abundance of heyday I have had over several month . I am a entire convert now . My grandmother used to grow them in serried ranks and as a kid I was revolted by the earwigs they attracted and of track there was always the hypothesis that the earwig might crawl into your ears and lay eggs in your brains . Or so my magnanimous babe told me . But this year I have been revelling in them and although the earwigs are a morsel of a pain , so far I have managed to keep them out of my ears . I started off a few years ago grow the blackness leaved ‘ Bishop of Llandaff ’ as so many of us did . I then amuse myself by grow on seedlings and try out to get really fateful children like this one . This year I have enjoyed bright red children as well as the dark ones and to my astonishment this pink , stripey one . good knows what the naughty bishop has been up to .

This fountain I create a heavy newfangled tropical bottom so I could pamper my newly - constitute passion for these trashy beauties . Never heed refined dark ones with black farewell , I bought the bright gloss pompoms , dinner plates , anemone- flowered ones and the relief ; anything which took my fancy . They needed plenteous watering throughout the hot dry summer , proper staking and course two or three times during the time of year , but what rewards .

The perfect pompoms of ‘ Cornel Bronze ’ are still going potent , this photograph was take today . I do it the soft apricot colour .

Dahlia‘Cornel Bronze’

Dahlia‘Cornel Bronze ’

I grow a lovely anemone -flowered tangerine tree one call ‘ altogether Tangerine ’ . Both of these two calculate great with the almost black I which I still try out .

Dahlia‘Totally Tangerine ’

Dahlia‘Cornel Bronze’

These anemone- blossom ones are sometimes called powder puff dahlias and you could see why . I love them and next year I shall probably grow a few more . ‘Blue Bayou ’ is a vibrant pink with red centre . The flowers vary and on some of them the ‘ powder puff ’ is missing .

Dahlia‘Blue bayou ’

Dahlia ‘ Mambo ’ is pinkish with such beautifully organise petals it count as if somebody has rationalise them out with pinking shear .

‘ Dahlia‘Mambo ’

I am not terribly keen on the dinner party plate dahlias or ‘ Giant Decorative ’ as they should be predict , but I produce the popular ‘ Cafe au Lait ’ simply because it is such a mythologic colour . There is also a ‘ Cafe au Lait Rose ’ which is a sport of it and a lovely soft pink .

Dahlia ‘ Cafe au Lait ’

Dahlia‘Cornel Bronze’

I have another giant decorative which is a gorgeous thick purpleness . It is called ‘ Thomas A Edison ’ It is an American Dahlia pinnata dating from 1929 . It is a perfect foil for ‘ Blue Bayou ’ .

Dahlia‘Thomas A. Edison ’ withDahlia‘Blue Bayou ’

Another favourite is ‘ Labyrinth ’ which has lovely bushy flower petal of a not bad colour mix with pinko .

Dahlia‘Totally Tangerine’

Dahlia‘Labyrinth ’

Another prominent Dahlia pinnata this sentence with undimmed pinkish and icteric Da - Glo color isDahlia‘Karma Fuschiana ’ .

Dahlia‘Karma Fuchsiana ’

Dahlia‘Blue bayou’

Nearby ‘ Walzing Mathilda ’ has semi - double flower in lovely sunset shades contrasting with dark leaves .

Dahlia‘Walzing Mathilda ’

For a total contrast I have a delightful Dahlia pinnata which is the colour of blueberries and pick . It is visit ‘ Creme de Cassis ’ .

‘Dahlia‘Mambo’

Dahlia‘Creme de Cassis’I

Single ones are beloved by the bee and so I had to include a few . ‘ Night Butterfly ’ is gorgeous with a central ruff of white flower petal contrast with the velvety Red River .

Dahlia‘Night Butterfly ’

Dahlia ‘Cafe au Lait’

There are quite a few in the‘honka’series and I have a twain . I am rather underwhelmed by ‘ Honka Fragile ’ . It has white petal finely edge with pink .

Dahlia‘Honka Fragile ’

I prefer the starry flowers of ‘ Honka Red ’ .

Dahlia‘Thomas A. Edison’ withDahlia‘Blue Bayou’

Dahlia ‘ Honka Red ’

I love crimson dahlia and ‘ Apache ’ is a particularly spectacular , bright red fimbriated one .

Dahlia‘Apache ’

Dahlia‘Labyrinth’

The best and brightest crimson dahlia is call ‘ Murdoch ’ and it has a story attached . Thirteen year ago a man arrive at Bob Brown ’s rattling glasshouse , ‘ Cotswold Garden Flowers ’ with his car full of this Dahlia pinnata which he had collected and then grown on for years . He call up Bob was the best individual to trust it with and what a wise selection that was . Now we can all enjoy this fabulous dahlia which Bob believes is the best bright - red ever . I check and that is why I have it as my header at the moment . I plainly love it .

Dahlia‘Murdoch ’

I have several grand nearly pitch-dark Dahlia pinnata and I ca n’t settle which is my favourite . ‘ La Recoleta ’ is an almost pompom shape of perhaps the deepest colour .

Dahlia‘Karma Fuchsiana’

Dahlia‘La Recoleta ’

But then ‘ Karma Choc ’ has such a delightful velvety dark flowers and stanch too .

Dahlia‘Karma Choc ’

Dahlia‘Walzing Mathilda’

And ‘ Rip City ’ is stunning .

Dahlia‘Rip City ’

I have been enjoying these blooms in the garden and in bowls in the house since July . I shall be very deplorable to see them lying in black heaps after the frost has attacked them . I never dig dahlias up to store them indoors . I believe it is wintertime smashed rather than frost which kills them . After I have cut them down I cover the tubers in several layers of newspaper and then a thick mulch of wood chippings .

Dahlia‘Creme de Cassis’I

I am a morsel late with my Top Ten October Blooms but I shall be posting it very soon . I really want to pay homage to my glorious dahlias before they disappear .

33 Responses toA Last Hurrah for the Dahlias.

Earwigs ! Yuck , I hate those thing but fortunately have n’t examine any in or near my dahlias . ( Perhaps it ’s because they favour my artichoke plant . ) You do n’t do anything by one-half , do you ? ! 😉 Although I lost several of my new Tuber to waste , including ‘ Labyrinth ’ , and one of my newbies , ‘ Penhill Dark Monarch ’ , never even produced a undivided bud , I was satisfied with my output signal this yr . Next year , I ’m go to seek out some additional varieties and I ’m adding your ‘ Creme de Cassis ’ and ‘ Blue Bayou ’ to my workings list .

I ’m with you about being a convert to Dahlias ! This is my first class grow them , too . I had a few little 1 in age past , but I planted several dinnerplate diverseness this class . They did pretty well , but I need to embark on them originally next year . They wo n’t survive my beastly wintertime , so I had to apprehend them up or go all over . Interesting – I’d never get wind about the connection of earwigs to Dahlias , although I do have earwigs on other plants in the garden . I use beer traps to get rid of them . You had a delectable compendium of Dahlias this summer !

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Dahlia‘Night Butterfly’

A Last Hurrah for the Dahlias.