ninnyMary & cwhit590 should see these :)

[obsessed]

Steve I have one more question. So you started with only a few dahlia (somewhere I read the number) but now you have a ton, right? But you have a ton of varieties and just divided them every year? LIke I said I got three pink ones at lowes on clearance but I was going to order some on the internet and was wondering how many to order in the beginning.

 

[digitS']

O, I bought 3 different dahlias about 1990. One, I lost . . . or, deliberately abandoned to the winter. It was an orange with white petal tips. The things would just burn-up instantly in the sunshine :/.

I made a couple of major orders from Swan Island over the years. Probably 50 varieties have cycled thru my garden. (That's major to me considering the price of the roots! ) I've gotten a few here and there, even started pompons from seed .

Lost many, abandoned a few . . .

There were just about 300 plants each season over the last few years but my dahlia garden is a bit smaller this year. There are at least 30 separate varieties but I'm not a collector. I'm not saying that there is 1 thing wrong with being a collector - it's just that my pleasure is in the brightness of the blooms and bouquets!

A good plant can produce a half dozen roots with enuf vitality to make it thru a winter. Some, only have a couple. Others can produce a dozen!

Steve

 

[obsessed]

Awesome! I want some big pink ones. I like pink. But I definitely want bigger than my little 4 in blooms.

 

[digitS']

Mary Munns

Okay, just kidding!

How about Glamour Girl?



. . . and, everything in between.

S'

 

[digitS']

First gladiola of the year!

Notice the striking character of that hardwood stake! Huh, huh?


Steve

 

[digitS']

Show 'n' Tell

S'

 

[obsessed]

Love it!

 

[journey11]

Beautiful!

 

[cwhit590]

Ooh la la! Check out those DAHLIAS! Niiiice. :rainbow-sun



Going back to the whole stakes thing again....cwhit never did get his pole beans properly staked! The poor things are climbing up some little bamboo stakes....yeah, the ground was too hard and dry at the time to get my branches in......
BUT! I have a lazy gardener solution for next year....I was checking out the massive stalks of my Mammoth Russian Sunflowers and I thought, wow...those would make great stakes.....and then the light bulb turned on...plant a few Mammoth sunflowers and let the beans climb up those! I'm looking forward to trying it next year....the only bad thing is that I may need a ladder to harvest the beans if it works....