I believe I have established that during the summer, I am pretty much about my yard, or as I call it: The Outdoor Gym. Today was about four and a half hours of planting Dahlias and weeding. I think I put in around 35 corms. They are of two varieties, a simple red with a yellow center and a pom pom dahlia in a matching red. They [most conveniently] look much like the picture at left while the others look a bit like a bright red daisy. There's nothing I can think of that blooms as long and with as much visual impact.
Because we're in zone four I have to dig the corms up after the first hard frost and pack them in vermiculite. I was about a week late getting them planted because of BEA so they had begun sprouting, sort of like an old potato.
I have a big plastic storage bin filled with corms. Four years ago my friend Linda gave me a grocery shopping bag of Dahlias—one bag. But if Dahlias like your micro-climate they multiply. Apparently they like my micro-climate a lot! I finally ran out of locations I could fit them. I still had two bags of 30 to 40 viable corms each left. I am not good at chucking things so I
suckered convinced a neighbor to take a bag and called another neighbor who is supposed to pick them up later!
Dahlias are really amazing. They have been cultivated so many different ways that they can be as simple as a daisy or as large as a dinner plate. According to the
related article referenced below, from Art-Profiles.com, there are over 270,000 known varieties. Some look like pom, poms and some look like peonies. I don't know of another species that has so many forms. Do you? I wish I could grow more varieties, but then again my yard is enough work already! Dahlia's aren't hard to grow, like sun, but are very attractive to slugs and snails. Anyway, thank goodness for neighbors.
In other parts of the yard the Iris (white and blue), beach roses, one Buck rose, orange day lilies and my poppies are in bloom. The peonies are just starting. The new irrigation system seems to be functioning correctly, but he forgot to install the spigot on the shed which was an inconvenience today.
Whew! I am indeed knackered.
