Sunday in the Dahlia Garden

"Elfin" Pom 

I spent close to 2 hours working down on the Big Garden this morning. It was the perfect morning to be working outside. We had a fairly heavy cloud cover and the sun only made it out here and there for a few minutes. But it was warm and mild, without a breath of wind. My kind of working weather. My work this morning focused on the dahlia patch. I began by cutting of each spent bloom. This took longer than normal as I am spraying my shears between each cut with a bleach solution this year, hoping to stop the possible transmission of any virus. After I was done with that task I went back though the entire garden dis-budding. I also managed to kill about another 20 earwigs in the process. There just doesn't seem to be any end to them this Summer.

"Hollyhill Frodo"

This beautiful bloom is an introduction from Ted Kennedy of Hollyhill Dahlias up in Oregon City. It is a gorgeous flame colored pom. It is a brand new release and I love it. It just began to bloom this week.

My "Pooh" collarettes are still blooming up a storm, as are all of the open centered dahlias. This part of the garden is just buzzing with the noise of bees right now.

My "Alpen Cherub" collarettes just began to open this week. When they are perfect, like the bloom above, it is such a pretty dahlia.

"Sean C." 

This is the second year I have grown "NTAC Shelly" and I still really like it. It has great orchid form. Now if it can still be pumping out the blooms come show season in three weeks.

And I am still loving my new-to-me "Clearview Audrey" plants. I am so glad that I purchased two tubers this winter. This is my second variety to open this year. I read online that it is an early bloomer but continues to produced blooms all Fall. I certainly hope this is true.

Yet another new-to-me variety; "Hollyhill Pixie". This cute Bi-colored miniature ball was released in 2015 and is the only bi-colored miniature ball out there! While this bloom isn't yet fully mature, you can still see how cute it is. It reminds me of gingham fabric a bit.

A "Haley's Dream" bloom. This early bloomer has been going for a few weeks now. It really could use some shade to keep the hot pink color from washing out.

Here is one of my first two blooms of "Kelgai Ann". You can see just a hint of pink in it right now. As the weather cools come September, the pink increases dramatically and the blooms will become much prettier.

Another new-to-me dahlia - "Sandia Charm" a waterlily in a light blend of pink and yellow. I do have to say this first bloom looks very peach/orange to my eye. But its still very pretty and its big.

I am really liking my two plants of "AC Golden Nickles". It has great stellar form and an amazingly bright lemon yellow color. Now I just have to figure out how to keep the cucumber beetles out of the blooms so I can actually take on to a show. They are in love with its bight yellow color too!

Another glowing yellow bloomer; "Sandia Sunbonnet". I first grew this variety last year and really loved it. I kept 4 tubers so hopefully I will have a bloom or two time out right to take to a show this year. It has really nice Anemone form.

My "Embrace" plants are just beginning their first flush of blooms. As always, each bloom is just perfect. You an see why this variety ends up on the head table so often.

Last but not least is my bloom of "Golden Star". While this isn't an exhibition quality variety, I still like it. The bees love its open center and I think its golden star shaped blooms are cheery and joyful.

Summers Finally Here & Now There's Signs of Fall

Yesterday's official high was 92 and today I think it reached at least 90. Finally a weekend that was on the verge of actually being HOT! As you can see, Tom-Cat found a patch of shade and slept away the hottest part of the day. And although Fall is still offically over a month away, Mother Nature is slowly showing signs of its impending return.

The leaves on the three Sweet Gum trees are just beginning to turn from bright green to red.

The Bracken Fern are also making a switch from green to golden yellow.

I found a few actual filberts on the wild filbert bushes. The protective wrappers are drying and turning brown.

Another transition into Fall around here is the sound of crickets at night. They always begin their chorus in the month of August as our nighttime temperatures begin to cool.

And I was pleased to see this juvenile Evening Grosbeak at the feeder this morning. He definitely isn't a normal sign of approaching Fall. In a regular year, the Evening Grosbeaks would have been gone from our area for weeks by this time. But we are still hearing their distinctive "Chir" in the maple trees and I spotted one adult male and this juvenile male this weekend at the feeders. I think that their schedule is as delayed as our plants this year and we are so glad to still have them around.

Welcome Autumn

Autumn officially arrived yesterday at 8:00 PM PST. It has been such a strange Summer this year, filled with too many cool, grey days. I think because of this it almost feels like Summer has been gone for a long time already but one look around and you can clearly see that Mother Nature is just starting to put on her Autumnal show. Our 3 sweet gum trees are just starting to turn their amazing scarlet red and the crab apple is slowly transforming as well.