Dahlia Show #1

Today was the Portland Dahlia Show in Canby Oregon. I left the house at 6:23 AM and headed north. I arrived in Canby a little after 8:00 AM and brought my 10 entries into the show and set them on the appropriate tables. Then it was time for the judge's meeting and then the judging of the entries. My team judged all 3-bloom BB entries as well as all 1-bloom and 3-bloom Orchid entries. At 11:30 I had to leave and head back home before the judging was complete. But soon I had a voice-mail with some exciting news. I had placed two entries on the head table!

My first head table entry was my 1-bloom "Martina". It won the best 1-bloom Miniature in the Show. I also later found out it was one of two blooms that battled for overall Best 1-Bloom in the Show. My entry lost by one vote! So close! But I was still really happy.

My second entry to make it on the head table was my 1-bloom entry of "Joal Louisa". It won best 1-bloom waterlily in the show. I was especially happy about this win because "Joal Louisa" isn't grown very much anymore and had fallen out of the classification book. This big win will put it back in the book for another two years.

I was also really pleased that my entry of "Majestic Kerkrade" did so well. While it fell short of making the head table, it did score a Blue and a Best of Type. This win will keep this little-grown variety in the book too. Not bad for a variety hybridized back in 1977.

On Sunday I drove back up to Canby so that I could see my entries on the head table and take a few photos.

It is always hard to get a flower on the head table and especially so at the Portland Show where there are always many, many talented growers exhibiting. This was a really terrific way to kick-off the Show Season for me. Even if I fail to make it to the head table for the rest of the year I will still be really pleased.

Getting Ready for the First Show

This morning I got up extra early, so when the sun rose over the hill at 6:15 AM, I could head down to the dahlia garden. The reason? The heat! It hit 97 degrees today and I have the first dahlia show of the Season tomorrow up in Portland. I knew if I wanted any decent blooms to take, I would have to pick them before they sat out all day in the scorching sunshine, fading and wilting.

I ending up picking five blooms in the morning and another six blooms after work, right as the sun set. Then I got to work staging them for tomorrow's show. Considering how many 90+ degree days we have had this Summer, and how bad the cucumber beetles have been, I was happy to have anything to stage at all. I think of everything I am taking, my best shot for the head table is my "Martina". It is my first bloom of the year, so it is large and nearly perfect. Close behind it is my white "Joal Louisa" waterlily. It is also the first bloom of the year from that plant, but it unfortunately has 3-4 petals with some serious bug damage. I have done some delicate plucking where I could but there are still two petals on the backside with a small hole that I couldn't pull. Hopefully the judges won't notice!

Weekly Harvest - Welcome September

As Summer slowly fades, the pace of harvesting and preserving increases. Each week it seems more and more of the fruits and vegetables in the kitchen garden are ripening and needing immediate attention. This week, for the first time, I had ripe tomatoes on all five plants. I was able to pick a platers worth to bring into work and share. I pretty much stripped the "Bloody Butcher" plant of all of its fruits. This might be the end of the harvest for that variety. But it started producing back on July 14th so I can't complain. It has been a nice, early variety for me. In contrast, I was able to pick the very first two "Indigo" Amethyst Jewel Cherry tomatoes this week. They are a shocking hot pink color with dark purple shoulders. Unfortunately, the initial review back on them was less than stellar. "Bland" and "Tasteless" were my co-worker's thoughts on this new cherry. Maybe it will improve as the season progresses. Here is this week's tomato harvest:

• "Bloody Butcher" - 19 fruit - 1 lbs. .4 oz
• "Moonglow" - 1 fruit - 7.5 oz
• "Indigo" Amethyst Jewel Cherry - 2 fruit - 2.8 oz
• "Bumblebee" Sunrise Cherry - 11 fruit - 4 oz.
• "Black Plum" - 12 fruit - 12.1 oz.

I spent part of Sunday harvesting my main onion crop. The "Candy" sweet onions have been ready to pull for a while but the weather has been so hot and dry they were just fine staying in the ground. The tops on the "Frontier" yellow storage onions had fallen over recently, so it was time for them to come out now too.

I planted 15 "Frontier" yellow storage onions back on April 30th. All 15 plants settled in and grew well. The largest onion in today's harvest weighed 11.7 oz and the smallest was 6.7 oz. The average onion size was 8.29 oz and my total  "Frontier" harvest was 7 lbs. 12.4 oz.

I had planted 12 "Candy" sweet onions in April and still had 11 of them in the ground today. The largest onion was 9.2 oz and the smallest was 4.1 oz. The average size onion was 6.9 oz. and my total "Candy" crop weighed 5 lbs. 2.8 oz.

The Kitchen Garden In Late August

There's very little bare dirt in the kitchen garden these days. The Winter Squash have claimed every last open space, making my daily watering routine a challenge.

All of the tomatoes, with the exception of the "Bloody Butcher" plant, have reached the top of the two-tier towers and are still growing. The "Heavenly Blue" morning glory has also reached the top of its tower and is happily rambling throughout the tomato plants. Instead of "out of control", I will call this the cottage garden look.

The "Indigo" Amethyst Jewel Cherry tomatoes have started to turn a lovely shade of purple/black on top. This is the first year that I have grown this variety, so I have no idea what they are suppose to look like when they are fully ripe. My best guess is that the whole cherry will turn that pretty purple color. Some of them are getting pretty close.

I was able to harvest the first eight "Bumblebee" Sunrise Cherry tomatoes this weekend. Their stripes certainly are reminiscent of a bee and the colors look like a sunrise. My co-worker thought these were the best tasting cherry tomato she has ever had. Hard to beat that review!

The "Black Plum" tomatoes are beginning to ripen at a fast pace.

Although I have harvested three "Moonglow" tomatoes, the plants is still loaded with large green fruit.

   Further down the row, the "Poletschka" pole bean has made a credible comeback from the bunny damage. The tower is now lightly covered with climbing vines. The "Bumblebee" tomato next to it is leaning away, trying to catch a bit of extra light. Between the two tomato towers are my four "Minnesota Midget" cantaloupe plants.

Between those four plants, they only managed to produce two cantaloupe. Looking at pictures online, I think mine should be a bit larger and have more defined ribbing before they are fully ready to harvest. Mine are now baseball size and are suppose to reach softball size when ready.

The "Poletschka" bean is getting covered with soft pink blossoms.

There are now beans beginning to lengthen on the vines. Since they got off to such a delayed start due to the rabbits, I am afraid that I hold out little hope for harvesting mature dried beans this year.

The Winter Squash are doing really well this year. I have four "Queensland Blue" squash that are nearing the end of their time on the vine. Two are quite large, like the one pictured above, and the other two are a little smaller.

My two "Delicata" plants have gone crazy this year. Everywhere I look under the squash leaves, there are "Delicata" fruit. I liked how this group is growing in one big, happy pile. It's a good thing I love "Delicata"!

The "Butternut" are usually my last Winter Squash to ripen each year, and this year is no different. I think I have at least three nice size fruit. But at this time, they are still mostly green, with just a touch of the golden yellow that they will turn when fully ripe. I definitely need a few more weeks of good weather to help them along.

As is normal, my pepper plants are mostly a big fat failure this year. My "Creme Brule" plant set exactly one pepper and I see that it has a small hole in it. The "Lunchbox Yellow" mini sweet pepper plant did a little better, setting four peppers. It was certainly hot enough this Summer, so I will have to spend the Winter doing more research on growing successful pepper in the Willamette Valley.

Blackberry Deluge

I spent a good deal of Saturday morning walking up and down the driveway, picking wild blackberries. I thought there were a lot of ripe berries last week. Little did I know even more were to follow this week! The berry size continues to be good which really surprises me. I am not sure where the plants are finding all of the moisture to grow berries of that size. After I finished picking, I weighed and washed them - 10 lbs. 4.5 oz. total!

Twenty-four hours later the black berries were turned into two cobblers ( one delivered to an Aunt & Uncle, the other staying right here), 14 more pints of blackberry jam, and the rest frozen and bagged.

I was also able to harvest a few things that I was growing on purpose around here this past week - Mother Nature doesn't get all of the kudos. The first three "Moonglow" tomatoes turned a striking yellow and were happily consumed by two co-workers. They are a nice "larger" size tomato for growing in this part of the world. It is difficult to ripen big beefsteaks here but this variety, at 4-5 oz. is a good bigger sized option. I was also excited to pick my first eight "Bumble Bee" Sunrise cherry tomatoes. I now understand how they attained their name. They are a bright yellow, with red stripes running vertically. These should be the first of many that I harvest over the next 4-6 weeks.

The Dahlia Parade Marches On

New dahlias continue to bloom each day, including this "Alden Snowlodge". One of the benefits of gardening organically is seeing all the interesting and beneficial insects in the garden. 

I don't know that you could call this grasshopper beneficial, but since he wasn't eating the dahlias or the foliage he's a keeper in my book. He could be munching on another bug that might cause damage to my plants or blooms. I have seen this grasshopper, or one of his friends, off and on for the past two weeks. They are always resting in open blooms. I have also seen a fair number of ladybugs too.

I finally got to see my first "Hollyhill Tigress" bloom of year. It is such a neat variegated color. I  planted two tubers of it this year. Interestingly enough, the other plant reverted back to its original parent stock and is solid red. But I am ok with that because it is a lovely shade of velvet red. The two blooms would look terrific together in a bouquet.

"Pooh", a Bi-colored collarette in yellow and orange.

I can't forget my Poms. This little one is "Valda" a purple pom. The photo doesn't do it justice. The blooms a rich, deep purple and and just stunning this year. I am sure hoping that the my two plants will continue to pump out the perfect blooms for the next month. I would love to enter a triple of this one in a show.

"Lakeview Illusion" a B sized incurve cactus in purple. To my eye, the blooms is actually an amazing neon violet color.

My "Camano Cloud" blooms have been awesome so far this year. This is at least the fifth perfect bloom.

This is the first flush on my two "Pee Gee" plants. I do love laciniated dahlias and this is a good one.

"Camano Susan", a BB sized Semi-cactus in orange. This is a beautiful dahlia in Fall arrangements.

"Fidalgo Julie" a stellar form in red and yellow.

"Verrone's DF", a pink stellar. This is a new one in my garden this year. And below, another "Odyssey". Such a sweet lavender and white miniature ball. It's been blooming for a few weeks now.

Raspberry Sorbet Zinnia

Today I have the first open bloom on any of my 5 "Raspberry Sorbet" zinnia plants. It was definitely worth the wait. The bloom size is large, over 2" across. The stems are long, perfect for cutting for bouquets. The bloom itself is a hot pink/raspberry color. It certainly lights up the slightly shaded corner in which it is planted.

Watermelon Weigh-in Week #3

I am a day late this week with my weekly watermelon weigh-in. Life happens. So here are this weeks totals and the net gain of each melon in the past eight days:

• Watermelon #1  1 lbs .3oz , a gain of 4.23 oz
• Watermelon #2  12.4 oz.,a gain of 2.9 oz
• Watermelon #3  1 lbs. 3.2 oz, a gain of 8.4 oz., this one gained 1/2 a pound this week
• Watermelon #4  6.2 oz , a gain of 3.1 oz, so it doubled in size this week

So, the good news is, I now have two melons that have broken the one pound mark. The bad news, only one melon had any substantial weight gain this past week. It was a cooler week, with a bit of rainfall on two mornings. The heat is suppose to return this next week, so hopefully the melons will respond. They have a ways to go to hit 5+ pounds.

Hedge Marigolds

Down in the big garden, I have a few rows set aside for cut flowers that I started from seed. One of these rows is planted with marigolds.

And not just any marigolds, but hedge marigolds. The first variety that I planted is "Red Metamorph". This marigold grows to 2-3' in height. It branches easily and is covered with beautiful lacy foliage. The plants quickly grow together to form a thick hedge.

Each bloom is a velvety dark red, with the underside of the each petal a burnt orange. As the weather heats up, the blooms become more striped. They return to solid red as the temperature drops once again.

Here are two "Red Metemorph" blooms growing side by side displaying some of the variation that occurs.

My marigolds are planted in a fairly shady spot. At best they only receive half a day of sunshine. While I am sure they would be closer to the 3' mark with better conditions, my plants are still healthy, dense, and covered with blooms.

The second hedge marigold that I started from seed this spring is "Frances' Choice". This amazing variety will reach heights of 4-5' . Once again, mine are shorter due to the growing conditions but they are still pushing 3' right now. The blooms on this plant are red with golden yellow edges. It is a prolific bloomer and would be amazing in full sun. Mine are just started to bloom, but will soon be covered in color. I purchased the seeds for both plants from Seeds of Change. For just $3.50 a packet you can have an amazing, vibrant living hedge in your garden.