I have to take a photo to share of my AC PAC. Got home from Portland tonight and the first flower is in full bloom. The smoke in the air is acting like shade cloth and the colors are brilliant! My "Islander" also bloomed while I was gone and the color is fantastic and the flower is big! I will probably never see it like this again!
Benny101 Aug 7, 2017 6:38 PM PDT
Greenville MI - zone 5b
Bloomquist John F at the North Grow
Citron de Cap
sylviap Aug 7, 2017 7:41 PM PDT
Name: Sylvia West Sacramento, CA Zone 9b
Surprise visitor!
blown_dry Aug 7, 2017 9:10 PM PDT
Name: Amanda CA Redwood Coast - Zone 9b DahliaAddict.com
Gorgeous BQ John F. Thanks for sharing.
teddahlia Aug 8, 2017 10:33 AM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
My Barbarry Melody is blooming. I was surprised by the fact that it is a purple dahlia as all the pictures I saw were of a dark pink flower. It must not photograph well. I will try to post a picture that shows the correct color of the flower. And remember it is pretty much just a show flower as the word is that it is poor tuber maker-keeper. My pot tuber was not much good either as it took forever to sprout and I only got a few cuttings. I wonder why I am growing another Barbarry as the tuber keeping is so bad and that trait is passed on to the seedlings. The miniature cactus UK varieties are doing well and I am impressed by their diminutive size as they are smaller than US miniature varieties. Pictures later too. It has been way too hot and sunny to get either good flowers or good pictures. If some cool cloudy days come along, I will take lots of pictures.
Benny101 Aug 8, 2017 4:59 PM PDT
Greenville MI - zone 5b
Hollyhill Big Red
scrumpy Aug 9, 2017 3:20 PM PDT
barbarry melody
A little bit more purple than the photo. Cracking form, a little on the small side for me.
Benny101 Aug 9, 2017 4:21 PM PDT
Greenville MI - zone 5b
Nice Scrumpy !
I like the phlox on the other side of the fence too
I think those are lacecap hydrangeas, Benny. Ours bloom blue here because of our acid soil. We would have to make the soil more on the basic side to see them this color. I like blue. I do have phlox blooming in that color but it is not my favorite.
teddahlia Aug 9, 2017 6:14 PM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
Most cameras do not capture purple well. I have a DSLR that I seldom use that has a setting to change the "color space" to a set of colors that captures purple much better. It is a complicated process as I take the picture in the Adobe color space and then convert the file to the color space that resides on our computers. Our computer screens can display purple colors but our cameras do not record the purple colors. Perhaps they did not believe that things could be that purple.
DarcyD Aug 10, 2017 9:44 AM PDT
Name: Darcy D Green Oaks, Illinois
Hi everyone!
I am SO behind on threads. Just wanted to pop in & say "hi"!
My season was a dud & most of my dahlia plants are doomed from spider mites. If you remember, I posted about having them very early in the season (they came from a house plant & spread to all my pre-starts). I did all I could to save them, but lost almost all of them when they had grown to 1-2 feet outside. My LAC area & my seedlings are safe as they are the only ones planted far away from the main dahlia garden. Hoping that some of the plants still make tubers for next year.
Hope everyone is having a great season & are blooming away.
anniecan Aug 10, 2017 11:20 AM PDT
Name: Annie Luck Apex, North Carolina BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN TH
It's great to hear from you Darcy! So sorry that your dahlia season has been a bust.
Mine were hit with the heat and drought, so no harvesting here either.
Thank goodness we can still get out dahlia fix from other people's gorgeous bloom photos!
CMCramer Aug 10, 2017 11:44 AM PDT
Name: CMCramer Rochester, NY
Our first Hollyhill Gloria.
teddahlia Aug 10, 2017 1:12 PM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
Gloria was a nice person who was Italian and grew up in SE Portland. She was a garage sale addict who specialized in jewelry and costume jewelry. She was one of those gardeners who had a 1/2 acre vegetable garden with everything. Her fuchsias were first class and she overwintered them in a pile of saw dust. She loved dahlias and we named this easy to grow pink flower after her. She died of cancer at about the age of 65 several years ago. She was a good Italian cook too and I still remember her saying that there should be no onions in meatballs.
I always enjoy HH Gloria, which reminds me that I haven't seen it in my garden this year. I think maybe my stock went wonky...seems like the flowers all had an oval shape rather then round. I think I do have some seedlings from her but can't get to the tags to read them.
I suppose I should start pulling my wonky seedlings but they are so much fun! I am using a bunch of them in $5 table bouquets for a wedding. I think for $5 you get 1 dahlia, some greenery, 2 seedling singles that are joyously wonky and a few annuals...and I have 40 of those to make tonight! can you tell $5 bouquets are not my favorites? the Mason Jar fairy strikes again. I swear, if one more person want'ts table bouquets in quart jars ...which makes them too tall to see your dinner partners across the table.........sorry . I know I am ranting again....was the mason jar thing from Martha Stewart.?
DillyDahlia Aug 10, 2017 6:32 PM PDT
Name: Tina NY Zone 5b/6a Flower Power!
I love to hear the stories and meaning about different flower varieties. We live near the FD Roosevelt home/library, and I recently learned there is a Mrs. Roosevelt peony which is named after Eleanor. I hope to add one to our garden next year. I would love to include a HH Gloria too.
They are about the size of Crazy4Carol then, which is now my favorite flower for bouquet work. As long as the stem is stiff, they are the perfect finish for the top of a bouquet. Also fit into gaps between some of the bigger more solid flowers.
