The dahlias typically bloom until the first hard frost. But, I had such bad results with so many of them this year, I didn’t expect them to ever come around. I’ve attached a photo of a beautiful orange dahlia that we picked this week and put in a vase. Better late than never.

I guess that I will try to get them in the ground earlier next year….or maybe start them inside. Like Amy, I am taking notes. I’ve also vowed to plot the plan of my flower garden this fall, so I remember what lives where next spring. ( I vow to do this every year and never seem to get it done.)

It was not a great summer in our garden. In fact, I’d call it one of the worst in recent memory. But there were a few highlights.

In early August, while searching for a pre-school backpack, my husband and I found some very nice healthy hosta plants on clearance at K-mart. There were many varieties, in gallon pots, all reduced to $1.50 each. It was a steal! After a few return trips, we had planted 75 new hosta in our gardens. They blend in so well, that I couldn’t tell you where we put even half of them at this point. I have had success with some hydrangeas for the first time this year. I wish I had planted more of them! And, my morning glory seed experiment worked too. Our fence is wrapped in vines with little purple flowers poking out here and there.

As we move into autumn, the sedum look beautiful. They are full of bees, and are slowing changing color. I am thankful that they have thrived this year. I’ll be busy picking flowers until the frost.
Let’s all hope for more sunny days in 2010!

I estimate that only about a third of the dahlias we planted have bloomed. In past years, I have always had a vase full of flowers on my desk at work in August. Not this year! It has definitely been a difficult summer with all of the rain and the lack of sunshine. I’ve also been dealing with rotting rosebuds and rose bushes that have black spots.

I hold out hope that more of the dahlias will bloom in the next month or so. They usually last through October. I don’t know about you, but I’m hoping for some dry, hot days. I’ll continue to give them lots of tender loving care!

I added about five roses bushes to my flower garden this year. They are all doing very well. The rain did take its toll and I had to snip off a few dozen moldy rosebuds. But, in the past week, the bushes have all taken off with new growth and buds.

My collection consists of some expensive roses and some that I have bought on clearance at the garden center mid-summer. I can’t really tell the difference between them! Again, they are all thriving.

I have to tell you about the “rose graveyard”. I once interviewed an avid gardener who had quite a rose collection at his home in Wrentham MA. He was an rose expert and he showed me around his property describing the different varieties. There are two things that I will never forget about that day. One, was that he didn’t like to deadhead the dead blooms. He did some…..but he didn’t burden himself with trying to get to all of his roses. And, when I asked about a little area off to the side of the garden, that was home to many beautiful roses…..he said that was the rose graveyard. That was the area where he put all of the plants that weren’t doing well. He didn’t get rid of them, he just moved them out of the main garden, where they all seemed to be thriving! The graveyard was just beautiful.

So, despite all the rain, the moldy buds, the aphids, the black spots…etc… have faith! If you plant them, they will bloom!

I think it was this blog that brought me good luck with them this year. I wish that I could share some wisdom regarding my success …but I don’t know why they are blooming when they never have before. My husband’s 89-year-old aunt, who has been gardening for decades, says that sometimes it takes peonies a few years to get going. That must have been the case with mine. Aunt Dorothy has a long stretch of gorgeous peonies at her home in northern Virginia that have bloomed for years.

I’m also happy to report that many of the dahlias have popped up…some of them are really growing quickly. I think it was that last spell of hot weather that got them going. I’m still waiting for a few to appear. I get impatient and carefully run my fingers over the dirt next to my stakes looking for a sign of green.

For the first time this year, I planted some Morning Glory seeds and they are now about two inches high. I was pretty excited about that!

They climbed along a fence at my childhood home in Pennsylvania. There is just something about them. I can’t wait until they bloom!

It was planting day at the State House in Boston this week. I was covering a story there and and watched the gardeners on the way out. There must have been a couple dozen of them digging holes and planting flowers. They were moving quickly and covering a lot of territory. It sure would be nice to have that kind of help at home!

Apricot roses

So, when the meteorologists muttered the word “frost” the other day, I took action. I actually covered up my most tender vegetation with light baby blankets. I was outside, in the dark, carefully tucking them in for the night. I have never done this before and it felt a little silly, but I was protecting my “investment”.

My husband thought I was crazy. I told the plants to hang in there and be strong and that they would live to see another day.

They did. Everything is fine in the garden.

And, while I love to nurture my little tubers and watch them grow all summer into dazzling dahlias, there’s nothing like a blooming apricot rose bush in early May. Worth the money for sure!

The little yellow stakes

I have been hooked on dahlias since August of 2001. I interviewed a man named Leo Barden who had the most amazing dahlia garden in Hull Massachusetts. They are so gorgeous! Each one is an intricate little work of art. Since meeting Leo and getting some expert tips from him, I have been planting dahlias. For years, we even dug up the tubers, packed them in peat moss and stored them during the winter. We would split them and replant them in the spring and have always had success doing that.

This year, our stored tubers dried up. That has happened before…they were too warm, I guess. So, I bought about five new varieties and they are in the ground and ready to go. I have, in the past, ordered dahlia tubers from some of the nations top growers. This year, I opted for the local garden store varieties. And, at some point, when I seen dahlias in bloom at the nursery this summer, I will be sure to buy a few of the plants. I just can’t resist them.

I labeled some yellow stakes with the color and variety of the dahlias to mark my plantings this year.

The dahlias are the most exciting element of my flower bed every year. Once they start blooming…and sometimes that doesn’t happen until early August…..they will go until the first major frost. I’ve had dahlias in early November. I am always sure to plant a few orange varieties, because I know that I’ll have them in vases during October and the Halloween season!

A few days ago, in the blink of an eye, my 4-year-old son made his way through the garden collecting most of my yellow stakes. I guess I forgot to tell the kids that they weren’t supposed to touch them! (They are officially not allowed into the flower garden anymore.)
I managed to put a few stakes back. But the colors and varieties are all mixed up now….and some spots are unmarked. Oh well. We live and we learn. In good time, we’ll see what comes up..where.

Stay tuned for some beautiful close-ups of my dahlias later in the summer! In the meantime – here are a couple of other photos for sharing, as we wait to see which dahlias will be springing up where!

I am eager and excited to start gardening and blogging about it this year!

The preliminary work is done in my flower garden…the raking, clearing and assessing. I begin the season with high hopes and expectations!

That said, I won’t be sugarcoating my success this season. I know that the next few months will be filled with plenty of frustrations and I’ll be telling it like it is! Yes, there is a big bud on one of my three surviving peony plants and the ants are milling around, but it probably won’t bloom. They never do. I’m still trying to figure out why. Our Broadside producer, who is sitting next to me, just said “I can’t believe your peonies don’t bloom”. As he does annually, he will soon show me the photos of his gorgeous dish-size peonies. It will be my first frustration of the season!

I would like to give a little shout-out to the hosta! Those lily-like, tried-and-true perennials that bring so much joy. They always return and always look great and can perk up a shady area in no time! I even plant them in sunny areas. They do better there than many of my “full sun” plants.

If it wasn’t for the hosta, I may have thrown out my gardening gloves a long time ago. They are such resilient plants and I’m always happy to see them poking up in the spring. I caught my 3-year-old son jumping on one and kicking at the buds last weekend. I shrieked! I yelled! I lectured! And, I explained to him that the hosta plants are our friends!