This bouquet has the dahlia-a Red Dinner Plate aptly named "The Big WOW", some Stargazer Lilies, and Butterfly Bush. I wanted you to get a sense of the size of this flower, thus a pic of the whole bouquet. And it isn't even open all the way yet.
I'd let it finish opening on the plant before picking it, but it got down to 36 F degrees last night, which scared me. Actually, the fact we haven't had a frost yet is a miracle. Usually we get the first one in the first half of August.
I have 4 dahlia's growing against the house. This is the first one to bloom. Two others have buds (I'm not holding out much hope they'll open before it gets frosty), and the 4th is a very healthy and lush green plant with no buds at all. Not sure what's going on with that one. This is the only Dinner Plate I planted. The others are supposed to be Spider dahlia's.
When I clipped the stem of that flower, the scent brought a ton of memories back. My mother grew dahlia's in our garden when I was a kid. It was a hobby, as well as practical. She did flowers for people. Weddings, funerals, parties, and she did them for our church. Dahlia's are great for the big fancy bouquets needed at these types of events.
One of my Mom's dahlia's was a bright yellow Dinner Plate. It had HUGE blooms every year. In fact, they were way bigger than dinner plates. One year she took a pic of one on my sisters head. It looked like one of those great big brimmed southern belle type hats.
In the fall there would be special services at church (holy days). She would take me with her to the huge wholesale dahlia gardens a few miles from our house and we'd cut buckets of them for the floral arrangements she needed to do for church. There'd be every color, size, and style you could imagine. I'd forgotten how wonderful those gardens were.
Funny. I never learned how to grow Dahlia's from Mom. She never let me help her with that. A couple years ago I started yearning to have them in my own yard. I bought a whole bunch of bulbs and planted them in the garden. I don't know what I did wrong, but I got no flowers. I had plants. Pathetic spindly ones. There were flower buds, but they got frosted before they had half a chance to open. I dug up the bulbs like you're supposed to in the fall, but almost all of them had rotted. I don't know what I did wrong there either. Waited too long?
Anyway, last year, I decided I didn't want to inflict my brown thumb on another set of Dahlia bulbs, so I didn't grow any. However, the call of the Dahlia is still heard within me. So I decided to try again, on a much smaller scale. I read up on how to grow them (it's supposed to be easy-always the kiss of death for me), and now I have a bright rich red flower! I am so proud of myself.
They would have bloomed earlier if I could have planted them earlier. If y'all remember, we had snow waaaaay late this year. I couldn't plant them until mid June. I wonder if they can be started in pots indoors to give them a head start-like tomatoes can? Hmmm...I will have to look into that.
By the way, lunch with Sarah and Frank was nice. They just wanted to take me out to lunch. Isn't that sweet? We went to Pita Pit. I had a very nice time.
Have a great day.
My mother also grew dahlias. And many other flowers. They weren't just for the garden, either. She always gave away bouquets and would take flowers to our little church. It's good to see your flowers. Brings back memories for me too. - Marion
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