Dahlia Hedge: Purple!

When we saw that the one plant that had not flowered yet was/is going to give us purple flowers - we realized the excitement was still rolling strong as purple is one of our favorite colors!

Dahlia Hedge: Fun Fun Fun

Our Dahlia Hedge project has been lots of fun and we have learned so much - and the learning of course is till ongoing as we know that one season does not make you an expert by any stretch.

A great thing about having Dahlias is giving them away! They are very striking and colorful when they are clipped and brought away from the plants. Our professional advisor allready knows this - he sent over this Dahlia which is of the 'Dinner Plate' variety and was the biggest we have seen to date.

Our Dahlia Hedge is still doing its thing and new colors are starting to show from the many many buds left to bloom. We see some purple peeking out from one at the moment.

This week brought us one situation - which we have handled properly - we think. One of the biggest plants began to sort of grow into two sides and one of which got very heavy and very droopy. It looked like it might snap or crack so we grabbed a metal stake and propped it up tight. Looks like its fine now.

Dahlia Hedge: Cool & Colorful New Flowers

Here are a couple of interesting flowers that the hot weather helped along. The bright yellow one was taken against the sun - very cool. Notice on the pink/red one that we have new leaf shapes now as well. Still waiting for the big bloom - many many buds still getting ready.

Dahlia Hedge: Double Dahlia Blooms

The hot weather of 97 degrees has given us a number of beautiful blooms. Here you see our 'double-dips' where we had two blooms on each plant side by side.

Dahlia Hedge: Sun Brings The Fun

We are having a run of 95+ degree weather here in Oregon and the Dahlia's are beginning what we think is the 'Big Show' as many many of the buds are set to unfold very soon. We will be watching with camera as they show their colors.

This Dahlia was part of an awesome Dahlia bouquet our Pro sent over from his personal Dahlia beds.

WOW.

Below we may have Dahlia 8 out of 10 coming up from the ground - not the big weed we thought was a Dahlia at first, but the little green shooter below it. It's a maybe.

Dahlia Hedge: Here We Go - We Have Multiple Flowers & Many Many Buds

The colorful fireworks have begun. We have multiple colors of Dahlia blooms now with many many more due to bloom over the next few days. Forecast is heading back to sun and warmness, which should help this along.

Dahlia Hedge: 7 Out of 10 - Could Be Worse

Being the middle of August, we have decided that the bulbs that never grew up are officially "duds". Our expert tells us that this is not all that uncommon and we can dig them up after the season and see if we can rescue any parts of them.

So our 10 bulbs gave us 5 strong Dahlia plants all in a row - then it skips 2 slots where the duds are - then we have two more nice Dahlia plants - followed my two more slots with duds.
While we would have loved a solid 10 plant hedge, we are not discouraged as the flowers are amazing. Plus, we can try again next year.

Here is the nice 2 Dahlias between the "dud" zones:

Dahlia Hedge: Showing Off Our Second Dahlia Flower

This is the second full Dahlia bloom we had. Really nice color and structure!

Dahlia Hedge: The Waiting Game

The first week of August gave us a couple of beautiful "teaser" flowers to admire. However, there are a lot of flower buds on these guys now and we are most likely going to see a wild colorful floral explosion shortly. The waiting is the hardest part or insert whatever cliche' you prefer here.

Dahlia Hedge: Our Wounded Dahlia Is Rallying!

Remember we showed you pictures of where we believe a mammal (racoon) chomped one of the Dahlias in half right at the thick stock. We think the mammal was in search of a non-existant fruit prize at the top. This plant has begun side growths with buds and is in recovery mode. Pretty amazing all things considered.

                                                                   DAY OF INJURY:

AUGUST RECOVERY:

Dahlia Hedge: Nice Hot August Brings Out The Flowers!

Big and pink would describe the first Dahlia flower to bloom. Our second bloom is a white variety.

Lots of cool and colorful photos below.

Dahlia Hedge: When Slugs & Snails Attack - (Early August)

We have been paying closer attention to the Dahlia Hedge as of late, since they are so close to 'exploding' with colorful flowers. This has helped us to see there has been some little nibbling to some of the leaves.

We did use some snail and slug bait early in the season, but it seemed time to go again. The results are pictured below. There were app. 20-25 gastropod casualties the next am. Turns out, they were sleeping all day in the nice shady & damp groundcover - then rolling out for the buffet during the darkness.

We do not enjoy having to do this at all.

We operate under the premise if they are not hurtung you then let things do what they want.

Example: Spiders - We do not kill them when we catch them in our house - EVER.

We contain them in a spider cup and always take them outside. These photos are for informational purposes only - not for the dead snail and slug imagery.

Dahlia Hedge: July - The Action Begins!

After such a gloomy June - we welcomed back the sun this month and things went wild! We did only get 7 to grow from the original 10 - but our Pro told us thats not so bad considering the wet wet July we just experienced.

The four at the eastern end of the hedge have done the best - they do get the best and longest sun of the day.
Unfortunately as well, one morning we found that #3 (from east) had been bitten down in half by what we imagine is was a mammal (racoon?) thinking there was fruit up top.

We are still watering around the bulbs that did not come up - stranger things have happened. The ones that have started up together are now app. just a little taller than 2 feet.

The one that got chomped in half is trying to make a comeback!