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!

Dahlia Hedge: June 2010 Wettest Month Ever in Oregon

June did arrive with record levels of rainfall here in Oregon. Statewide historical records were all broken and it was the wettest June in modern history.

Our helpful Pro informed us this would make for an unusual "blooming" period for the our Dahlias. Many of his associates had told him of how the massive rain had sometimes even ruined  their own Dahlia's. We seemed to hold-up fairly well thru June. This was when we met the garden guys "slug" & "snail". Just a little bit of snail bait applied 2X in June seemed to do the trick after we noticed one morning that some chomping had gone on.

Most of the pictures below are after the rain - last week of June. As you can tell we have big growth on some of the Dahlia's and zero on some. Exactly how our tutor predicted might happen due to the wacky wetness of this month.