For the September 2008 Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day, I’m sharing with all of you one of my favorite late summer/autumn flowers–dahlias (another favorite are the sunflowers that I recently posted about).
I plant the dahlia tubers in the spring and watch them grow, grow, grow. The tallest grow to be over six feet tall. They are the perfect cutting flower: the more flowers you cut, the more they bloom. I plant them throughout my garden–throughout the mixed borders, in the Rose Garden, in the Cutting Garden, in the Children’s Garden, really everywhere. At the end of the season, I dig up the tubers and over-winter them in my basement.
The varieties you see here are from Brent and Becky’s Bulbs, Old House Gardens, and Plant Delights. I am particularly fond of the dark-colored ones.
Check out all of the Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day posts at May Dreams Gardens.
Arab Queen.
Arabian Knight.
David Howard.
I forget.
Betty Anne.
Giraffe.
Old Gold.
I forget.
Prince Noir.
Heirloom Gardener 
Very nice. I haven’t grown dahlias for a couple of years, and it seems like I’m missing out on a good flower.Thanks for joining in for bloom day!Carol, May Dreams Gardens
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Lovely dahlias – orange and nearly black are most beautiful to me.Greetings,Ewa
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Hiya,What a lot you got!I still have your lovely phlox August BD post in my mind’s eye.And now here is another collection of treasures in one genus alone. An exceptional garden you have.I won my first flowershow ribbon with a deep purple dahlia, at the age of ten 😉 here in the UK.And then a second one in upstate NY again with the same Dahlia umpteen years later. So I am quite partial to large cactus dahlias in deep purple. Know what? I have never ever dug up dahlia tubers. Even in Corning, NY, I left them outside to overwinter without losing any. Was I just lucky all these years?
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Lovely blooms, I esp. like the pink one.JanAlways Growing
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Oh my goodness! Your fall blooms are lovely! All I have going on in the way of flowers in bloom this month is lavender, hyssop and sedum autumn joy. That’s it – didn’t even do a garden bloggers post about it this month. 😦 You’re pink and peach flowers are just amazing…what variation of flower it the “betty anne”? I MUST have it in my yard!
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Joco,I have to try leaving some of the tubers over the winter–that would save so much work. I thought they weren’t hardy in my zone 6b garden.-Heirloom Gardener
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Stacy,Betty Anne and all of these flowers are dahlias. You can buy it from one of the nurseries I recommended in the post.-Heirloom Gardener
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In years gone by, I didn’t much rate Dahlias, but the past two, they have come into their own, and I cherish the late summer colour. You have two of my own favourites, Arabian Night and David Howard. I love Murdoch too, which is a very similar colour and form to your bright red decorative type.
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I’ve always immediately dismissed anything that I have to dig up and overwinter, but I may just have to reconsider dahlias after seeing these.
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JGH,As per Joco’s comment above, maybe you don’t have to dig them up and over-winter them. It’s worth a try.-Heirloom Gardener
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Wow a dahlia huh? I didn’t know they came in so many pretty varieties! The one I have is all pointing in the petals – not at all as lovely as that pink. Thanks!
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