Well, the botany books say that flowers are bisexual, but I don’t believe it. Nobody could ever convince me that any of our ladylike dahlias aren’t the epitome of femininity. They remind me of ballerinas! And they make a garden look like it’s dancing.
Of course, they are a bit vain. They started showing off a month ago, and they’ll keep it up all through most of September and October. All the while, generating underground, their many many children — known as tubers. They simply don’t believe in birth control, so if you live in a cold climate, those infants – abandoned by then by their frivolous mothers – will be needing some “wintering” nursing assistance. (I didn’t dig up mine in any of our Seattle winters until the tubers got really overcrowded, but it may be colder here in Enumclaw. We don’t know yet how they’ll do here this winter but we’re going to cover them a bit and leave them in place.
So far this summer, Susy, granddaughter Josie, and I all have the same favorite. We think that of all of the ballerinas in the garden, she’s the prima-donna. She’s what’s categorized as a pompom dahlia but her official name “Boom Boom” sounds like she works at the nearest strip tease joint. Instead though, try to picture her in her beautiful white tutu in, say, Swan Lake.
Like all her pompom dahlia sisters, Boom Boom also stays fresher as a cut flower longer than all the other types we’ve been growing!
Her ugly stepsister in the garden is named “Arabian Nights”. I’m being generous when I say that Arabian Nights is ugly. Indoors or outdoors, she’s, well, just plain depressing to look at. She belongs to a group called “Black Dahlias”. There are actually gardeners in the world competing with one another to see who can finally produce a dahlia which is actually black! Don’t ask me why.
In the meantime, Arabian Nights has proven to be the most prolific dahlia we’ve ever seen. We planted 3 tubers last year, and this year, her progeny has taken over a whole row. We don’t want to give them away to anybody for fear they would influence a possible victim’s plans to commit suicide. Fortunately, the donkeys like to eat them, so, at least, there’s that!
Another mistake we made in our dahlia planting this year was in growing too many “dinnerplate” dahlias. This type produces blooms that are 8 to 12 inches in diameter – showy in the garden – but way too big for cut arrangements. That’s Susy with three of them.
Below are a few more dinnerplates. Notice the group of Arabian Nights behind them.
Here, though, are a few of our more accomodating dancing dahlias.
Jaw droppingly beautiful. I need to study about their life expectancy in TX.
Oh, wow! Black Dahlia sounds like a horror novel!
Dahlias are amazing plants! The more I learn, the more I am impressed with the diversity in their sizes, shapes and colors. Best of all…. The more flowers you cut the more blooms they produce. Dahlias love the cooler weather in the fall and you can enjoy their bright flowers into October and November.
Another amazing fact about them is that the whole time they are blooming they are also producing baby tubers for the next summer season. Each mother plant creates anywhere from 4 to 10 or more clones of themselves. You can leave them in the ground throughout the winter or you can dig them up to share with family and friends for the following summer.
Just BeautyFULL! Even Arabian Nights blossoms are beautiful. Think of them as jewel-tone rubies—😍eye of the beholder, right?