Why I Oughta...

Yesterday, I posted a photo of the first evergreen arrangement that we put together and talked about how it was the first of a bunch that were on their way.  That first one was small and tightly pulled together.  This second one below is a bit more wild.  It has sprays that open up and cast their tips broadly.  This includes blue spruce, thuja, a couple kinds of eucalyptus, some Magnolia, a short-needled fir with tiny (and pretty cute) pinecones and a couple branches of curly willow.  Foraged, mostly.  Eucalyptus is from TJ's.  This one is also in a mason jar for easy transportation - as this one is destined for across town.  Winter arrangement with eucalyptus, boxwood, fir and blue spruce

With the season hitting Thanksgiving this week, it is time to start making some indoor winter arrangements.  I mean...at least it is in our house.  I've done these the past few years with foraged evergreens and some Trader Joe's foliage plants.  Last year, I went *BIG* with branches and such.  I've learned that smaller can be just as impactful.  Also...mason jars fit into cup holders, so they're super easy to transport.   Here, below is the first one.  This has some faux Winterberries along with a variety of evergreens like Thuja, boxwood, Yew and some sort of short-needled tree like fir.  I also stuck a pinecone in there that I picked up on the sidewalk a few houses up the block. Here, below is a Google search preview widget.  

The season REALLY *is* winding down now.  And the colors of the Melina Fleur dahlias are changing color to be much more middle-pink with little yellow appearing aside from the center seed head.  These three went out the door to folks all at the same time.  They each have some Dusty Miller, Arkansas Bluestar and some fern fronds in them.  Each of them are in thrifted or recycled jars (mason or jelly).  My rough count shows that these are (around) the 40th arrangement of the season.  A few with roses, but mostly these ball, pompon and decorative dahlias.

Yes, the season is ending soon.  And, yes, we still have plenty of flowers.  There's some thinking around 'letting your dahlias go to seed' and stop 'deadheading' them weeks before your first frost.  That way, they can finish up their growing cycle and begin to wind down and put energy back into their tubers.  But, I'm thinking....that's for professional growers.  People who are in the business of selling tubers.  Me?  I'm (apparently) in the business of cutting dahlias and putting them in mason jars along with some other bits of foliage from around the garden.  Here, below, are four recent arrangements.  All the same.  It is, for me, getting a little monotonous.  But, that's not the case for the recipients.  These four went to four different places - some on our block, some as gifts and others to my Mom and Sister.    Speaking of gifts....some good news:  I was able to get back about a half-dozen jars.  I'v...

Below are two photos of the same (recent) Dahlia arrangement featuring some large(r) Melina Fleur Decorative Dahlia blooms and some dark purple Ivanetti Ball Dahlia blooms.  In one photo, you can see the Melina Fleur blooms have taken on a salmon, pink color.  Spinning the (vintage, thrifed, blue-glass) Ball Jar around, you can spy the Ivanetti that have some white creating contrast on the petals.   The season is coming to an end, it seems.  But that also means the flowers are changing colors.  Gone are the yellows of earlier this year with Melina Fleur and here are rosy pinks.  Enjoy these while we can, because frost is a'coming.  Might be next week.  Might be the week after.  Either way...we can't stop it from arriving and killing off the dahlias for the season. 

The blooms keep coming, but this time I'm back posting about the Disneyland Roses.  A few days back, I shared photos of all the blooms on the shrubs and then posted about the large growth some of the new ones experienced this year ( one of the Disneyland Roses is four-feet-tall and probably four-feet across ).  In the photo below, you can see some of the flowers that I 'farmed' (get it...flower farming??) and put in this weird, tall glass.  It has a pedestal and I wanted something long and skinny, so I fished this out of the cabinet and pressed it into service.   One of the big differences that I've begun to observe in cut flowers is how different flowers act differently once in the vase.  For the most part, Dahlias mostly stop changing, once they're cut and put in an arrangement.  But, these Disneyland Roses? They keep changing.  Opening up and becoming prettier every single day they are around.  Until...they start to drop their petals....

The Babe had to go to a dinner recently and we both thought it would be a nice to bring an arrangement to adorn the table.  As I've done in the past, I cut a big collection of just one flower:  The Pooh Collarette Dahlia.  I massed them together in a jar and didn't add anything else.  No greens, no accents.  Just the flowers.  And a lot of them:

Another day, another dahlia cut flower arrangement.  The usual suspects:  Melina Fleur, Wizard of Oz, Avanetti, Mystery Fox.  Along with some Autumn Fern fronds, Garden Ghost Artemesia and a Lucky Charm Anemone stem.  All tucked into a white Milk Glass vase.  This one was put together very quickly and sent out the door to Nat's good friend for her birthday.  

Yesterday, I posted a Google Gemini AI-created video short of some dahlia arrangements .  Today, above, you can see the full photo of all four arrangements.  All similar, but a little different.  In thrifted, Goodwill vases.  One is in a thrifted Bears glass.  These went to four different homes over the weekend.   In these are various ball, decorative and pompon dahlias:  Avanetti, Wizard of Oz, Melina Fleur and Mystery Fox.  Along with some Dusty Miller and Autumn Ferns. 

I let the various Zinnias that are in the vertical garden (Greenstalk) go for a bit longer than I likely should have in terms of cutting and ended up with dozens of them all at the same time.  The mass of stems is as thick as a Big Gulp from 7-11, so I ended up using a large, wide-base ceramic vase to hold them all and keep it from tipping over.  Besides bringing in some hydrangeas, I'd say that this is the largest arrangement of the 2025 growing season. 

This was a birthday bouquet for a friend that includes a variety of dahlia blooms, a spray of Autumn Fern, some rosemary, Lucky Charm anemone and Artemesia Garden ghost for the upright white colors. The colors of some of the dahlias are changing as the season grows on: half of the Wizard of Oz have gotten much whiter.  The Melina Fleurs are darkening and the Ivanettis are doing what they do best:  showing off.

Two days ago, I posted a photo of a number of Pooh Collarette Dahlias in a bud vase that I had cut and brought in from the garden.  Today...there's another small vase that is full of even more Pooh Dahlias.  They are below in the photo.  About a week ago, I posted another photo of even more Pooh Dahlias in an arrangement and talked about how I'm cutting seven-to-ten(ish) blooms at a time (off of the two plants).   Some of the stems in this set are longer and some shorter: In that same post from a week ago , I showed a few other Collarette Dahlia varieties that I might try to buy (the tubers) this off season.  I'd like to have some that *work better* with the colors of the decorative and ball dahlias that I grow (purples, pinks, salmons, peaches).  

Because I've only included these red and yellow Collarette Dahlias (Variety is named Pooh, of course), in monoculture arrangements, I've mostly put them in other glasses, vases, jars that have one-inch-or-larger necks.   Because I had it out, I decided to stuff a bunch of Pooh Dahlia stems into a Bud vase.  It was very tight, but I like the way they are pulled together.   Pooh Collarette Dahlia

Here are a couple of dahlia-bloom-heavy arrangements that I brought over to Oakbrook Terrace this past weekend.  Both are filled with various dahlia types including pompon, ball and decorative.  Ivanetti and Mystery Fox are looking pretty good with their ombre looks.  And, the pinks of Wizard of Oz highlight the bright tones of Melina Fleur decorative dahlias.  There was one more that I cut and put-together at the same time, but I didn't get photos of it before it went off to its final home.  Both of these are in re-used jars.  A small yogurt jar on the left and a mason jar on the right.   These are different than the one I posted yesterday (two photos) and it is clear that dahlia bloom season is upon us.  

Below are a pair of photos showing one over-stuffed dahlia arrangement that is full of decorative (Melina Fleur), Ball (Mystery Fox,  Ivanetti) and Pompon (Wizard of Oz) blooms that range from (almost) white to very pale pink to bubble-gum pink to Salmon with yellow centers contrasting with some shades close to dark velvet.   I crammed all the stems into a narrow-mouth vase because I wanted it to fit into a car cup holder for ease of transport as this one was headed to Elmhurst for my sister. 

Another day, another mixed dahlia arrangement .  This one (below) includes some larger blooms from the Melina Fleur plants, a bunch of Ivanetti dark purple blooms and some smaller Wizard of Oz ball dahlias along with a little bit of eucalyptus, some rosemary, Dusty Miller and the Lucky Charm Anemones that are thriving right now in the back garden. The tags that show off the full catalog of dahlia arrangements include [ countertop flowers ], [ dahlia arrangement ] and [ arrangement ].  

Dahlia Season continues with pinks, purples, salmons and yellow centers.  Wizard of Oz, Melina Fleur, Mystery Fox and what I (now) think is Ivanetti dahlia blooms .   The Melina Fluers are coming into their own, but the Sweet Nathalie Dahlias continue to be VERY shy and unproductive.   I'm out of containers, so we either need to start to eat pickles (Claussen's, of course) and salsa, or I need to get to the Goodwill to see if they have any 99 cent narrow-mouth vases on the shelves.   Here is this morning's cut:

With two Pooh Collarette Dahlia plants growing in our garden, I was able to clip-off seven-or-eight blooms and put them in a vase this week.  The Pooh Dahlia in our backyard is more productive than the one in our sideyard garden, despite it growing in poor-er soil conditions.  The backyard tuber was planted in the new (this year) Pizza Oven bed that is full of clay.  The sideyard Pooh Dahlia is planted in a bed that is rich with loam and municipal biosolids.   But...the sideyard plant has been UNDER ASSAULT by Spider Mites the past month.  Since we came back from Ireland, the plant has struggled.  I think I've finally gotten on top of the pest problem and I'm seeing some fresh, new green growth.  So, I'm hoping it will keep producing over the next six-weeks-or-so. Below is a photo of the all (only) Pooh Collarette Dahlia arrangement.  In a vase.  No foliage or filler plants.  Just the red and yellow blooms.   The Pooh Coll...

Cut-and-come-again season is upon us in the garden.   Specifically for dahlias.  When I look back at last year's photos, this post from October 1st shows what I called "Pop'ing off" of dahlia blooms that happens as the weather cools down.   The Melina Fleur Dahlia shown in this post is LOADED with blooms .  In preparation (and hopefully) to stimulate that behavior to return in the coming weeks, I've been busy cutting blooms regularly. Below is a small dahlia-only arrangement that I made on a recent evening.  Thanks to the re-used salsa jar, this burst of petals was gifted to our neighbor.  It is full of large Melina Fleur blooms as well as the group that I've been using regularly:   Mystery Fox, Wizard of Oz and this dark purple ball dahlia that is of an unknown variety .   What's NOT in this arrangement (above) is any Sweet Nathalie dahlias .  Why?  Because they haven't quite thrived.  But, we're this/close to ...

The bulk of my flower arrangements have been focused on the flowers + some additional foliage plants.  Zinnias + ferns + artemeisa.  Dahlias + artemesia + polka dot plants.  For the most part, I was dealing with shorter-length stems on the 'stars' (Zinnias and Dahlias) and that meant that I was stripping just a few leaves from the stems and filling out the arrangement with those other foliage elements. But, thanks to my FYP, I've been getting served "here's how to get longer stem" videos and the secret isn't...well...it isn't a secret.  It is just doing something that is hard:  Cutting deep.   Why is cutting deep hard?  Because you're sacrificing some flower blooms.  To get the longer stems, you often take out up-to-three flowers.  Typically that means one full-formed and open that has shot up through the middle of the stem.  Then, two smaller, further-behind ones on either side.   I've always hesitated to sacrifice those ...