Why I Oughta...

2024 continues to be (for me) the Summer of the Dahlia.  Specifically....the Milena Fleur Decorative Dahlia.  Last Fall/Winter, I ordered six Milena Fleur Dahlia tubers - my first mail order dahlia tubers.  I also bought a couple Cornell Bronze Dahlia tubers at the same time , but based on what I was seeing/reading from Erin the Impatient Gardener on her Instagram, I bought MORE Milena Fleur dahlias than anything else.   There was A LOT to like about these:  they're 'compact' - meaning they stay short and don't require staking.  As a beginning Dahlia grower, that was important.  But, also...the color.   These are billed by White Flower Farm as "blossoms that blend tropical shades of coral pink, papaya, and gold." My journey started earlier this Spring when I potted up the six Melina Fleurs in one-gallon nursery pots - indoors .   At the very beginning of May this year.   After they sprouted, I started to bring them up and outside for hardening off - a little

One of my Dahlias - a Melina Fleur variety - that is planted in a protected spot (against the house) on the southside in (mostly) full sun has been pretty busy producing blooms the past few weeks.  But, I started to notice that some of the foliage was starting to get eaten up.  Not lace-like, but holes at the tips and in the middle of a number of leaves.  And, those holes kept getting greater in numbers.  A week ago, I sprayed the plant with Neem Oil, thinking that I might get whomever/whatever was eating the leaves.  But, that didn't seem to slow it down.  So, I went in for a closer look.  And...sure enough...I found a couple of different pests on the plant.  The first were these fuzzy caterpillars.  There were like 30 (that I could find) that I picked off and stomped on.  I also clipped off a number of the partially-eaten leaves.  See below for the backside of the leaf with two (large) and one (tiny) caterpillars below: The other thing that I found was a green worm ON THE FLOWER.

#17 on my 2024 to-do list was to keep going with countertop arrangements .  Last year, I started to bring in some cut flowers and arrange them on our counter.  This year, I've grown more flowers (ahem...comfort zone and all that) and have been bringing them in for the past few weeks. The latest is a two-fer.  A container of dahlia blooms and a smaller one full of Zinnias and some Disneyland Roses.   You can see those two below:  Right now - late Summer/early Fall - is when I'm seeing the most blooms, so it is arrangement go-time.  

Out in the front yard, I am seeing my first Dahlia bloom of the season:  a Melina Fleur Dahlia that is (right now) short and stout with the bloom nestled in amongst the dark green foliage.  These were planted outdoors about six weeks ago after being started in nursery pots indoors .  I left this one on the plant (for now), but hope to cut some of these as they pop-off in the coming weeks.   Below is a look at the first Dahlia bloom of the season - the Melina Fleur Dahlia:

I'm moving onto the 'in ground' phase of my 2024 dahlia journey.    Three weeks ago, I potted-up my six Melina Fleur dahlia tubers into one-gallon nursery pots and started them indoors .  After they sprouted, I began to move them outside and did a little bit of hardening-off by putting them out in the shade for a few hours during the days and bringing them in at night.  Eventually....I just started leaving them outside overnight and they all seemed to be fine.  Here, below, is what they look like now:  about six-inches of foliage on each one: I put three of them on the southside of the house - where I get full sun.  Tucked in/out of the Disneyland Roses along the foundation bed.    Below is one in front of the gas meter, one in front of the power meter and one tucked close to the gate, between a Karl Foerster Grass and the last Disneyland Rose.   Speaking of Disneyland Roses...I now can (sadly) say that the three from 2023 all died.  Didn't come back this Spring.  Bumme

Back in December, I ordered some Dahlia Tubers from Longfield Gardens and planned to try to both grow them this year AND (importantly) treat them as something that I'll pull out of the ground before the season ends and attempt to over-Winter in my garage.  I bought two varieties - Melina Fleur and Cornel Bronze Dahlias .  They recently arrived and I decided to start some of them indoors.  The Melina Fleur tubers come two-to-a-pack, so I grabbed six one-gallon nursery containers that I had laying around and filled them with a sandy homebrewed potting mix.  It is a mix of sand + potting mix that I normally use for succulents.  Here, below, is a photo of the Longfield Gardens dahlia tuber packaging that lists some specs (18" apart, 32" tall). After potting them up, I brought them down to the basement in the window well.  This is south-facing and while it *is* the basement, they get good light down there.  I put them on some trays that I had laying around and watered them in.