Why I Oughta...

This is the third in a series of [garden diary] posts showing off some mid-November 2024 blooms.  One of them (the Disneyland Rose) is expected .  It has bloomed this late each of the past few years.  The Dahlias are a nice surprise.  Since I haven't grown them (in the ground) before, this set of late-blooms on the dahlias is a learning lesson for me .   But....this third one....this is the strange one.   See below for one of our Vanilla Strawberry Panicle Hydrangea that sits in front of our front porch that is FULL of brown, past-their-prime blooms.  And...one, random, out-of-season, small pink bloom.   The shrub is a mix of contrasts:  seemingly over with blooming and showing those dead flower heads while dropping leaves.  Along with this one, shooting-tall limb that has a green top and this pink flower. What does this mean for these shrubs?  Healthy?  Just out of sync?  A weird seasonal anomaly?  Who...

Yesterday, I posted a photo of our Disneyland Roses showing off their last round of bloom s for the year and talked about how nice it is to have some of these colorful flowers this late in the season.  I suppose...it sort-of makes up for the fact that Spring seems to last FOREVER around here and the flowers don't begin to pop-off until August.  2024 has been the season of the dahlia in our garden and it seems that I 've called for 'a lid' on the dahlia season for weeks now .  The plants have been producing fewer blooms each week - starting in October and I assumed they were drawing to a close.   I wanted to extend the season as best I could, so in mid-October, when we were facing a hard frost on a couple of nights, I protected the dahlias with some frost covers .  It appeared to work - and they kept on blooming.   But, starting in November (when the weather turned cooler), I stopped watering the dahlias and began to think about my plan for trying ...

In terms of flowers, I'd like to say that this growing season has been a fantastic, rewarding one.  But...if I'm honest....I've seen a lot of new things with the dahlias.  But....This season has *really* been a mixed bag when I include our Disneyland Roses.   I had six Disneyland Roses at the end of 2023.  This year, I had just three - as the three bareroot ones that I planted in front didn't come back .  And the three that I DID have did NOT do well .  Between pests (sawfly larvae), fungus (rust) and drought, these things barely hung on in 2024.   The watering problem is something I attempted to fix later this season - as these kept dropping their leaves.  Starting in late August/Early September, when I was focused on the dahlias, I watered these three in every morning and they seemed to rebound just a little bit.  They still look sparse.   But....the good news - I'm seeing a couple of November blooms.  See below for...