I’ve been madly busy with work and fruit and vegetables and weeds so it’s actually Tuesday, Waitangi Day here in New Zealand. This lovely coral pink dahlia showed up a week ago and I haven’t been able to find out what it is. I think I bought it a couple years ago and planted it in a place which was too shady, and then moved it last year. It’s obviously happy in full sun and new soil.
Akita when it’s like this is the Dahlia I wanted – half open I like it – I don’t like it so much when it gets full open and huge. The plums are Louisa and Satsuma, which I am drying for winter snacks.
Early Spring flowers are starting to show up in the Northern Hemisphere vases, which coincides with shortening days here and thoughts of bulb planting. Check them out at Rambling in the Garden.
Absent Gardener 
You’re thinking of planting bulbs as ours flower; I just potted up some new Dahlia tubers just as yours are flowering; perfect balance. Those plums look delicious. How do you dry them?
It is a great reminder. I need someone to remind me about planting Autumn Veges – I never get that right. I cut the plums in half and dry them in an Excalibur dryer, and then put them in jars to store.
Thanks for the info on drying; I have a dehydrator that was a wedding gift so we could dry porcini mushrooms, I need to use it for more things.
Yes, Christina is right about the balance – one of the joys of international garden blogging. Lovely to see dahlias again, perfectly matched as they are with your plums. And Christina has just the same question that I was going to ask, about the drying! 🙂
🙂 I cut them in half and remove the stones and dry them in an electric dryer. I like them just dry, but you can rehydrate them in juice or water.
That is such a good idea for excess plums. I have borrowed my friend’s electric dryer to dry apples before and do enjoy dried fruit. I could of course investigate how best to dry them in the Aga
It is lovely to see Dahlias, as a consequence of blogging I am trying some – they came up and stopped,I think they are waiting for more sun and warmth.
Oh, I wonder if they care about day length? They do seem to love heat and moisture.
Wonderful, dark and moody photo. The plums complete the picture. My ‘Akita’ leans more toward orange (possibly mislabeled) but does that same thing about getting huge and top-heavy.
Mine goes yellow and red/ orange as it gets to full bloom. This year I cut those big floppy flowers quite early and I’m getting a lot more of these smaller ones now which are also less floppy.
It is wonderful that garden bloggers from either hemisphere remind those on the other side to buy and plant their bulbs! The richness of the colours in your photos, and the contrast of textures between those luscious plums and the spiky dahlias, are wonderful.
Beautiful and delicious.