Last Splash – In a Vase on Monday

On March 19, 2018 By CathIn Flowers, Light and dark, Photography23 Comments

The hot weather goes on and with it the dahlias. The bees are in the asters and the salvia, luckily there is a lot of it – this salvia leucantha grows willingly. I was going to say ‘like a weed’, but it doesn’t really, you have to plant it and then it grows where you put it.

The dahlias are Akita, Profundo, the white and lemon grown from seed, and another pink one ‘Dark Horse’, which I thought I had lost.

We are in the throes of harvesting, and have bottled another 19 pints of tomato puree tonight to add to the 3 or 4 dozen already put away, so it’s late and time to sleep. Congratulations to Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for 6 years of blogging, and thank you for hosting IAVOM.

In a Vase on Monday – Dahlias Again

On February 19, 2018 By CathIn Flowers, Photography25 Comments

I know this is repetitive, but the Akita Dahlias are doing amazingly well, and I had to rescue them from the lawnmower chewing them up for flopping onto the path. Here are a few different ages of flower, mixed with the dark red dahlias rescued from the dump. You can see how they get more yellow as they age, losing the contrast between the creamy tips of the petals and the dark base.

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In a Vase on Monday – Dahlias

On February 6, 2018 By CathIn Flowers, Photography12 Comments

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.

In a Vase on Monday – Chat Noir and Akita

On March 13, 2017 By CathIn Flowers, Photography, Weather and Seasons24 Comments

Akita is definitely badly behaved, even more so than last year. In the torrential rain this weekend I did find that the flopping upside down flowers provide an exotic rain shelter for bumble bees. By contrast, even after 4 inches of rain last week the Chat Noir Dahlias looked pretty good – just a few spots on some of the petals.