The dahlias in my cutting garden have gone bonkers. 'Iceberg' is finally in the process of opening its first bloom so now all those I planted this year have made a showing. Even though the combination of last week's heatwave and our dreaded Santa Ana winds took a toll on some of them, causing tall stems to fall over and break and other blooms to wither in place, there were still many more dahlias than I had time to cram into vases on Sunday.
I built my first arrangement around one of the recent arrivals, Dahlia 'Lady Darlene'.
 |
| 'Lady Darlene's' yellow and red petals curve downward, giving the flower a ball-like shape |
 |
| Back view: As I only had 3 'Lady Darlene' flowers in good shape, I had to make do with yellow dahlias, grass plumes, and foliage to fill out the vase |
 |
| Top view |
 |
| Clockwise from the upper left: Dahlia 'Lady Darlene', D. 'Summer's End', noID yellow dahlia, Leucadendron salignum 'Safari Sunset', L. 'Wilson's Wonder', and Pennisetum advena 'Rubrum' |
I hadn't planned to use Dahlia 'Fairway Spur' this week but all of a sudden it's producing gobs of flowers, most of which aren't mutants for a change. I went bigger than usual in creating an arrangement around them.
 |
| I used burgundy foliage and a dark-toned vase to contrast with the orange and yellow dahlias |
 |
| Back view |
 |
| Top view |
 |
| Clockwise from the upper left: Dahlia 'Fairway Spur', D. 'Summer's End', Hibiscus acetosella 'Haight Ashbury', Plectranthus scutellarioides 'Pineapple' (aka coleus), and Zinnia elegans 'Queen Lime Orange' |
My last arrangement is a simplified version of the one I created last week using lavender-colored flowers and purple foliage. I wanted to experiment further with the Vitex foliage and, like Dahlia 'Fairway Spur', 'Mikayla Miranda' had pumped out a lot of new blooms. I skipped the process of dunking the Vitex stems in hot water this week - the stems straightened up nicely overnight in water after I split the bottom inch of each stem.
 |
| Top row: the arrangement from 3 angles Middle: pink and white Cosmos bipinnatus and Vitex trifolia Bottom: Dahlias 'Lavender Ruffles' and 'Mikayla Miranda' |
Our temperatures started to come down yesterday. Instead of the temperatures in the low-to-mid 90sF we had last week, we're expecting them to settle into the low-to-mid 70s (23-25C) this week. I'm looking forward to getting back to work in the garden, although this week I have some help coming to trim about half my trees (fourteen this year), which means I'll be busy moving potted plants and other breakables out of the way and then restoring them to their spots afterwards so I'm not likely to get any big projects done.
For more IAVOM creations, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.
All material © 2012-2023 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party