I still haven't run out of dahlias for In a Vase on Monday! Some have grown ridiculously tall and two of those have either twisted their stems around their neighbors to catch the sun or collapsed on stems too weak to support the flowers. However, my first arrangement features Dahlia 'Lady Darlene' which has blooms that stand tall and stately straight. This 'Lady's' flowers are also on the flashy end of the dahlia spectrum, hence the title of this post.
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| When the temperatures were trending higher, the flowers of 'Lady Darlene' tended to be pinky-red and cream but she's showing more of her true colors, red and yellow, now that it's cooler |
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| Back view: I wasn't sure what to pair with the dahlia's flowers other than feverfew until I realized that the red bracts of Leucadendron 'Blush' would make a nice complement |
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| Top view |
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| Clockwise from the upper left: Dahlia 'Lady Darlene', Leptospermum 'Copper Glow', Leucadendron salignum 'Blush', noID red Pelargonium peltatum, Tanacetum parthenium, and Zinnia elegans 'Raspberry Limeade' |
My second arrangement features Dahlia 'Summer's End'. The plant is the most prolific bloomer of all my dahlias.
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| 'Summer's End' has the tallest stems of any of my dahlias and most of them are twisted, which made arranging them a bit challenging |
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| Back view |
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| Top view |
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| Clockwise from the upper left: Dahlia 'Summer's End', Leptospermum 'Copper Glow', Rudbeckia hirta 'Sahara', Tanacetum parthenium, Zinnia elegans 'Golden Hour', and a noID Zinnia |
I've been filling a small vase on my kitchen island with stems of Dahlia 'La Luna' most weeks because those stems flop over under their own weight but this week both Dahlia 'Excentric' and Zinnia 'Benary's Giant Wine' are flowering heavily so they won the spot.
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Top: views of the vase in place and from the top
Bottom: Zinnia elegans 'Benary's Giant Wine', Plectranthus scutellarioides 'Stained Glassworks Velvet', and Dahlia 'Excentric' (with my go-to Leptospermum foliage thrown in) |
A ridge of high pressure is expected to push temperatures back up again in our area this week. While temperatures could zip back up to 100F (37C) in the inland valleys, it looks as though our area will stay in the low 80sF (28C) thanks to the persistence of the morning marine layer. I hope that's right!
For more IAVOM creations, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.
All material © 2012-2024 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
