Dahlias at Breakfast Time

This September, here in South West London, my dahlias, planted far back in March, finally flowered, producing their beautiful perfect blooms. I find it funny how many garden writers reference them as being gaudy, garish or just plain vulgar. I can think of so many other words for these Mexican natives, joyful, bold, brilliant, flamboyant or simply colourful, but never ever vulgar.

Every morning, whilst Henry sits and eats his porridge, I go out into the garden and inspect with excited anticipation the new blooms that have sprouted, alongside ones that are almost there, gently unfurling their petals or purposefully growing into them. I love them so much, each flower stem carefully cut with a pair of mini secateurs and then displayed in vases all over the place. 

I’m sure Henry thinks I’m completely mad, but he does seem to enjoy the process ‘door, door’ to open up the garden door, and we say hello to the birds in the tree (they seem to particularly love our ornamental pear) and then I bring the new flowers in, and we look at them - for Henry all flowers are currently ‘daise’ (they are all daisies, of course).

I didn’t label them, but my absolute favourite is either ‘Daisy Duke’ or ‘Burlesca’, and the one that has reliably flowered this summer is ‘Rebecca’s World’. All tubers bought from Sarah Raven after much deliberation - an array of pinks, oranges, purples and white. 

I haven’t been hugely kind to them, they are in large black plastic pots (which I’m feeling rather guilty about - I didn’t know black plastic isn’t recyclable, but hopefully they will get much use!). And there they have been sitting in their compost, with the help of a little fertiliser slowly growing away and putting up with extreme heat and torrential rain.

What wonderful flowers! Soon enough it will be time to cut the stems down, once the frost turns the foliage black, and store away the tubers for next year. But for the moment I am still enjoying the odd flower and the sumptuous green foliage.

And, looking forward to a spring garden in full glorious colour, I have been perusing tulip and daffodil bulbs (Sarah Raven again). Daffodils for scent, a yellow and orange, 'Grand Soleil d'Or’ and a white 'Erlicheer'.

Tulips for glorious jewel colours, a mixture of pink, orange and purple, 'Orange Cassini' - pink with a hint of orange, classic looking,  'Hermitage Double' - gorgeous orange, cupped peony shaped, 'Caviar' a deep dark rich indigo purple, and some mini pink ones for fun, Tulip hageri ‘Little Beauty’.

I’m in need of some compost, but very soon they will be potted up in layers, and probably covered in wire netting (the squirrels are very keen) and then the long wait over winter. But so worth the wait.