First Dahlia

For the first time last fall, I dug up some dahlia tubers and divided them.  There was a very small tuber that had a clearly defined "eye" (bud for a future stem), so I wondered if would bloom the same year or need another year to mature.   I planted it and brought it inside and babied it through the "winter", and as you can see it grew quickly  enough that it is already blooming. 

I was a bit surprised; having divided the tubers back in late November (too late, actually, but it took me that long to get around to it), I forgot what it was.  I thought it was going to be Bodacious, but it turned out to be Wheels.  Wheels was one of my favorites last year--and one of the hummer's favorites as well. 

Comments

[Mark]

Hey, thanks for the visit to my site.Some of your deprmoaghs are right in my case, but the property size is off. My garden sites on a very small property that is less than 100 feet long by 17 feet wide (with a house in the center of that). Tiny garden, but full.When I started planning our garden five years ago (shortly after we got our house) my husband was definitely a non gardener. He followed my plans and did a good portion of the work in laying the stone for the raised garden beds and patio though, while the soil amendments and plant choices and planting were left to me.Over the years he's amazed me by learning almost all of our many plants names, and he's happy to go out and water when I don't want to or can't. He also spends a few hours each week deadheading the flowers and proudly showing off our garden to the neighbors.He's started requesting a few plants sunflowers and hollyhocks have become favorites of his. He's yet to plant a plant but Im sure that's coming.My parents were home and cottage gardeners. When I was growing up we had one garden at our house, and two up at our cottage. The cottage ones were veggies, and the home one was mostly flowers but had a few veggies to. My mom was the driving force behind those gardens but my dad pulled his weight, helped plant and care for the gardens and he also had some input on the veggies and flowers that they were growing. I just remembered he collected the flower seeds for the next years planting too. They gardened together for almost 60 years.We'd like to buy the house that is attached to ours (and keep our current home). Then we'd have a big gardening area. I think if we did that my husband would probably have more input in the gardens this time and perhaps a few beds of his own. Then the competion would begin.