In spite of the fact that we have numerous flower and veggie beds, and spend several hours a week tending to them (except when it's unbearably hot, as it has been recently), I consider myself a somewhat lazy gardener because there are some tasks that I just won't do, and lifting bulbs or tubers or whatever is one of them. I have often admired dahlias, but wouldn't grow them for that reason—I knew I wasn't going to bother digging them up in the fall and replanting them in the spring.
Then last winter my husband noticed some dahlia seeds in the Thompson and Morgan catalog, and that I could do! We started them indoors in mid-March, and they grew so vigorously that I didn't even realize that they were overwhelming the basil in the adjacent cells. (Most of the basil seedlings were so weakened by this that they ended up dying when I transplanted them to the yard, but I had extra seed that I direct-sowed, so I'll still have pesto this year if I remember to harvest the leaves before the first frost!)
I generally think of dahlias as tall plants, but Dahlia 'Fireworks Mixed' is low-growing. I ended up putting it in front of some taller calendula that had self-seeded from the year before. They also have a yellow Hypericum f. 'Sunburst' (St. John's Wort bush) as a backdrop, and tigridia just around the bend, so this little corner of the yard has developed into the Yellow Bed. (It's next to the veggie garden, so hopefully all this bright color attracts pollinators!)
These dahlias have a single row of mostly yellow petals with streaks and splotches of red, although a few are almost coral-colored.
Then last winter my husband noticed some dahlia seeds in the Thompson and Morgan catalog, and that I could do! We started them indoors in mid-March, and they grew so vigorously that I didn't even realize that they were overwhelming the basil in the adjacent cells. (Most of the basil seedlings were so weakened by this that they ended up dying when I transplanted them to the yard, but I had extra seed that I direct-sowed, so I'll still have pesto this year if I remember to harvest the leaves before the first frost!)
I generally think of dahlias as tall plants, but Dahlia 'Fireworks Mixed' is low-growing. I ended up putting it in front of some taller calendula that had self-seeded from the year before. They also have a yellow Hypericum f. 'Sunburst' (St. John's Wort bush) as a backdrop, and tigridia just around the bend, so this little corner of the yard has developed into the Yellow Bed. (It's next to the veggie garden, so hopefully all this bright color attracts pollinators!)
These dahlias have a single row of mostly yellow petals with streaks and splotches of red, although a few are almost coral-colored.
They started blooming in late May, and are still going, although they don't bloom quite as prolifically as I would have liked. Perhaps that's my own fault; I'm not very conscientious about deadheading them. Nevertheless, I definitely like them quite a bit, and I'm wondering if, like the calendula, they'll self-seed. But I don't think I'll leave that to chance; I think I'll be including more dahlias in my seed order this winter!
