Dahlias

This is my first year growing dahlias. I’ve admired them for a long time but never made the plunge or spent the time getting and planting the tubers. This spring our friend Anna gave us a box of extra tubers that she had. I planted about a dozen of them and also gave some to a neighbor who said he loved dahlias. Years ago I created a small vegetable garden with a fence around it. In more recent years I had some oregano there and it took over the entire plot. So, in the spring I dug out the oregano in a little over half of the bed and put the dahlias there. They did much better than I reasonably expected. The one thing I needed to differently was tie them up in some way because they mostly flopped over. Next year I’ll do that. Most of the plants that I grew have orange blooms, although there were a few purple, as well, but all the remaining flowers are orange, as seen here. Soon I’ll need to dig up the tubers and save them for next year’s planting. I’m definitely hooked.