Tag Archives: dahlia totally tangerine

Roses, Dahlias and Sunflowers in a September garden

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Hi there! Welcome to my blog. I’m happy to say that the weather has been favorable! We welcome September in with high hopes of a beautiful autumn. The flowers in the garden might be what I’d describe as summer flowers, but they continue to look beautiful as we start the fall season. Of course, weeding takes place all year round and has been keeping me busy! It is one job that I never seem to get completely finished. 🙃

I made another flower arrangement this week (of course!). This time I added coral and pink roses to the dahlias. I was quite happy with it.

I’m adding in a non-gardening photo this week, too. I’m away in Waterford with our local cycling club (Cuchulainn Cycling Club) and I had such a brilliant ride yesterday that I had to share. It was along the Copper Coast and it was quite challenging for me. But boy was the hard work worth it for those views! Ireland is truly a beautiful country.

I’m joining Garden Ruminations for our Six on Saturday meme. It’s fun to see what’s growing around the world!

Enjoy the tour.

In Peace,
Dana

collection of sunflowers (Claret being the biggest)

1 – Collection of sunflowers. They are still looking good! It’s definitely worth planting different varieties, and lots of them, to keep the supply going. While I love the traditional yellow and brown, the dark colors of the Claret are a nice contrast.

collection of David Austin roses: from top right: Boscobel, Emily Bronte and Eustacia Vye

2 – Collection of David Austin roses: from top right: Boscobel, Emily Bronte and Eustacia Vye. I had to wait a while for this second flush of roses, but it’s now lovely to see roses again. The blackspot does not seem to be quite as bad as it usually is at this stage, which is great to see.

View of the cutting garden with dahlias, gladiolus, and sunflowers

3 – The cutting garden. This has dahlias, gladioli, and sunflowers. I love having the flowers all together here. It’s a fun collection of shapes, textures and colors and it makes me smile every time I see it. 🙂

A pink and coral flower arrangement with dahlias, roses, gladiolus and verbena.

4 & 5 – A coral and pink arrangement. I challenged myself to use the Boscobel and Olivia Rose Austin roses with the dahlias. The dahlias include: Totally Tangerine, Fancy Pants, Great Silence, Daisy Duke and Jowey Frambo. Gladiolus: Pink Parrot. Verbena Bonariansis. I used chickenwire to help the flowers stay in place. It’s a bit awkward, but much better than having nothing (and floral foam isn’t good for the environment). I was happy how the colors worked together! I think the Fancy Pants dahlias are my favorite for their unique shape.

Pictures from my bike ride along the Copper Coast in Waterford.

6 – Pictures from my bike ride along the Copper Coast in Waterford. Woohoo! I was so darn pleased with myself at the end of this cycle. It was challenging for me, but between the views, the weather, and the group I was with, it was such an awesome experience. I was definitely feeling the dopamine after this! (We did a 64 km route, which isn’t considered a long route, but it was perfect for me.) I can’t say it enough: Ireland is a beautiful country and so worth exploring! You can learn more about the beautiful Copper Coast here.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed the tour. Have you planned your next trip to Ireland yet? 🙂

August is blooming (and swimming)!

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Hi there! All of my pictures today were taken in the two minutes of sunshine that we were blessed to have! 🙂 I hate to make the weather such a terrible topic, so I’ll just mention that the rain has persisted. Oh sure, we’ve had some breaks here and there. I even managed to go on a fairly dry bike ride the other day. But boy has it rained in between! You know who loves that, right? HYDRANGEAS! They are looking mighty fine. The roses are the main flowers unhappy with the wet situation.

The sunflowers continue to bloom and show off their beautiful faces. The dahlias are starting to pick up the pace of their blooming (not all have bloomed, yet, though). Three of the blooming varieties (American Dawn, Totally Tangerine and Copperboy) were planted specifically for creating sunflower arrangements. I used them for the first time today and was delighted with the result!

Otherwise, I’ve been trying to get in and tidy up the garden, a little at a time. I’ll get there – eventually! Do join me as I partake in the Six on Saturday meme, hosted by Jim at Garden Ruminations.

I hope you enjoy the tour!

In Peace,
Dana

Little Lime hydrangea

1 – Dwarf little lime hydrangea. These guys are so happy with the wet weather we’ve been having! They do not get big, which is exactly why I chose them. They start out white-green, then go more lime and they now have shades of pink. They did not look this nice last year, when we had very little rain and they were being watered by me.

Clockwise from top right: Buddleia BUZZ 'Dark Pink' Butterfly Bush, Delphinium Shelby and Monarda Fireball (bee balm)

2, 3 & 4 – (from top right) Buddleia BUZZ ‘Dark Pink’ Butterfly Bush, Delphinium ‘Shelby’ and Monarda Fireball (bee balm). I gave the dwarf butterfly bush a super hard pruning this year. I was doubtful for a while whether it would bloom. But blooming it certainly is! It is a lovely fuchsia color, offset nicely against the yellow potentilla flowers. I know I’ve mentioned the ‘Shelby’ delphinium before, but it is still blooming beautifully, so I had to give it another shout out. Finally, the Monarda ‘fireball’ is a new favorite. It smells lovely (I have a thing for scented plants!) and attracts bees – hence, it’s nickname ‘bee balm’. The color is supposed to be red, but it is more of pinkish hue of red.

A flower arrangement of sunflowers and coppery/orange dahlias in a pottery container

5 & 6 – A flower arrangement of sunflowers and dahlias. How fun is that? And what a great use of a pottery biscuit jar (we’ve never put cookies in it). The other flower I hadn’t mentioned is the Verbena Bonariansis (groups of tiny purple flowers with long stems). Dahlias: Totally Tangerine, Copperboy and American Dawn. The coloring on the American Dawn is a lot more coppery than the coral I was expecting – but I do love it! I like to grow sunflowers that have smaller flower heads, which are more manageable in arrangements. There is a nice mixture of sizes here, and colors. And both sunflowers and dahlias have a nice long vase life!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Did you have any favorite flowers?

A turbulent July is nearly gone

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Hi there! And I must say that we are quite happy to say goodbye to the soggy month of July. Thankfully, it did pass quickly. I’m full of hope that August will be nicer!

Speaking of bad weather, the rain also rather messed up my lavender schedule. There were many delays in harvesting it, due to the rain. Thankfully, I was able to harvest most of it. The good news is that it dried out really quickly and I’ve already made a couple of lavender wreaths. 🙂

The other news for July is that my dahlias are finally starting to bloom! They have grown big enough for me to stake the area and provide supports for them. I did this after some strong winds completely broke off one of my plants at the base, leaving it useless for this season (and with loads of teeny tiny buds on it!). I had everything set-up to do, but didn’t think they were big enough yet… Lesson learned.

I’ll be joining Garden Ruminations for our Six on Saturday meme. I hope you’ll enjoy the tour!

In Peace,
Dana

A lavender wreath hanging on a red door

1 – Lavender wreath. I’m going to say that all of my wreaths are bespoke, because no two are alike! They tend to come out a bit quirky, swishing here or there. One thing I definitely do, is completely cover the wreath in lavender. I like to use a huge amount! This one took a few hours to make. I used floral pins to keep the lavender in place on the straw wreath.

Delphinium 'Shelby'

2 – Delphinium ‘Shelby’. This is such a lovely two-toned blue with purple. They are short stems, thankfully. This has helped them with our windy weather.

Collage of dahlias clockwise from top right: 'Creme de Cassis', 'Wizard of Oz', 'Hartenaas', and 'Totally Tangerine'

3, 4, 5 & 6 – Dahlias! Clockwise from top right: Creme de Cassis, Wizard of Oz, Hartenaas and Totally Tangerine. It’s still early days for them, but I’m so excited because they are all just so lovely! Some of the plants are relatively short, too, so I’m hopeful they won’t be damaged in poor weather. I can’t wait to work these guys into some flower arrangements! Stay tuned!

Thanks so much for stopping by. Do you have any favorite dahlias that you think I should add to my collection? 🙂