Tag Archives: tam tam dahlia

Transitioning from fall to winter

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Hi there! Welcome to my blog. The garden is showing signs that the season is indeed changing to winter. The beech hedge is turning from green to yellow and brown. The burning bush is a fabulous fiery red. And the sunflowers are finally finished blooming. It truly was a magnificent year in the garden. Another sure sign that the end of fall is near: bulbs have been planted! Planting bulbs is one way to sow the seed of hope for what will come in the future – and I am full of hope! 🙂

We’ve had quite a lot of rain the past couple of weeks. Everything is water logged, to the point where the grass goes ‘squish’ when you walk on it. This makes weeding (my most pressing task) nearly impossible. So, not a lot has been done in the garden, although we did get some tulip and daffodil bulbs planted. I also harvested all of our squash: two Red Kuri squash, four Marina di Chioggia squash, and nine Jack-o-Lantern pumpkins – not a bad season in the end! I’ve never eaten the Marina di Chioggia before, so I am looking forward to that.

As my husband is a huge fan of our strawberries, he very kindly thinned out the plants this past week. It’s a task that ideally is done in the fall, and is not my favorite thing to do. I’m so thankful he did it!

I thought I was going to dig up the dahlia plants this week, but I decided to wait a bit longer. From what I’ve read, it is best to dig them up after the first frost. The good news is that I’m still getting dahlia blooms, and the bees are enjoying the ones that I don’t bring inside.

It is nearly time for us, like our gardens, to start to slow down for the winter months. What do you think, are you ready for a little ‘slow-down’ break? 🙂

In Peace,
Dana

Squash and Pumpkin haul 2022

Jack-o-Lantern pumpkins, Marina di Chioggia and Red Kuri squash surround the burning bush (Euonymus alatus ‘Compactus’ – dwarf burning bush).

Dana with pumpkin infront of squash from this season

Sure what’s not to smile about? 🙂

Cafe au lait and coffee at midnight dahlias with a couple Maxi dahlias.

Dahlias! Maxi, Cafe au Lait, Tam-Tam and Coffee at Midnight. This year I’ve learned the importance of staking dahlias properly. These have mostly been blown over in the wind, yet continue to flower!

dahlias and alstroemeria bouquet

Doing what I love to do: create a bouquet of flowers from the garden! The alstroemeria has flecks of burgundy inside the flower, which I think goes really well with the burgundy colored dahlias, as does the pink of the alstroemeria, too. I was able to gather a lovely bunch of flowers that now sit on my kitchen table.

beech hedge fall color

The coloring of our beech hedge is a mottled brown-yellow-green at this stage. It will eventually turn completely brown, and the leaves will stay on for the entire winter.

Thank you for stopping by! I do appreciate you visiting. What’s a sure sign that fall is over in your garden?

Finding beauty in the every day

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Hello! Life is funny, isn’t it? We go about our days, and the days turn into weeks, and the weeks fold into months. My garden is starting to wrap things up for the season, at least parts of it are, yet it seems like just yesterday when it all began. I am so appreciative and thankful for all of the beauty it has provided me for so much of the year. It certainly deserves a break!

In my morning walkabout yesterday (which is when I took the feature image above, with the pink-hued sky), I marveled at how many plants are still producing flowers. The sunflowers are producing tiny flowers along branches that are barely attached to their main stems. The sweet pea are still flowering, although they are no longer fragrant. The little lime hydrangea are producing lots of new blooms, while the incrediball hydrangea have slowed down (but not stopped).

Looking for color? The alstromeria and dahlias have show stopping colors, and are still going strong. The asters have been blooming since September and are just starting to slow down now.

On the squash side, the Marina Di Chioggia squash seem to be finished growing. They are large! I have two Red Kuri squash that have turned orange from yellow, but have not made their final transition to red just yet. The pumpkins are nearly all orange. Nearly.

We mustn’t forget the roses. They are still producing new buds, and have lots of color from flowers that are currently blooming. There is a distinctively different feel to the garden now from the summer months, but the beauty continues.

Life is full. I try and do little gardening jobs along the way. When I stop doing that, those little jobs become big jobs and doing them, even in my head, becomes a lot harder. I also make a point of going in the garden every day, even if it is just my walkabout. Between my chickens, the birds, flowers, trees, and sky, there is *always* something to admire and be thankful for.

I hope you, too, find beauty in the every day.

In Peace,
Dana

little lime hydrangeas (dwarf lime light hydrangea)

I’m so happy with how the little lime border looks – as well as the lavender border! That was a fun project this year.

Marina Di Chioggia squash on half of the arch and sweet pea on the other

This is the ‘backside’ of the flower arch, which has three Marina Di Chioggia squash (two visible here) on one side and sweet pea on the other. There’s just a short opportunity in the morning to capture pictures on the front now, as the seasons change.

flower arrangement with dahlia: tam tam, cafe au lait and maxi, asters, delphinium and alstromeria

I couldn’t resist making another arrangement! The alstromeria were new to work with here, and I’m so glad I added them! This also has dahlias: Maxi, Cafe au Lait, and Tam-Tam, with some bright pink asters and one very curvy and long stem of delphinium.

Teasing Georgia David Austin roses in a bud vase

I have a lot of flowers inside at the moment! These ‘Teasing Georgia’ David Austin roses were hanging very low to the ground where no one could enjoy their beauty. So I saved them and brought them inside 🙂

Garden with Asters Pumpkins and Pumpkin wreath on playhouse

I’ll admit that it is *much* easier to find beauty when the sky is so blue and the sun is shining! May we all have more days like these!

Thanks so much for visiting. I hope you enjoyed the tour. How do you look for beauty in your day?

Is pink the new color of fall?

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Hi there! Welcome to my blog. Well, what do you think? Is it safe to say that pink can be considered a fall color? When I look around my garden, I still see so much pink: roses, dahlia, asters, and alstroemeria, there is a lot! The traditional fall colors of burgundy, red, and orange are still there as can be seen with the dahlias, helenium, persicaria, rudbeckia, pumpkins and Rowan berries. But they are joined by a lot of pink, which I would consider to be more traditionally a summer color.

Never the less, all of the colors are beautiful, no matter the time of year. We’ve had some pretty blue skies with lots of sunshine this week, helping to slowly turn the pumpkins orange. This gardener is also happy that we had some rain this week, too.

I’ve had a lot of fun creating flower arrangements recently. The dahlia are blooming ‘like mad’ and it would be silly not to do something with them. They are so easy to work with, too. One day I used berries from the yard with them, and another day I used asters. The point is to have fun while creating something pretty. For me, I find the process of making an arrangement to be quite therapeutic. I simply enjoy the process from start to finish. All other thoughts are banished while I play with flowers!

I’ll be playing more with my feature image, too, as the pumpkins turn color and the squash continue to ripen. Stay tuned!

I’m joining The Propagator’s Six on Saturday meme. Feel free to join in!

Enjoy the tour 🙂

pink asters around ornamental grass

1 – Asters. These guys sure like to show off. I have them planted around the ornamental grass. This year I dug up two large sections that had grass intertwined in them. I was quite happy with how that went until a few weeks later the plants seemed to be covered in a powdery mildew. I still don’t know what happened. Unfortunately, a few of my plants were affected (two delphinium on the deck and some of these asters). I am hoping that it was a once off occurrence.

Alstroemeria Summer Paradise series 'Summer Break'

2 – Alstroemeria Summer Paradise series ‘Summer Break’. I am so pleased with these lovelies! I planted them this year and they have happily been blooming ever since. There are still lots of buds to bloom on the three plants, providing a lovely splash of (pink!) color. They are great as cut flowers, too.

sungold sunflower with marigolds, asters and sunflowers in the background

3 – Sungold sunflowers with marigolds and asters. I could not resist using these sunflowers again this week. They are just fantastic for providing a substantial amount of color! My ‘caged’ sunflowers in with the blueberries are super pretty, too. I didn’t plant them, but I’m sure glad for them!

dahlia, ivy, black berries and elder flower berries arrangement
dahlias: cafe au lait, coffee at midnight, tam-tam, and maxi

4 & 5 – Dahlia arrangement with blackberries, elder flower berries and ivy. This was so fun to go around the yard and find different things to fill the arrangement with. I just had a thing for berries on this day, and it worked out so well. I’m still getting used to dahlias. If you wait to use them until they are fully open, then they won’t have long to live in an arrangement. It is best to use them before they fully open. I used chicken wire to keep the flowers in place. This works really well, and is something I can use over and over again. The dahlias are: Cafe au Lait, Coffee at midnight, Tam Tam, and Maxi.

dahlia and aster flower arrangement

6 – Dahlia and aster arrangement. More pink! This is a much smaller arrangement that I made with a focus on pink. I thought the tiny pink asters worked really well with the dahlias (Cafe au Lait and Maxi). Super easy, and I used the chicken wire again.

Dana with cake and flowers

One more picture: My birthday is at the end of September. What a wonderful time to celebrate life! My daughter made this chocolate cake with meringue buttercream icing for me. It was so delicious!

I hope you enjoyed the rather pink tour! Have a great week!

In Peace,
Dana

An adventure to Huntington Castle and Gardens for a Cut Flower demonstration

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Hi there! Welcome to my blog. You might have noticed that I’ve taken a liking to creating flower arrangements, especially if you follow my Instagram – you do follow my Instagram, right? 🙂 So I jumped at the chance to go to a cut flower demonstration with my dear friend, Susan (my gardening adventure friend). The venue was the beautiful Huntington Castle and Gardens, which I’ve never been to before. It is in Clonegal, County Carlow, so of course we made a day trip out of it, stopping off at Avoca in County Wicklow on the way down, for some food and flowers (definitely worth a visit to Avoca).

The demonstration was by Fionnuala Fallon, who spoke about incorporating sustainability into the floral industry. Fionnuala and her husband run a sustainable cut-flower farm, and she gave great tips on plants to use, care, arranging, and helpful information on best resources to get started.

As it turns out, I made another flower arrangement this week! And I’d incorporated a number of the things Fionnuala talked about. Once you learn the tips and tricks, it makes life a little bit easier (like using chicken wire and floral frogs).

While I didn’t exactly make the ‘Saturday’, I’m none-the-less, joining the Propagator’s meme ‘Six on Saturday’.

Enjoy the tour!

At Huntington Castle and Gardens, Clonegal, Co. Carlow
Fionnuala Fallon at flower demonstration

1 & 2 – Cut flower demonstration with Fionnuala Fallon at Huntington Castle and Gardens, Clonegal, County Carlow. This was such a wonderful day out! Fionnuala created this beautiful arrangement in no time flat, from two containers of flowers (that honestly, didn’t look like much on their own). The huge take away for me was to grow dahlias. I kind of knew I wanted to go in this direction, and now I *really* know! They are just spectacular. The main question we all had regarding this was if she dug them up for the winters, and the answer was ‘yes’. It just has to be done. Another favorite take away for me was to use the whole sweet pea vine, not just the stems of the flowers (which is what I would usually use). What a difference it makes to the arrangement! You can see in the arrangement above, the flowing light pink sweet pea, hanging down.

For those who don’t know already, she also mentioned how bad ‘floral foam’ (or oasis) is for the environment. *Really* bad. Chicken wire is an alternative, used with floral frogs (small, heavy circle with pins to stick the flower stems in), and taped in place.

She is a proponent of ‘some-dig’ gardening, as opposed to ‘no-dig’. I’m definitely with her on this one, too. You have to do whatever works for you.

It was a helpful and informative talk, which we really enjoyed, followed by a tour of the gardens. The place is just lovely and certainly worth a visit! Even better to bring along your bestie! 🙂

Line of flowers: dahlia, sunflowers, butterfly bush flowers, Russian sage and sweet pea
Dahlia tam tam, sunflower mix, Buddleis BUZZ ‘Dark Pink’ Butterfly Bush, Russian sage, Sweet pea
sunflower flower arrangement with butterfly bush, Russian sage, sweet pea and dahlia.
Sunflower arrangement with purple butterfly bush flowers, sweet pea, Russian sage and dahlias.

3 & 4 – Sunflower arrangement. This one is definitely worth two slots! This is my first sunflower arrangement of the season! I made this the day before the talk. The sunflower stems are really short as there were lots of blooms still forming on the stems and I didn’t want to cut them off. It worked well with this container, too, to have them short. With all of the work my husband has been doing with building fruit cages, I had already taken and put aside some chicken wire for arranging. This container was perfect for experimenting with. I used two floral frogs to weigh it down (I hadn’t thought of taping it, which would be a helpful solution).

Adding colors to the garden that complement the colors of the sunflowers is what I’m now working on. The dahlia’s I’ve planted are exactly for this. The beautiful reddish colored one (called Tam Tam) is the first to bloom. Hopefully I’ll get to do more arranging with them as the season goes on.

And really, I don’t know why I don’t see more butterfly bush flowers in arrangements, they smell so sweet and are a lovely addition (dwarf varieties)!

Russian Sage

5 – Russian Sage – Perovskia atriplicifolia Little Spire. This guy is just showing off at this stage. Beautiful shape and color. I used a few stems for the above arrangement. The bright pink rose next to it is England’s Rose from David Austin.

coleus plants

6 – Coleus. These guys were planted from seed late and then when I transplanted them to these containers, they stopped growing – for weeks! They have finally started to look like decent sized (small) plants. Maybe by the end of the season they will fill the containers. But I love having them, and I love their different color combinations.

I hope you enjoyed the tour! Have a great week!

In Peace,
Dana