Dahlias

If you mulch in the fall,  dahlia tubers can usually survive the winter, something you can't do in many parts of the country. I thought I'd lost the first one in many years, and hoped that it wasn't my favorite pink ball.

Dahlias are so inconspicuous and fragile when they first come up it's easy to stomp on them or snap the top off when you're weeding. Sometimes I break the shoots off when I dig down to "check" and see if they're still alive.  The impatient gardener.  Like begonias, dahlias are very slow to start growing, and nothing much to look at until late August. 

But I was happy to see this little sprout yesterday. Once again, I almost ripped it out accidentally.  I don't use poison in the garden except under dire circumstances, but I sprinkled a touch of slug bait around to give it a head start.  There's nothing slugs like better than eating new dahlia shoots.  When they get big, an army of slugs can't kill them.

This picture is from 2009, so I've had pinky for quite a while.  It is amazing how such a tiny sprout grows into a magnificent 5 foot plant by the end of summer.

And then of course the whole mess has to be cut back to the ground and dragged off in the fall. With all the staking and flopping, dahlias aren't everyone's cup of tea, but I think the almost artificial symmetry and pure colors make them quite classy.