Kiss The Dahlias Goodbye

Bad news – The first frost took down our dahlias. Good news – The first frost turned them into some pretty scary looking dead plants appropriate for the Halloween season.

Our dahlia garden went from full bloom to fully cut down in a 36 hour period.

We started with this last Monday morning …

And ended with this last Tuesday evening…

And in-between, created this…

Personally, I much prefer the pre-frost look. So much so that I spent the good part a day cutting blooms when it looked like the threat of frost was serious. I had to rescue the flowers before frost had its way with them. Dawn (pictured), Joan, and I cut about 30 vases full of beautiful blooms to share with the world. At least it seemed like I shared them with the whole world since there were so many.

Mike got the dirty work – coming home and cutting the plants down in the cold and dark. He likes to get the water-collecting stems immediately cut down. He cuts the plant down to just a few inches above ground. The stake and tuber stay in the ground for a few weeks. The poor tuber knows it is in trouble and starts regenerating. The idea is to give it a few weeks to start that process and create eyes that will eventually develop into shoots for new plants in the spring.

Enough of the technical stuff. Look at the magnificent blooms we played with that day…

Sadly, it’s time to kiss the dahlias goodbye…till next year.

5 comments to Kiss The Dahlias Goodbye

  • Lucille

    What beautiful flowers in your beautiful garden!!! I was happy with my one plant!

  • Theresa Rebersky

    Oh, I love the before photo of your Dahlia Garden. Our garden did the same thing. Our pumpkin fell off the vine. Our biggest pumpkin this year came in at 325 pounds. George is thrilled!

  • What a beautiful way to say goodbye to such a wonderful garden. At least you got to enjoy the blooms just a few days longer.

  • Your dahlias are beautiful! They remind me of a Dahlia farm on the road to Powers Oregon, which I passed by periodically while traveling about for work. Dawn L. As an old housemate of mine and I would love for her to get in touch. She did the flowers decorating for my wedding. My name was Diane, I go by Annie now. I hope you’re able to pass along my e-mail.

    • Carol Cichorski

      Thanks for your comment about our dahlias. I’m afraid I would not know your Oregon Dahlia farm though – a bit far from Chicagoland!

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