I have an two easy answers for those of you looking to buy dahlias.
My first choice to get dahlias for your garden is to buy established plants at the Chicago Botanic Gardens when Central States Dahlia Society has their sale. You get plants that our members have grown, tried and true. Plus they are already plants, not tubers, so you get a head start. This year (2022) that will be May 7th and 8th, just in time for Mother’s Day. We sell a LOT of dahlias and I absolutely recommend getting there early for the best selection. The sale is from 10 AM to 4 PM. A few of our favorites, though I can’t guarantee what will be for sale:
But what if you, sadly, can’t come to the sale? You may find tubers at local stores, even big box stores like Home Depot and Meijers. Just watch the packaging so you know what size you are getting since a closeup of a bloom can be very deceiving in size.
On-line is absolutely an option, and its hard to know who to buy from. Or is it??? Lookee here…Dahlia Addict is a site that lets you put in the name of the dahlia you want, and it tells you which dahlia growers have it for sale!
Yes, I know that was a wonderful tip. Hope I made your day!
Last Saturday was March 5th and winter aconite was blooming in my front yard. I kid you not. Chicagoland. March 5th. Blooms. YES!! Now that’s a sign of spring that I always look for. Sometimes I have to look for the buds under snow since we are, after all, in Chicagoland, but I do find them.
Winter Interest – Goodbye
This year March 5th was miraculously warm, and I sadly spent time in my office. Gotcha! As you can see, my office is my garden. Lucky me. One of the perks of being retired.
My garden really needs me as spring approaches, mostly because I leave a lot of my autumn garden clean-up for now. After all, by the time autumn comes, I am admittedly not as interested in working in my garden as I am now after a winter of being garden deprived. I can also justify it as being very practical since so many of last year’s leftovers can add winter interest. So not everything gets put away or cut back.
Take these mums in a milk can and the sedums, for example. Really, I want you to take them. I’m done with them. Ok, that is not gonna happen, but I will still use them as two examples of winter interest.
The mums in a milk can were near my garden entrance where they greeted me each morning. I moved that for the winter to a spot where I could see them from my patio doors every day. Sure, they aren’t as pretty (understatement) as they were last fall, but they beat a flat landscape and the milk can is interesting all year.
The sedums are nice to look at all winter, and they get cut down early as the new growth is there early. So early that I was seeing plenty of new growth as I cut them down.
Much of the winter interest in my garden got moved that day. Really moved. As you can see, it’s not quite as lovely in its temporary location. Still, I celebrate that today’s warmth brought “Hello winter aconite and goodbye winter interest”. Like John Muir, I say: “Spring work is going on with joyful enthusiasm.”
That title says it all. I could stop right here and have said enough with “Zinnia Seeds Are At Home Depot!”. Not just any zinnia seeds, but the great big beauties called State Fair. Some years we can’t find the seeds and have to buy plants, so I am pleased to announce that the seeds are now in my possession since Mike is addicted to Home Depot. Maybe you should even stop reading right now and go get some.
In case you have continued reading, I want to entice you a bit more. You may remember summer. We get summer here in the Chicago suburbs eventually. Today is not “eventually”, and we have the snow and cold to prove it. When August comes though, your zinnia garden can look like mine does every summer, a real showpiece.
We plant our seeds inside in mid-March. Don’t start too soon or they get leggy. I’ve proved that. Be sure to give them plenty of light too. I put them in the garden after the last frost, and here is the BIG TIP – plant them far apart. Mine are 12″ – 18″ apart, which allows room for air flow and greatly reduces powdery mildew. I especially like that they are low maintenance, so a bed this large is easy. The garden gets mulched, so I hardly ever have to weed. They like sun and heat so I hardly ever have to water. I don’t even deadhead till September. Maybe I would if they were closer to the house and seen closer-up more often.
Here is the garden in mid-August. Gosh, I don’t even fertilize. They just do what God intended them to do.
They’ll bloom till frost, making for lovely autumn arrangements.
Yes, zillions of zinnias is what the sign says, and clearly there is a reason for that!
Retirement has its advantages. For example, my October to do list has had “make a lampshade scarecrow” for at least three years, complete with a Pinterest picture. Retired…done. Then there’s the neighborhood pumpkin decorating contest. Retired…won! So what if there were only 11 entrants, Aubrey II is totally cool.
Angelica and Aubrey II
A few tidbits about Angelica…
Cost effective – these three lampshades plus one more for her hat were $16 from the Salvation Army. Important – be sure to use a glue that resists rain, just in case. We’ve found hot glue to be just the ticket.
Her hair is a braided luau skirt.
She has premade wings from branches.
Mike supported her on a wooden stake using hooks. The stake comes out of the ground since we really don’t want her out in the rain.
Then there is Aubrey II. Her inspiration came from a Cruella store display in Door County. It cost us $150 cuz of course I had to stop at the store and of course I liked the clothes. Win-win!
Here is our Aubrey and her pumpkin counterpart.
Which brings me full circle to retirement. When you retire, whatever you had planned can probably be done tomorrow, so extending a camping reservation (ok twice) is so doable. Plenty of time to find the perfect pumpkin and rocks for Aubrey II’s paws. I love being retired!
Wow – we have so many dahlia blooms this year. As usual, Mike planted about 70 dahlias. They performed! I took a lot of pictures earlier this week since we had cut a lot of blooms for the presentations we were doing for Downers Grove and Bloomingdale.
From left to right we have Drummer Boy, Islander, Embrace, Wanda’s Aurora, AC David, Woodland Wildthing, Steve Meggos, and Ketchup & Mustard.
If you think that’s impressive, here is the whole garden:
Caladiums can be SO easy and SO pretty and SO inexpensive. I used to envy their bright colored leaves at the garden center, sigh at the high price to do my large area, then move on. Those days are long gone. For years now, I’ve planted Red Flash Caladium bulbs with total success.
This area gets shade in the morning and early afternoon. Its sunny from about 2:00 on. Nothing else I planted seemed to ‘shine’, but the caladiums do. So much so that you can easily see them from the house, which is quite a feat considering our yard in huge, but then so is the caladium leave.
The bulbs won’t sprout till the ground is warm, so no point in getting them in early. I plant them in June here in the Chicago suburbs, and even then, I bet its July before I get a sprout. Once they start coming, its like magic…a sudden explosion of color till frost.
This year the display is even more impressive since I ordered from Amaryllis & Caladium Bulb Company. I missed the opportunity to get a package at Costco, which turned out to be a good thing. I only ordered 10 bulbs since they were more expensive. I figured I would just have to live with 10 instead of my usual 20. Surprise, surprise, surprise! Each jumbo bulb from Amaryllis & Caladium Bulb Company was really a clump of 2-3, which I separated into singles. The planting looks better than ever!
Silver Brocade Artemisia might be a plant you don’t know. I hadn’t heard of it either till the day I bought it 5 years ago. I love the silver color and the texture. It boasts vigorous growth – which makes it a groundcover as far as I am concerned. Here it is under our oak tree where it is about 8 inches tall. It would be a bit taller if I didn’t trim it back hard in mid-summer, when stems begin to grow upright. Silver Brocade needs lots of sun, and since it was planted at the same time as the slow growing oak tree, sun is what it gets.
Silver Brocade Artemisia apparently survives neglect, not that I would recommend that, but neglect is certainly what mine got. Its outside the fence and not close to a hose, so I have to admit we don’t water it much. It is also in an area that doesn’t get stomped on – that it would not tolerate.
It looks a lot like my Dusty Miller, which often comes back. But Dusty Miller is an annual, so it won’t spread and you can’t count on it to make it through a winter. Silver Brocade is a hardy perennial. It doesn’t have flowers, and it doesn’t need them. So pretty just as it is!
Our Aubrey is becoming a gardener! At one year old, this cutie spends more time in the garden than Mike and I. Here she is “logging” some time.
Aubrey – Logging some time in the garden
What is it about puppies that we all love so much? Soft, cuddly, cute, destructive. Well, ok, they get away with that last one cuz, well, they are soft, cuddly, and cute. And then there is devoted. Puppies love you with all of their heart and then some. Why I bet at this very moment you are looking at the picture below and you are falling in love too. Who wouldn’t?
Aubrey – Totally adorable
Mike loves her too. After all, a man and his dog surveying their kingdom together is about as good as it gets.
Surveying the kingdom
She was already helpful last summer. Here she is moving (ok, also chewing) a pot for me.
Aubrey helps
Last year she was also into digging. This was not necessarily a good thing. It was mostly where there was a toy buried. You know, a toy like landscape fabric. Sigh. Fortunately, I don’t use a lot of landscape fabric and she is digging less now that she is almost a year old. Her niche seems to be chewing the logs and branches into tiny pieces. I would need a lot more of those tiny pieces for them to be an effective mulch. Right now they are an effective mess. Still, she is part of the team and we have promoted her to Branch Manager!
This winter planter is going to be outside for months! Not just weeks, which is what would have happened if I themed it for Christmas instead of winter. Pretty smart, huh? Sure, the bows will have to go after Christmas, but everything else can stay till I change the planter a bit for Valentine’s Day. That will take a whole 5 minutes and give me even more use out of this one design.
Winter planter
The birch branches are from a tree we took down a few years ago, but you can buy them at craft stores these days. We even saw them at the garden center when we bought our tree last night. We also used some evergreen branches that Mike cut off the bottom of the tree, as well as some from our yard, and some not-quite-natural ones that have lasted from year to year.
And how about that snowman? He’s from a birch branch too, one that had a tiny branch sticking out that was just the right size and place for his nose. I made him a few years ago and he has survived well. The hat is actually a Christmas tree ornament.
Winter planter snowman
Here is the key – Even the sign is for winter, not Christmas. I did the same thing in the past using a birdhouse.
Winter planter sign
So go scrounging in your yard for branches, and if you must buy a decoration, resist the temptation to get one that is specific to Christmas. If you live if Chicagoland like we do, better get out there soon, cuz once the dirt in your planter is frozen, you won’t be able to put anything in it.
And if you think I did a really good job of buying just the sign without buying anything that screams Christmas, well, my resistance is not that good. This cute puppy picture had to come home with us. It will be a nice reminder of the year we got our own cute puppy.
Sometimes you just have to hide the ugly. In perfect world, gardens wouldn’t have any ugly, but don’t be deceived by all those gorgeous garden photos, we all have ugly somewhere. Whether its the compost bin, gardening paraphernalia, a neighbor’s yard, or the place your spouse stores junk. We all know its there.
So hide it! Here is the camper we wanted to hide. Not exactly a great backdrop for my zinnias, is it?
Now you hardly see the camper. It was lots more work than I anticipated, and LOTS more fun.
One of the doors got its own spot.
So how did we do it?
Mike and I collected old doors from garage sales, antique markets, and yes, other people’s garbage. I had leftover outside paint in the basement. Home Depot had small containers of outside paint literally named “Oops” that were really cheap. I bought a bunch. I had plenty of inspiration from Pinterest. Best of all, I had friends who could paint. Some who would even be considered artists.
But first the prep work. Fortunately, I have bonded with our power washer. We are old friends and spent a lot of time together cleaning the doors.
Other old friends were even more important along the way. I learned from Huck Finn that having someone else paint your fence was a good thing. So when it came to painting my doors, I threw a Huck Finn Party. I had already painted base coats on the doors as needed…that’s about the extent of my painting “gift”. But think of the artist friends in your life and do them a favor by letting them get all creative on your doors.
My job that day? I did paint one panel. Impressive, isn’t it?
I did have one other job – I kept everyone well fed.
Was it really fun? You better believe it. Look at those smiles.
Installing the doors
We let everything dry, really, really dry. Then Mike applied several coats of exterior grade polyurethane.
Installation was a big deal. The doors are tall. They are heavy. And in a storm, they would act like sails if not securely supported. This is another case of “not my gift”. Fortunately I could again rely on someone else. My husband, Mike, gets this kind of task. He excelled!
4x4s are attached to the back of the door, and 4×4 post anchors hold them in the ground. The doors survived a recent windstorm (quite a nasty one I might add.) They are also removable. After all, we will want to move the camper, and we will want to store the doors inside for the winter.
Inspiring? Yes. Doable? Yes. A project for the meek? Not so much!
