This year was definitely a competition for the dahlia in our yard that bloomed the most. There were a lot of contenders. As you can see, we did not lack for blooms this year. If you grew dahlias and they were less than magnificent, worry not. Some years are good and some aren’t. For us, it clearly was a great year. For our friend Joe, it wasn’t. All of these photos were taken in the last few days, so please do be impressed and envious.
I’m gonna go right to the top of the list. Wynn’s Neon Splendor was a new dahlia for us this year, and Mike actually planted 3 of them. We try not to do a lot a duplicates as there are so many that we like, but somehow we got 3 Neon Splendors. I guess God knew we would like that one. How can we not? Look at that symphony of colors. Plus, it just bloomed and bloomed.
Blizzard is a perennial favorite. OK, I used dahlia and perennial in the same sentence. Dahlias are NOT perennial here in Chicagoland, but we do plant Blizzard every year and we can count on it to do this.
In no particular order, I present Drummer Boy. If I have spoken to your garden club about dahlias, you know that Drummer Boy is a favorite of mine. Here you can see just how pretty it is, and that we have many blooms.
Another new dahlia for us is AC Shell.
Oh what the heck, one more. This is Clearview Pastelle.
You may have noticed, the winners are not the large dinnerplate dahlias. That is typical as the largest dahlias do tend to have fewer blooms. For example, two of our big ones this year were ones we grow regularly, Hakuyu and Kelvin Floodlight.
Any size, shape, color, form could be your favorite…if you can pick just one. We can’t.
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