Oh What A Beautiful Garden – Chicagoland

This weekly series on what looks great in my garden on Wednesday really will have more variety as time goes on. For now though, the Dahlias are at their finest and I just have to give them their due. Here is a look at the main Dahlia garden, looking ever-so-full of flowers. It is now mid-October and it looks even better than it did at the beginning of the month.

I’m not trying to convince you that you want Dahlias. Ok, maybe I am.

They start blooming in July/August and go all the way to frost. You do have a certain amount of control between size and quantity. Removing some of the buds will give you larger flowers. Conversely, leaving all of the buds on will give you more flowers, and they will potentially be smaller. Look how many blooms are on the Kiara Pompadour to the right.
Many Dahlias are aptly known as ‘dinner-plate’ Dahlias and quite literally are that large. The Ben Huston on the left is even as big as our house! Ok, maybe it isn’t as big as it looks, but they can be really big.

One very common dinner-plate Dahlia is Kelvin Floodlight, whose picture you see at the right. Mike’s mentor Frank recommends Kelvin as a perfect Dahlia for the beginning Dahlia grower. It will be big, it will perform, it can probably even be found at Home Depot as a tuber in the Spring. Frank’s biggest selling point for this plant – “You can’t kill it with a lawnmower.”