My fall flowers were kind of a dissapointment.
Last year, I had the most gorgeous dahlias. some of them were almost as big as my face!!
There are two pics there. Be sure to not get stuck looking at my face, plz. I’ll get self-conscious.
We bought these bulbs on clearance in the spring when we visited Holland when the tulips were blooming.
That was a gorgeous day. Here are some pics:
When I planted them, I didn’t expect much. I didn’t really know that I could grow GOOD things yet and, I mean, they were on clearance, you know? I think they were two bucks a bag or something similarly cheap.
So, when they bloomed, I was giddy. When they thrived, I was in love.
I spent months reading about what I should do with the bulbs or corms or whatever they are called in the winter. I then followed those instructions implicitly, digging each one up separately, gently separating them, and then storing them loosely in dirt over the winter.
Then, once the below-freezing temps are over, put ‘em back in the ground.
I did all that.
But you know what didn’t happen? The dahlias never grew. I tried not to get sad about it, but I was a bit disappointed. I must have screwed something up and accidentally killed my dahlia tubers or corms.
Maybe they are mad because I don’t know the proper name? Maybe they’re just protesting until I get it right.
I didn’t dwell that much on it, though.
Here’s why:
That is because around the designated Dahlia circle (we have marked it out with brick pavers. It was smaller last year, but we made it bigger because I had so many tubers or bulbs or whatever to plant.), we just kept throwing wildflower seeds around the outside perimeter.
One time we went to a farm store about 45 minutes from home and they had a big bag of wildflower seeds for, like, ten bucks.
“What a steal!” we thought and put them in our cart.
When it came to checkout, the fella at the counter looked at the bright yellow bag of seeds that I was smiling at and said, “Those are last year’s seeds; I’ll give you those for free.”
It took everything in my being not to go back and grab all the rest of the bags.
We want a flower-heavy yard, okay?
But we got the one and I’m pretty sure we ended up sprinkling that one around the perimeter of the dahlia circle.
By the way, the only thing the interior of the Dahlia circle grew with any regularity this year was something called purslane.
Cute, but not what we’re going for, you know?
Lots of stuff popped up around the exterior of the circle. My favorite was all the poppies! There were yellow and white and red, of course. These are probably my favorite flower of all time.
Later in the season, when the dahlias should have been blooming, the hot pink flower pictured above started growing.
Well, first, the greenery started growing, and one bushel became as tall as me! It had a bunch of buds on it waiting to bloom when we had a pretty heavy windstorm.
The wind knocked it over.
It bloomed anyway. And it keeps on blooming. Every flower is a uniform shade of pink. It makes me so happy to see them every day.
Here is a little info I have researched about them since they have been (literally) brightening my day.
- they are in the Sunflower family, a noble lineage
- in Mexico, they are a popular dia de los muertos flower
- there are over 30 varieties
- it is October’s birth flower (it shares this duty with marigold)
- the name comes from the Greek word for “order” or “world”
- pink ones symbolize love and romance
- they come in more colors than pink
- it is a perennial
- it is also an annual
Which one is mine? We will find out next year, I guess.
I could say something all profound here about how we’re always looking for beauty in one place, and then it pops up in another, but I’ll let you word that however you want to.
These bright happy flowers just make me smile.
