Dahlias on Saturday and Tuesday [Week 6/10]

Lots of garden work to do this month!

Hello!

I hope you’re gardening has been going well this summer season!

My dahlias have had a bit of a rough time. Dahlias prefer temps no lower than 60 and start to struggle above 90. This year we are now experiencing a third week with sustained lows in the 50’s, and I think we might have hit 49 last night.

Not ideal.

My plants think it’s fall so there will be plenty of tubers this year (a good thing), but the blooms have been slower than usual.

I’m always learning something new about dahlias each year.

Anyway, for the rest of the season I’m on a cutting schedule of Tuesday and Saturday. We should have milder temperatures, so weather permitting I’ll have tons of blooms at the road on those days.

:)

Thank you for your support, it makes it possible for me to do this next year.

:)

The last new dahlia in my collection has finally bloomed. It’s a maroon/orange blend that almost looks brown in person. Stunning.

And here’s part of my haul for today! They are currently cooling off and drinking some flower food and will be at the road stand around 1.

As always, send me a message if you want me to pick you some on any day.

NEW GARDENING TECHNIQUE: No till

While the weather is cool, I’m starting to break down half my flower garden. I’ll have pictures next week.

I tried no till a couple years ago and was super disappointed. This year I’m laying down thick paper and 4 inches of compost on top. That should kill the weeds and the compost will decompose over winter.

I’ll cover the compost with landscape fabric overwinter until planting time in late May.

The ground should be thick with nutrients by then.

Wish me luck.

0.o

Next year, I’ll have almost all dahlias filling those four no-till beds. Whatever space is left over will be for annuals, but not many! (hopefully).

The other half of my garden, what is currently dahlias, will be left fallow with cover crops until fall, when they will become no-till beds. Assuming this experiment is a success.

Lots of moving parts over here.

I’m enjoying the good weather!

Matt

New orange dahlia! Week 5/10

It's called Bloomquist Jean. Take a look.

Hello and good morning!

This weekend I have a lot of dahlias. They are currently drinking flower food and staying cool. It’s going to be hot today, so I’ll only put out one or two bouquets at 3:00 as usual.

I’ll have another bucket of fresh blooms tomorrow, if this heat convinces them to open.

This week I’ve got:

I’ve got a bouquet each of Cafe au Lait. A light yellow/orange mix. Peachy mix. Pink/lavender mix. And my new favorite: Bloomquist Jean (deeper orange and red mix).

The first Bloomquist Jean of the season! I’ve got three this week.

I love this orange dahlia so much! It’s supposed to be a little bigger with more petals curling backwards like a mullet, but these first blooms are about five inches. It’s been a weird summer with a few weeks of low temps in the 50s. That kind of stalled some of my dahlias. I’m waiting on two varieties left to bloom, but this was the one I was most excited for.

It’s also been super dry, even when it was cold. Very unhelpful. (the grass is basically dead)

I’ll be attempting to over-winter cuttings of BQ Jean so next spring I can plant medium sized plants and hopefully get earlier blooms. Or maybe I’ll put them in the greenhouse. Realistically, I don’t think I have the energy for that, but I do love this color and shape.

Cafe au Lait

I have tons of Cafe au Lait. This week, I have some that are perfect ivory buff! Because I planted them in the shade of my sunflowers, the buff blooms come out a perfect shade. I also have blush, mixed, and darker variation. Taken together, they’re amazing.

Some yellow, orange, peachy ball forms.

If you want any, let me know! I’ll keep them cool and set them out near the house for you to pick up.

About 10 stems for $10.

Let me know what type you’d like :)

• Cafe au Lait

• Peachy ball

• yellow-ish/light orange mix

• Bloomquist Jean, deeper orange

• Lavender mix

• pink-ish mix.

I’ll put my email in the footer of this email so it isn’t on the website.

Enjoy!

Matt

Dahlias starting to go strong, after a short delay. Week 4/10.

Many dahlias at the street Monday (today) and hopefully Friday or Saturday, depending on how the cold weather affects them

Hi flower friends!

Lots of dahlias today and Friday/Saturday with a few spread through the rest of the week.

A couple weeks ago we had cool, dry nights (into the 50s!) and that seems to have delayed some of the plants from maturing by a few weeks. I don’t know how this current cold spell is going to affect my plants. It’s been like an early fall instead of the usual summer heat.

Weird.

I hope your gardening has been going well. :)

It’s cool and breezy right now for the next few days, so the dahlias should hold up well at the street.

Anyway, here are some photos of what I’ve got this week. There will be plenty of Cafe au Lait, Castle Drive, and a mix of white puffy clouds and white swirling starbursts.

Many of my peachy/orange/yellow/cardinal red ball shape and spiky shaped dahlias are in full bloom.

I’m still waiting on the darker maroon colors, unfortunately.

Also, I bought a specialty dahlia that hasn’t bloomed, but has grown almost taller than me! And that’s after I pinched it! If it makes flowers, it will be worth the wait, but this is a gigantic plant.

Here are some photos, plus what’s at the street today!

Bike pick up out by the flower garden.

Left: Bracken Sarah (large yellow ball) and assorted peachy colors. Top: Castle Drive and Valley Porcupine and other pink and lavender. Right: Cafe au Lait mix with buff, blush, and royal. Bottom: new-to-me unicorns like KA’s Mocha Katie, KA’s Rosie Jo (a great combo) plus other ball types for the longest lasting dahlia bouquet I could make. :)

beautiful leftovers that couldn’t fit in the bouquets. Ready to set a couple more out there, if needed. :)

As always, send me an email or DM on this account if you want to reserve some. I’ll keep them cool and protected indoors.

Enjoy,

Matt

Start of the dahlia season, plus new dahlia types! Week 1/10.

Enjoy some pictures!

Hello flower friends!

Well, it’s the first week of August, which means the dahlias are starting to really pump out some flowers.

This year I will be putting out bouquets around 3:00 almost every day. Exceptions are if it’s windy, stormy, or unbearably hot.

If you know you’re stopping by and are worried about me being sold out, give me a heads up the night before via email and be worry free.

I’ll only set out one or two at a time during the week, and more on Fridays/Saturdays.

That’s the plan for now, anyway.

Share this link far and wide to let your friends and neighbors know the flowers are blooming. :)

All profit for this year is going to building a nice, permanent greenhouse + potting shed with water hookup and everything.

Thanks,

Matt

Here are some photos of new-to-me dahlia types for 2024!

Left bottom is KA’s Rosie Jo. One of my top two favorites to bloom this year. Probably my favorite color. It’s a full, round shape with a painted effect on the petals. Very, very stunning in person. The one above it is KA’s Keltie Rose. A nice shape and color. And on the right is Wine Eyed Jill, which is a little too purple-y to match the other two.

KA’s Mocha Katie: One of my top two new varieties for the year (so far… I have a few yet to bloom). It’s an early bloomer, on the smaller side, and already puts out 7 usable stems per week. Probably the most prolific of almost any I’ve grown. And it’s color palette blends nicely with a lot of other dahlias in my catalogue.

Cafe au Lait Mini: Cream colored five inch version of Cafe au Lait.

KA’s Peppercorn: Red and white. I had to get it to match school colors. It’s much prettier than I anticipated.

And here are some of my good old standbys. Cafe au Lait (blush in top photo, and buff in the bottom photo). My stock is now mostly split between the three types of Cafe au Lait, so we’ll see how accurate my sorting was last year. I’ve got a few more plants left to bloom.

Free Flowers at Claus Road Flower Farm Tomorrow!

(for followers of this newsletter)

Hello flower friends!

Sorry for the late notice, but the free flowers will be available tomorrow between 4:00 and 6:00 p.m., and it will hopefully be sunny and in the 60s. Fingers crossed.

This is the last week for flowers. I've been looking for a good, warm, and sunny day to invite you all to the free flower event I mentioned last week.

Unfortunately, it's been raining and cold, and because of that, the dahlias have all sent up little blooms, but most haven't opened yet.

I feel like next week, when temperatures hit the 70s, I'm going to have a whole 'nother huge crop to cut, but for now, I'm calling the season and will have a flower giveaway tomorrow. (It could frost before we get to the 70s.)

Please fill out the following form with an approximate time between 4:00 and 6:00 p.m., and that's all the info I need.

Pull up to the turnaround near the house! I’ll be sitting outside working on my tablet. :)

Use this Google Form, click here!

Once again, I forgot to take pictures of all the flowers I've arranged this past week, and they look beautiful. Because of that, I hope you enjoy this frog that I found. He kept hopping and was hard to find, but I got ‘em!

Haha

There will be some zinnias, maybe a few weird-looking sunflowers, and also maybe a few gladiolas to go along with the dahlias. I also have some chrysanthemums, so I'll cut them too.

Alright, that's it for me. This is the last post of the season, and I'll see you next year.

Thank you for a great year, and I hope to see you tomorrow.

Matt

Some photos from the year: