Dahlias in Red, Pink and Purple

 

Dahlias in red, pink and purple were fun to arrange back in September.  This vase includes large 'Cafe au Lait Rose,' 'Purple Haze,' and 'Arabian Night' as well as Japanese Anemone robustissima, dried 'Purple Candles' astilbe stalks, 'Royal Purple' smoke bush, honeysuckle and blackberry greenery.

This closer view includes a stem of 'Summerwine' yarrow and 'Medicine Bow' chrysanthemums.

'William Shakespeare 2000' David Austin roses had a nice fall flush and blended with the color scheme.

Here is 'Cafe au Lait Rose' in the garden.  I ordered the standard 'Cafe au Lait' and was disappointed to receive this color instead, but the plants were sturdy and they bloomed like crazy, so I made do.

This is another arrangement using most of the same ingredients, plus some Western sword fern fronds.

Here's yet another variation on the theme.  

'William Shakespeare 2000' had a great year in the garden.  So many of my David Austin roses are growing in too much shade now that trees have matured, or they have been transplanted recently to sunnier spots and are still recovering.  It was nice to have plenty of WS blooms while I'm waiting for 'Gertrude Jekyll,' 'Crocus Rose' and 'Charles Rennie Mackintosh' to recover and bloom heavily again.  Newly planted in 2020 were 'Emily Bronte' and 'Desdemona,' which I loved and can't wait to see mature.  In 2020 I also planted two 'Florentina' and two 'Plum Perfect' roses from Kordes, and I have 'Bolero' and 'Celestial Night' on order for next spring.  I'll probably order 'Eustacia Vye' from DA roses if it's available when their new catalog comes out.  Can you ever have enough roses?

I've got my dahlia tubers dug, cleaned and stored in wood shavings from the pet store in a large bin in our garage.  I've had to spritz them with water a couple of times as they started to soften, but I'm hoping they'll do better as the garage cools down with winter weather arriving.  Last month the garage was hovering about 55 degrees, which is a little too warm for dahlia tuber storage.  

Mmm, I sure love 'William Shakespeare 2000.'  This rose has disease problems in some areas but is perfectly healthy in my garden.

'Purple Haze' and 'Arabian Night' looked good out in the garden as well, shown here with 'April Night' salvia (which didn't bloom until May) and 'Millennium' allium.

Here they are again with 'Pagan Purple' delphinium and 'Mighty Chocolate Cherry' astilbe in the background.  'Arabian Night' started blooming before 'Purple Haze,' but once PH started, it outbloomed any of the other dahlias I've ever grown.  It's near-black leaves were a nice contrast in the garden as well.

'Purple Haze' almost looks like a coneflower, doesn't it?

The dahlia season came to an abrupt end when frost hit on October 23 and then we had 6 inches of snow on October 25, shown above.  But I've already got tiny flower buds on my 'Jacob' hellebores, so spring can't be that far away, right?