In a Vase on Monday: A dahlia that keeps on giving

My dahlias really are petering out but Dahlia 'Break Out' is a notable exception.  At the start of the season it was the most abundant of my dahlias by far.  I gave away many of the cut blooms because I couldn't use them for my own purposes fast enough.  Eventually, I exhausted the supply, or so I'd thought.  I cut back both plants severely, leaving them in place but not expecting them to rebound.  They did take an extended hiatus but, after a break of six to eight weeks or so, they were back.  One of them has been especially vigorous, producing so many large, heavy flowers that its branches threatened to break during our recent, relatively light, rain.  As it stood, I had to cut them for this week's vase.

Interestingly, the current crop of 'Break Out' Dahlias have more pink in the petals than I recall seeing in most of the previous flowers.  I also included 2 stems of Dahlia 'Honeymoon'.  By my count, that dahlia produced no more than 6 flowers all season.

Back view: Because the rain surprised me with a new flush of Callistemon 'Cane's Hybrid' flowers, I tucked some of those into the arrangement too

Overhead view

Clockwise from the upper left, the vase contains: Callistemom 'Cane's Hybrid', Leucadendron 'Wilson's Wonder', a single stem of the all yellow form of Dahlia 'Break Out', the pinkish form of D. 'Break Out' in considerable numbers, D. 'Honeymoon', Zinnia 'Queeny Lemon Peach' and Z. 'Benary's Giant Salmon Rose'

My cat Meeko "helped" with this week's arrangement.  I managed to take most of my photographs without her intervention but she did weasel in at one point.

She likes to oversee activities in the kitchen area whenever possible

The completed arrangement in place in the front entryway

I've finally begun the process of pulling out the dahlia tubers I don't intend to hold onto to replant next spring.  I currently expect to toss quite a few.  Choices need to be made as I've already submitted advance orders for a dozen varieties to grow next year!  On the definite "keep" list are: 'Break Out', Good Day', 'Labyrinth' and 'Omega'.  Although they weren't top performers this year, I'll probably also keep 'Enchantress', 'Mikayla Miranda', 'Snowball' and 'Table Dancer' (assuming the tubers still look good once I've dug them up).  'Admiral Rawlings', Creme de Cognac', 'Hartennas', 'Honeymoon', 'Karma Caroline', 'Mystery Day' and 'Nicholas' will go.

Check in with Cathy at Rambling in the Garden to see what she and other contributors to IAVOM have to share this week.

All material © 2012-2026 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

In a Vase on Monday: Higgeldy-piggeldy

Although our temperatures came down a bit late last week, they were still on the toasty end of the spectrum, and they were accompanied by our famous Santa Ana winds, which caused more damage to my garden than the previous rounds of scorching heat had.  The 'Labyrinth' Dahlias I'd been so pleased to see the prior week snapped at its base.  Other plants just withered away, despite my efforts to keep them well hydrated.  But not everything in my cutting garden died.  I was able to cobble together another arrangement this week; however, I wasn't all that pleased with the final result.  Frankly, it looked better at the start when I stuffed the cut flowers into the jar I use when collecting them then it did after I "arranged" them in a proper vase, hence the title of this post.  If you're not familiar with the expression "higgeldy-piggeldy," it's an old term meaning an untidy arrangement.

I probably should've discarded the white dahlias I cut at the outset as they were already looking a little shabby but I couldn't bring to do that as they may be the last I'll get from the plant this season.  Oh well!  I expect they won't hold up long anyway and I can edit the arrangement as the week progresses.  In contrast to dahlias, zinnias have a much longer vase life

For some reason, ants were all over 2 of the 'Snowball' Dahlias, which I did toss out, but I didn't see any on the other 4 of those dahlias I cut.  Some were past their prime, though.

Back view: The 'Oklahoma White' Zinnias are at their peak now.  I may have overused them in this case.

Overhead view

Top row, the vase contains: Dahlia 'Snowball', D. 'Mikayla Miranda' and D. 'Table Dancer'
Middle row: noID pink Zinnia, Z. 'Benary's Giant Wine' and Z. 'Oklahoma White'
Bottom row: Agonis flexuosa 'Nana' and Tanacetum parthenium 'Aureum' 

There still are lots of 'Break Out' and 'Omega' Dahlias that may provide joy in the coming week if the winds stop blowing by Tuesday as the forecast suggests and we get rain midweek.  My fingers are crossed both things happen.  The rain we had earlier amounted to less than a tenth of an inch, while the pending thunderstorms might provide more than half an inch.  Meanwhile, I plan to start pulling out some of the dahlias I don't intend to keep.  Two of those are the 'Admiral Rawlings' Dahlias.  They recently produced a flurry of flowers but their tall, limp stems continually topple over on the plants around them and can't hold up their heads so I don't intend to save those tubers for use next year.

I cut over half a dozen of these dahlias yesterday, leaving their stems short to better support their thin necks.  They're sitting on the kitchen island.

Check in with Cathy at Rambling in the Garden to see what she and other contributors to this meme have IAVOM this week.

The arrangement got pride of place in the front entryway even if it didn't deserve it

All material © 2012-2026 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

October has its winners and losers

Usually temperatures start to come down in October and, even when we still get some toasty days now and again, we feel a crispness in the air that signals the arrival of fall.  However, this year is different.  It's only the shorter days that have marked the seasonal change as it's been unspeakably hot more often than not.  We got a brief break when Tropical Storm Rachel moved through the area last week but it remained relatively warm even then, and the humidity level rose.  And now we understand that we're likely to see ninety degree temperatures again this weekend.

But as I evaluate the damage the high temperatures have done to my garden during the last two heatwaves, I note that some plants fared surprisingly well despite the heat.  I expected the remaining dahlias to quickly wither and die but many did not.  They deserve a final bow to applause as I expect I'll be pulling them out by next month, if only to clear the way to install cool season bulbs and plants in my cutting garden.

This is Dahlia 'Admiral Rawlings' which, after generally delivering just a couple of flowers at a time, went for broke with a flurry of them this month.  The plant has an ungainly habit of producing especially tall stems that flop over but its blooms are a luscious dark red.

After a 2-month hiatus, 'Break Out' returned with a parade of new flowers.  It was my top performer earlier in the season too.

'Good Day' has been a solid performer for most of the season, regardless of weather conditions.  It was said to develop an orangish tone later in the season and has recently begun to do so.

One of my 2 'Labyrinth' dahlias threw in the towel last month after a very generous showing but this one is still producing a few new flowers

'Mikayla Miranda' has been sparse with its blooms but it continued flowering throughout the heatwaves so it gets a plus for that

'Omega' is a star, which keeps pumping out big beautiful flowers while most of the other dahlias have gradually shrunken in size

'Snowball' is a good overall bloomer, if somewhat slower with its production than I'd like

'Table Dancer' is still generous with its flowers, however they've gotten smaller in size over time.  I haven't fertilized any of of the dahlias during the past 2 months, though, which may be a factor there.

While the zinnias I seeded in June never took off in great numbers, they did eventually make an acceptable showing.

Clockwise from the upper left, the Zinnias include 'Oklahoma White', 'Benary's Giant Salmon Rose', a noID pink variety, and 'Benary's Giant Wine'

Unthwarted by the heat, some new blooms arrived on their usual schedule elsewhere in the garden too.

Barleria obtusa, aka bush violets, are putting on their usual show with their small blue flowers

Clematis terniflora, aka sweet autumn clematis, has been relatively shy with its flowers thus far

When my asters went amok several years ago, I tried to rid my garden of them altogether; however, they've returned since, albeit in small but manageable numbers.  I believe this one is Symphyotrichum x frikartii 'Monch'.  It'll be interesting to see if El Niño causes it to go crazy again next year.

Other plants simply ignored the heat.

Grevilleas 'Peaches & Cream' and 'Superb', both which flower year-round

These 2 daylilies bloom in both late spring and late summer/early fall here.  They are Hemerocallis 'For Pete's Sake' and 'Spanish Harlem'.

Some of the Leucadendrons that imitate flowers are still going strong.  They include Leucadendron 'Blush', 'Summer Red' and 'Safari Sunset'.

 Looking to fill vacancies, I planted several new plants in late September.  Unfortunately, even with close attention to my watering, many succumbed to the recent heatwaves.  Two Salvia 'Mystic Spires' are among the few survivors. 

And then there was this:

I usually welcome blooms of all kinds.  The exception are flowers on agaves, as the blooms inevitably mean their eventual demise.  I'm not looking forward to the loss of the variegated Agave 'Joe Hoak' on the left, a pass-along gift from a blogger friend many years ago, even if that event may still be months away.

I'll close this Bloom Day collection with a collage featuring miscellaneous honorable mentions.

Clockwise from the upper left are: Duranta 'Sapphire Skies', noID Gazania, Helianthus 'Astra Rose', Lantana camara 'Irene', Leonotis leonurus and Tanacetum parthenium 'Aureum'

That's a wrap for my Bloom Day post.  Carol of May Dreams is still hosting her mid-month line-up through the end of this year.  You can find her post here.

All material © 2012-2026 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

In a Vase on Monday: A Bright Spot Under Cloudy Skies

After an extended period of miserably high temperatures, the heat finally broke over the weekend as Tropical Storm Rachel moved into Southern California.  Some areas in Orange County were affected by an onslaught of unusually high tides.  Newport Beach areas were closed for a short time.  Long Beach experienced waves that resulted in some evacuations.  But the effects on Los Angeles County have been relatively trivial so far.  We were lightly spattered by rain on and off but we had just 0.02/inch of measurable precipitation through Sunday.  More rain is expected overnight and in the morning hours today but I'm not holding my breath.  Meanwhile, San Diego, Riverside and Imperial Counties were still under warnings for potential flooding the last I heard.

I cut a few flowers late Saturday afternoon, when I thought heavier rain might still be coming, and I arranged them on Sunday. My garden is still delivering both dahlias and zinnias so I took advantage of both.  I was tempted to cut more but, as we didn't get anything like a deluge of rain, I decided to limit myself to just one vase in the hope that I might still have flowers left to cut next week.

Dahlia 'Break Out' surprised me with new stems after a long hiatus.  It was among the first of my dahlias to flower this year and to say it was prolific is an understatement.  I cut dozens of stems for myself, friends and neighbors before I exhausted the plants about 2 months ago.  I didn't expect any more but both plants recently produced new stems.

Back view: I filled out the arrangement using stems of Grevillea 'Superb' and Zinnia 'Salmon Rose'

Overhead view

Clockwise from the upper left, the vase contains: Agonis flexuosa 'Nana', Dahlia 'Break Out', Grevillea 'Superb' and Zinnia 'Benary's Giant Salmon Rose'

Assuming we don't get more rain that we're currently expecting here today, I hope to be back in the garden working to clean up some of the plants badly damaged by that last stretch of heat - or what I hope was the last stretch.  It's high time I get to some serious work in preparation for the fall season.

For more IAVOM posts, check in with Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.

Final arrangement in place in the front entry

I couldn't resist bringing the hang-gliding mouse back out of the closet for another run as a prop for this arrangement 

All material © 2012-2026 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

In a Vase on Monday: Sizzling

The heat only got worse here as we moved into the past weekend, reaching 100F and higher (38C).  The scorching temperatures are predicted to remain in effect until Wednesday when they could drop ten degrees into the upper 80s (31C) before very slowly creeping down during the following week.  The only positive has been that the intense heat hasn't been accompanied by high humidity on this occasion.

Remarkably, the heat didn't take out everything I had left in my cutting garden, although it did significantly diminish my options this week.  However, Dahlia 'Enchantress' at last decided it was time to produce more than two flowers at the same time.

I got 8 flowers from 'Enchantress' this week (only 2 of which were lightly singed)

Back view: I filled out the vase with zinnias

Overhead view

Clockwise from the upper left, the vase contains: Agonis flexuosa 'Nana', Salvia discolor, Dahlia 'Table Dancer', D. 'Enchantress', noID pink Zinnia, Z. 'Benary's Giant Purple', and Z. 'Oklahoma White'.  Unfortunately, the Salvia, which has tiny almost black flowers, was virtually hidden by the other plant materials.

I've managed to squeeze in some watering, as well as outdoor exercise walks, very early in the morning during the current heatwave, although I can't say either activity has been pleasant even when competed by 7:30am.  The nighttime temperatures haven't dipped much either, stuck in the low 80sF (28C) throughout the overnight hours.  The days may be shorter but it certainly doesn't feel like fall here yet! 

For IAVOM posts from more hospitable areas, check in with Cathy at Rambling in the Garden to see what she and other contributors to this weekly meme have found to fill their vases.

All material © 2012-2026 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party