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.

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