In a Vase on Monday: Last Call?

I've been anticipating the end of the dahlia season for some time now but my garden has caught me by surprise several times.  In the past week, I've removed about two-thirds of them, discarding many while preparing a few tubers for storage.  I expect to wrap up five more for storage this week.  I'm still wondering if two others may hang on a bit longer if I let them, although I only plan on retaining one of those for use next year.  I hesitate to just pull the remainder up now because there'll be a shortage of material to use in my vases for a time once the dahlias are gone, at least until I get my cool season garden up and running.

I managed two arrangements this week, hurrying to cut what I could late Saturday afternoon in advance of a storm system.  As it turned out, that storm, like the last two, delivered less rain than expected so it hadn't really been necessary to hurry.  The first arrangement was meant to show off my bush violets (Barleria obtusa).  These have been flowering for weeks now; however, although they provide a profusion of small blue flowers, I'd forgotten that they drop those almost as quickly as they produce new ones so they don't make the best cut flowers.  Reinforcements were required.

Dahlia 'Table Dancer' and a noID Zinnia filled in the gaps

The rear view is somewhat messy

The overhead view is better

Clockwise from the upper left, the vase includes: Agonis flexuosa 'Nana', Barleria obtusa, Dahlia 'Mikayla Miranda', D. 'Table Dancer', Hebe 'Grace Kelly' (most of the foliage of which is reverting from variegated to a solid green), and the noID pink Zinnia elegans 

I hadn't planned to put together yet another arrangement featuring 'Break Out' dahlias but they keep on blooming and, this week, I had a couple of other dahlias that complemented them in need of cutting too so I threw them all together for my second arrangement.

The last Dahlia 'Good Day' is accompanying 'Break Out' at the front of the vase

I tucked the last of the 'Omega' dahlias into the back of the arrangement

Overhead view, showing off stems of yellow Senna bicapsularis, which surprised me with its sudden burst of blooms

From the upper left, this arrangement contains: Dahlia 'Break Out', D. 'Omega', D. 'Good Day', Leucadendron 'Wilson's Wonder' (a left over from last week's vase), Tanacetum parthenium 'Aureum' and Zinnia 'Benary's Giant Salmon Rose' (another left over)

My annual tree service is scheduled today.  I have a lot on the docket this year, including several tree and shrub removals so it's going to be busy here.  Once the work is done, I hope I can quickly get started with replanting the bare areas, although that'll require some shopping too.  I also hope that the weather will cooperate between storms!

In the meantime, I'll be checking what the rest of the IAVOM crowd has going on this week.  Check in with Cathy at Rambling in the Garden to see what she and other contributors to this weekly meme have going on.

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