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

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

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

In a Vase on Monday: The heat is on (again)

The heat returned late last week, although yesterday's temperature wasn't as bad as Saturday's when it peaked at 90F (32C).  It looks as though we can expect to see highs in the mid-80s for the next ten days.  The humidity level also remains high but then there's another hurricane threatening the coast of Mexico.  It shouldn't directly affect Southern California  but there seems to be some concern that it could rise our surf levels, contributing to beach erosion.  Meanwhile, we await El Niño and the impact it's likely to have here.  It's hard to ignore the possibilities when we see headline articles in the papers nearly daily of late about its pending arrival.

I still have some dahlias in my cutting garden but the zinnias are making a bigger splash this week, even if only a handful of the seed varieties I sowed back in June have made an appearance.

I started off using only white flowers before throwing in a few oranges and yellows to perk things up 

Back view: As the Lantanas I pruned back hard a month ago have rebounded, I threw in several stems of Lantana 'Irene' because it picked up the same color theme so well

Overhead view

Clockwise from the upper left, the vase contains: Lantana camara 'Irene', Leptospermum 'Copper Glow', Tanacetum parthenium 'Aureum', Dahlia 'Snowball', Zinnia 'Benary's Giant Salmon Rose', Z. 'Queeny Lemon Peach', and Z. 'Oklahoma White'

I got a little gardening done last week before the heat and humidity had me backing off again.  I did a bit of plant shopping too as I'm finding it hard to ignore all the empty spots that opened up over the summer months in part because I've simply had less time and energy to give my garden this year.  Fall is typically the peak time to plant here and I can only be hopeful that El Niño doesn't make that more difficult this year.  If you're unfamiliar with El Niño, a weather phenomenon that often has particular impact on my area of the US, you can find a recent article here.

To view other IAVOM posts, check in with Cathy at Rambling in the Garden to see what she and other contributors have put together to share with us this week.

A side note to my fellow bloggers:  Blogspot has been experiencing a problem in updating my blogroll and those of many others using the same platform.  There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to what gets updated and when, and it affects even the recording of posts originating on other platforms like Wordpress.  I currently have to manually check each URL to determine whether or not other bloggers have posted something new.  Bear with me as I wait out Google's efforts to fix the problem.

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

In a Vase on Monday: A Juggling Act

We've been lucky with conditions along the Southern California coast for the past week with temperatures in the upper 70sF (26C).  The ten-day forecast shows more of the same ahead.  I even put in little time working in my garden this past week, cutting back some of the plants that burned or baked during the last extended heatwave.  I still have some dahlias, although far fewer than I had earlier in the season, and many of those are flowering on thinner, more feeble stems prone to breaking.  I can't guarantee how much longer they'll last but I'm hopeful that they may fill my vases at least through the end of September, which or course isn't far away.

This week's vase provided a pinky-purple mix.  As the vase I'd selected proved to be a bit too tight to accept everything I'd cut, after juggling what I could into place, I ended up discarding some of what I'd selected but the overall arrangement was better for the edits.

As the stems varied significantly in length, I struggled to fit them together in a cohesive fashion so the arrangement I ended up with wasn't what I'd initially envisioned

Back view

Overhead view

Clockwise from the upper left: Dahlia 'Admiral Rawlings', D. 'Enchantress', D. 'Mikayla Miranda', Zinnia 'Benary's Giant Purple', Z. 'Benary's Giant Wine', Agonis flexuosa 'Nana', and Dahlia 'Table Dancer' 

I was happy with the mix even though I ended up tossing quite a few flowers, most notably the stems of Polygala grandiflora (aka sweet pea bush).  I couldn't get its short stiff branches shoved into place.  However, they weren't a big loss as the shrub had planted itself where it didn't belong in the first place, and then got torched by the heat.  I have a lot of the same plant elsewhere in any case.

The final arrangement in place at the front entry

You can find more IAVOM arrangements by checking in with Cathy at Rambling in the Garden to discover what she and other gardeners participating in this weekly meme have found to share.

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

In a Vase on Monday: I lost my patience

I had two floral arrangements in mind when I got up Sunday morning but the Hippeastrum I'd planned to use in one arrangement wasn't looking its best and the red dahlias I wanted to use in the other arrangement were no longer in prime condition.  So I did my best to cobble something together.  I added stems of Protea 'Pink Ice' to jazz up the elements but I struggled to get them to balance one another.  I finally threw up my hands and decided that the mix would have to do as it was.

I used the most respectable red 'Good Day' Dahlias I could find and combined them 3 'Omega' Dahlias, then added 3 Proteas

Back view: I used stems of Leucadendron 'Summer Red' and Agonis flexuosa as fillers.  This Leucadendron is much paler in color than others of the same variety growing in sunnier areas of my garden. 

Overhead view

Clockwise from the upper left, the vase contains: Agonis flexuosa 'Nana', Leucadendron 'Summer Red', Dahlia 'Good Day, D. 'Omega', and Protea 'Pink Ice'.  (My Protea 'Claire', which flowered earlier, got toasted during recent heatwave.)

Arrangement in place in the front entryway

After nearly two weeks of hot and humid weather, it's finally cooled down a bit.  Last week, our afternoon temperature hit 102.5F (39C) at one point and got stuck there for a good part of the day.  Hurricane Marie left us with miserably humid conditions for a time too but at least we avoided the flooding that plagued other areas and resulted in serious damage and evacuations elsewhere along the coast.  We got a total of 0.56/inch of rain here.  Yesterday's temperature hovered around 80F (26C) and we're hoping for more of the same for the rest of this week.  It's time for me to get back to work in the garden!

Check in with Cathy at Rambling in the Garden to discover what she and other contributors to IAVOM have put together this week.

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

In a Vase on Monday: Rain!

I'm celebrating the fact that we had rain on Sunday, which is something of a minor miracle for us at this time of time of the year.  It's usually dry here from early April until sometime in October.  Yes, we do occasionally have a tropical storm move through but it's not common.  Although forecasters said we could get rain over the Labor Day holiday weekend, the predictions were on the order of a twenty-five percent shot for our area.  But a thunderstorm did indeed come through Sunday morning, delivering over half an inch or rain.  Luckily, we didn't experience any of the flooding some nearby areas did.

As the possibility of rain increased on Saturday, I decided to pick flowers late that afternoon just in case.  That worked out well as I suspect the downpour would've wreaked havoc on many of the dahlias I still had in bloom.  I was able to put together two arrangements again this week, the first of which included Dahlia 'Snowball', which I hadn't had many opportunities to use previously this season.

I did have to gather a scattering of other dahlias to flesh out the arrangement, though

Back view: I used several of the white zinnias as filler material too

Overhead view

Clockwise from the upper left, the vase contains: Agonis flexuosa 'Nana', Tanacetum parthenium 'Aureum', Dahlia 'Enchantress', D. 'Mikayla Miranda', D. 'Snowball', and D. 'Table Dancer'.  I note that 'Enchantress' and 'Mikayla Miranda' are still not pulling their expected weight this year.

The second arrangement is also heavy on dahlias but I squeezed in some sunflowers too.  Last week, I identified the sunflowers I used as Helianthus 'Astra Rose'; however, I think that was incorrect and that the sunflowers I used this week actually fit the description of that plant.  I haven't found the seed packet for the other sunflower.

The sunflower adds a nice note to the arrangement but the real stars are the 'Omega' dahlias

 

I tucked a single stem of Dahlia 'Break Out' into the back of the arrangement.  'Break Out' was the most vigorous of all my dahlias at the start of the season but it has effectively burned itself out more recently.

Overhead view

Clockwise from the upper left, this vase contains: Agonis flexuosa 'Nana', Dahlia 'Break Out', D. 'Omega', Helianthus 'Astra Rose', Zinnia 'Benary's Giant Salmon Rose', and Z. 'Queeny Lemon Peach'

The dahlias are still fading fast but I hope I'll be able to pull together a couple more bouquets before I call an end to my summer season.  Be sure to check in with Cathy at Rambling in the Garden to see what she and other IAVOM contributors have to share this week.

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