We are all waiting...

It is only December but we are all waiting for the snow to melt and the temperature to rise. We have had an extaordinarily warm fall and start to winter but January is yet to come!

Winter Garden Pleasure

The winter birds are what pulls us out into the garden when everything is white. Chickadee's are always happy to land on Miles when he takes out the seed.

Hibernating Green Thumb

My green thumb hibernates. I have no success with indoor plants. I have tried many, only to be forced to admit that my gardening enthusiasm does not extend to indoor plants. I know this is why I never have any success. I can rattle off requirements for sun, water, location and staking for a good number of garden perennials as well as a smaller number of annuals without much effort. Yet inside, I have had this Amaryllis for over a year now and although it is getting leaves, I do not have a lot of hope for blooms. I think I was supposed to feed it in March or May. For some reason, an M month is ringing bells. I fed it a couple of weeks ago, in an N month and only after it sent leaves up. If it blooms, it won't be on my account. It would he a happy accident though so I am keeping my fingers crossed. I plan to move no houseplants. If the Amaryllis bloom, they will become Christmas gifts for others. I am going to keep my growing activities confined to the garden where my real interest is. As it turns out, I like hibernating through the winter break as much as the plants do.

Hope for Seven

This is the orange lily garden. My hope is that there is at least one of each of seven different lily varieties that were in that garden. I have no idea if it really does. Bets anyone?

Another day of digging in snow but I managed to get the red lily garden and pink lily garden dug. I think I only missed 'Acapulco' and 'Opus One' which can be a nice surprise for the new gardener. There are only four lily left to get and it is mostly because I forgot them until I had my boots off and the -5 temperature was not encouraging me to put them back on! I will get them tomorrow with tulips. I am worried I am not going to find a lot of the tulips. Some are marked but most are not and finding the lily under the snow was not easy eventhough they had dead stalks sticking up. Not always where the bulb was unfortunately. I am still going to try though.  Then Iris. There is an end in sight although everytime I go out, I think of something else I want to take. Today's addition to the list was Cerastium. I am running out of time though, if we don't get warmer daytime temperatures, the ground will be too frozen to dig in only a few more days.

Fall Moving

Here I am again, digging while paying no attention to the proper timing of anything. The only thing on my mind is that I am moving in either the spring or the summer and I want to keep my bulbs and tubers. So, I am digging in the snow and packing boxes to mail to Linda. I am sending glads for her 'fridge in case I am not there yet when it is time to plant them.

I dug up my orange lily garden today and although it is all mixed together, I hope this pile of bulbs contains 'Grand Cru', 'Cancun', Danielle's Hula, Early Orange and Tiny White as well as the Tangerine and Easter Yellow shorter varieties.

I managed to separate out the 'New Wave', 'Landini', 'Orange Electric' and 'Madrid'. I started packing the first box although I think there will be three this size before I am done!

Linda and Kelly will dig trenches or something to throw them in until I get there and I won't have to try and dig frozen ground in early spring here. Tomorrow the agenda is to dig all the pink and red lily. I hope the nicer afternoon temperatures hold for a few more days because I would like to get tulips and iris too :)

November Blooms

Mid-November and we still have lots of blooms (or re-blooms) in the garden:  this masterwort, honeysuckle, daisies, snap dragons, roses, dahlias, gaura, bugleweed, heather, daylilies, lobelia, lamium...

Soon to be Mulch

We make a lot of use out of all the leaves.  We shred lots and use as mulch in the garden.  Piles of them get composted every year and eventually find their way into the garden.  After 3 days of constant rain, we're going to have to wait for them to dry out.  The other nice thing is that, with so many trees around, the garden gets an extra layer of mulch for the winter without any extra effort.



Warm Weather Fall

Since the snowfall and frost, we have had a spell of warmer weather move in. All of the snow is gone and I have been able to get into the garden again. Today I was using the extra gardening time to empty, clean and sort containers. All the black plastic ones will be used to move plants in the spring. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this weather continues for another week but in this zone, that is always a question in November.

Long Gardening Season

This fall is a strange one in our garden.  We have yet to have our first frost so, on November 1st, we still have dahlias and glads blooming.  Since the spring gardening season started about 3 weeks earlier than usual this year, this is definitely the longest gardening season we've experienced.  The sumac above is a bright flash at the back of the garden.  Kelly's Huron Sunrise grass is a similar colour.  This year I didn't cut back any of my Oriental lily stalks and I love all the extra gold in the garden.

They grow them big here...

A neighbour took advantage of their big shrubs to put on a Halloween show.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Hope you have a good one :)

Dahlia 'Yellow Star' Makes an Appearance

These poor flowers are a little worse for wear but it is the end of October.  A beautiful lemon yellow semi-cactus dahlia, the blooms are 3.5 inches across.  I won't need to plant yellow daisies next year because I'll get lots of yellow from these.
This may be the end of our dahlia story for the 2010 gardening season.  I have one more bud that I'm hopeful about but I imagine hope will be overcome by frost in the next couple of days.  I certainly can't complain - this has undoubtedly been the longest gardening season since we started 6 years ago.

Dare I Hope?

That next year the sidebar of this blog will say "Danielle's Zone 5 Garden"? Yes, it's true. We are once again considering moving East. This time, I think it may actually happen. Fingers crossed, everyone. Stay tuned for updates :)

Self-seeding Perennials

Self-seeding perennials can be a little scary in a small urban garden.  I find small sprouts of new plants in the oddest places.  This is a spotted lungwort commonly called 'Bethlehem sage' or 'Mary and Joseph'.  It was one inheritance from my mother's garden when she moved into an apartment.  Twice I've thought it was gone for good, only to find a sprout coming up somewhere different.  Since I have lots of shady spots and this lungwort is more like a ground cover, I can handle a few extra plants every year.  Other plants that have survived my methodical spring weeding are brunnera, Jacob's ladder, donkeytail spurge and campanula.  The two that give me the most trouble are my tall blue lobelia and my alpine columbine.  While I leave lots, I still have to yank or move lots too.  They're both worth that extra effort though.

Season Ends

This is what Summer and I stepped out the front door to find this morning. Worse still, this was the best weather of the day. Winter arrived in my garden today in the form of a storm bordering on a blizzard and the gardening season officially ended. The only thing we could do here now is plant lilies and that is only if the holes are already dug. I wouldn't want to dig in this. Since I have no lily holes dug, all that is left to do for me is to settle inside and look back on my 2010 season. I will spend more of the year looking back or looking ahead than I will actually garden. Yes, the first snow day tends to make me a little melancholy. Good news is, I always recover quickly.

Fitting Plants In

I would always advocate planting in a space large enough for the plant you are putting in, when mature. However, in every garden I have ever had, there are mature plants in too small spaces that I did not plant. Meet my Boardwalk Garden Dogwood. It lives at the drive edge where that garden ends. This puts it right in the middle of my view to the Sun Garden from my dining room window and my view to the drive from my kitchen window. Add to that the tiny space it is growing in and you begin to see my problem. My solution has been to hack it down every Fall. In this photograph, I have just completed that task. When I started, it was twice this height. I also take out all of the old wood stalks because I find that as the stalks age, they turn brown rather than the dark red of the young wood. I much prefer the red and removing the old wood keeps it airy, allowing light through. Although I often think I should move this Dogwood to the Sun Garden and plant a smaller, more decorative shrub in this spot, I know that is unlikely to happen soon. As long as it is happy being hacked down every Fall, I will probably happily avoid the huge job digging it would be. Especially when I have so much empty space to fill yet. It helps that it is a pretty Dogwood since everyone who arrives here has to walk by it if they are coming up to the house. If it were a Goatsbeard or Cotoneaster, I think I would have moved it long ago.

Introducing Little Stonehenge

Kelly has a propensity for moving big rocks around.  Since mid-summer he has been excavating the woods behind our garage.  Somewhere along the way we started calling it 'Little Stonehenge'.  What started out as a big pile of rocks has become, well, a more organized pile of rocks.  This upright rock above stands at the foot of the flipflop path.  He has it propped up to look like a console from the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, or perhaps a DHD from StarGate.  I have to admit that I think many of his ideas are a little nuts but they always turn out, umm, interesting at the least.  This whole area is still under construction but a few plants are in and next year we should see a few blooms among the rocks.

Country Garden Plants

When I first started gardening in the City, I planted everything that anyone gave me, never asking why they were giving it away. I came to discover it was usually because they had too much... way too much! Some were great self-seeders, like the daisy above. Some spread rapidly through creeping roots like Summer Phlox. Still others, like Lamium, were good at both methods, spreading both their root and their seeds everywhere! Although I came to not appreciate those plants in the City, I have found them to be perfect plants for my country garden where there are lots of open, large spaces to fill. Included on this list of plants would be Bouncing Bet, Wild Violet, Yarrow, Forget-Me-Not, Johnny-Jump-Up Viola, Goutweed and Chinese Lantern, which I added this year. If you are limited with space, be wary of planting any of these in spots where they cannot be managed. All of them will get easily out of control, many of them are able to jump sidewalks, patios or lawns in less than a single season. A few will not even bother to jump your lawn but will instead come right up in the middle of it.

Tulip Deadline Zone 3

It is time to finish planting and moving tulips in zone 3. According to Environment Canada, we have three more days of good weather and then a few of bad. Once the bad hits in Saskatchewan, all bets are off and there are no guarantees. Last Fall, I added so many new tulips that this Fall, I am finding myself content with moving what I have here already and saving some of the old that are struggling in very tight spaces. The fact that Linda and I were discussing tulips the other day, which made me pull out my trusty notebook, to realize that so many of my new ones did not perform well this year, has made me a little tulip weary. I was planning on just moving my 'Angelique', 'Bastogne' and crowded 'White Dream'. I think now that I will move all of the tulips that did not perform well this year and see if I can get them to give me a better display next year. I am hopeful that even with the increase in number, I can finish in one day so that is now my agenda for tomorrow. I am starting my race against time... and snow!

Fall Visitors

Although we have visitors to the garden all year, their numbers seem to increase dramatically in the Fall. I think the deer start to come in closer because it is hunting season and they seem to sense they are safer here. The Woodpeckers, on the other hand, leave for Summer and return in Fall. I don't know where they go or why they want to be here in Winter. This little guy is baby Hammy and he has found a couple of new friends in recent days. I hope one of them is building a warmer house than baby Hammy is because baby may be looking for a roommate come snow!

Fall Buds

It always amazes me that some plants grow their buds in the fall.  It seems a little backward.  Those little buds have to survive the long cold winter!  Above is my Japanese pieris 'Purity'.  Azaleas, my miniature rhodo and a few heathers are also full of buds.  And then there's the oddities - like my 'America' Asiatic lilies that are all developing buds in October.

Linda's Perennial Pick of the Season

This was a hard choice!  However, I am a BIG fan of phlox and this phlox paniculata 'Nicky' is my new favourite.  It had a rocky start - I planted it bare root in the spring of 2008 and it has taken this long to grow and bloom.  It was well worth the wait.  I've noticed that many of the tall phlox change colour depending on the time of day (or maybe the temperature?).  Nicky looked quite pink when it was first opening and had me confused.

I also love Danielle's perennial pick and was tempted to post my 'Summer Sun' heliopsis - it was a close second.  (I managed to sneak it in here anyway ;)

Food!

I have always been a flower gardener and still consider myself as such. This year I added food to my garden and was surprised to find that it was as easy as growing flowers. This was the first of my potatoe crop to be made into a meal. It was yummy! I had success with everything I planted so I am going to expand that next year with the addition of a fenced kitchen garden. Although the dogs did not bother potatoes, onion and chard, I have a feeling they may feel differently about carrots, spinach and lettuce. Add to that our visitors from this morning and I think the kitchen garden will need a fence.

The Love Bus

This is our Love Bus, eventhough it is a van, and it is probably my favourite piece of garden art. It is certainly the single piece we invested the most in. It was one of those things that we just fell in love with when we first saw it and there was no way I wasn't taking it home. Actually, though, it was delivered because it is concrete, very heavy and did not fit in our car. The two boys that delivered it were not happy to find that I wanted them to put it in the farthest corner of the yard from the gate. That was when we lived in the city. The movers brought it here for us and it was much easier to place up by the back deck in Benedict's Upper Level Garden. I love the little peace sign rims and the yin yang bubble window. The other side says Flower Power in bright coloured paint on raised letters. Until this year, I have always grown impatiens in it but this year I grew my new Begonia 'Golden Wave' inside. If they survive the winter, I will repeat that next year because it was quite stunning. The Love Bus also has a roof that sits on top of it in the Winter. I usually fill it with leaves to replenish the soil and cover it until Spring. I used to make a table out of the roof for the Summer, using bricks as the legs, but because it has raised flowers and a bigger peace sign on it, it was not the easiest table to set a cup of coffee on. So in recent years, I just lean it somewhere in the garden. Usually on the opposite side of The Gecko at the same stump. In the front of the bus, there is a personalized license plate with the artist's name, C. Johnston, carved into the concrete. Although we ate peanut butter sandwiches for a month to buy it, I have never regretted the purchase. We have had it since 1996, it has always lived outdoors and shows no signs of fading. Well worth the brief sacrifice!

Dahlia 'Karma Bon Bini' - Hard to Miss

I'm getting close to the end of my dahlia season and so glad I got to see this one.  The yellow interior is close to lime and the red is wonderfully bright.  Karma Bon Bini is a straight cactus with 3" blooms and stands about 2.5' tall.  These cactus dahlias are really growing on me!

The Gecko

This is our Gecko. He lives in Benedict's Upper Level Garden and he likes to keep his eyes on Benedict at all times. I don't think he likes the horns. Eventhough he never quite makes it to the top of the stump, he seems very happy hanging off its' side. He is kept company by the Hummingbirds that visit the Honeysuckle and the occasional cat that sits atop the stump. That happens more in the Summer than in the Winter. For a thin metal figure, he has held up surprisingly well in the outdoors year round.

Bright & Fun - Dahlia 'Giggles'

What an appropriate name!  You can't look at it without at least smiling.  'Giggles' is another beautiful collarette, planted next to 'Alpen Cherub' and they are a great pair.  These collarettes are tall and graceful with long stalks and rather insignificant foliage.  This bloom is smaller and shorter than it would normally be - standing about 3' tall and 3" across.  It wasn't planted till mid-July and we are now close to frost.  There was a frost warning last night but our dahlia blooms survived.  Other people in the Halifax area had frosty windows and lost their begonias and dahlias - it seems we're in a good spot!

Zone 3: City vs. Country Gardens

I was in Judy's City garden today, which is only 30 minutes from my country garden, when I noticed that she has so much more blooming than I do right now. Her garden got the same frost mine did a week or so ago yet all of my Geranium frosted off and all of hers are alive and doing well. Her sideyard has always been very protected between her house and the neighbours so I was not surprised to see not one, but two, Clematis blooming there with more Geranium. Her Gladiolus are all starting to open and mine frosted off along with all of my Dahlia. She did lose her Dahlia to the frost. I think the biggest difference is the concrete. The City is so full of buildings and sidewalks and road that they hold all the heat so her garden is often a few degrees warmer than mine even if the City temperature at the airport, where they take the temperature reading, is the same as mine. All of the things blooming in her garden have not made me want to move back to the City but they have made me wonder if I couldn't create some protected areas here that would save some things from those early but light frosts that we can get in Saskatchewan. At the very least, I think I will spend some time thinking about that this winter.

Stunning Dahlia - 'Glenbank Twinkle'

I know I've said it lots this year but this is definitely one of my favourite dahlias!  It starts out dark fushia and lightens as it opens.  The shape is wonderful and it's so photogenic.  It's classification is M-C-DB, which means miniature, straight cactus, and dark blend.  This bloom is 4" across and stands 2.5' tall.  I can't wait to see it open completely.

Tiny Dahlia - 'Little Scottie'

This little fellow is small - barely 2" across - but so wonderful.  It has layers and layers of petals and forms a perfect ball.  The pale lemon yellow is one of my favourite colours.  Next year I will plant it with hot pink in my ring garden.  Little Scottie is a pompon dahlia and stands only 1.5' tall and is one of all the dahlia that Danielle brought me in July.

Delicate Dahlia - 'Preference'

This beautiful dahlia is definitely 'girlie'.  She opens a darker shade of salmon and then lightens into this two-tone pinky-peach with a pale yellow centre.  This heirloom dahlia is classified M-SC-PK.  The 'M' must be a mistake because this is not a miniature - it's 5" across.  SC stands for semi-cactus and PK is for pink.  When it first opens the petals are flatter but then curl back as it ages.  It's sprawled across the garden since Hurricane Earl struck but would be about 3' tall if upright.

My Favourite Perennial Pick of this Season

Although early in this season, I would have told you that Begonia 'Bonfire' is my favourite plant discovery for this year, this more recent blooming beauty has really captivated me. This is Heliopsis 'Loraine Sunshine' and she is currently blooming happily in Judy's sideyard. She is stunning. White leaves with dark green veins and bright, cheery, lemon yellow daisy-like blooms. I am a big fan of daisy-like flowers. She is a tagless plant that was easily identified on the internet with complete confidence. There is nothing quite like her or even close enough to mistake. The best part of this discovery is that she has a little baby offshoot of 3 stalks and one bloom that Judy has offered me. I have decided to leave the baby where it is for the winter and will divide and transplant in the Spring. I hope she spreads really quick because I can just see a huge patch of her in my Front House Garden where I will see her blooms several times a day every season.

Heliopsis helianthoides 'Loraine Sunshine', perennial zone 2, 30" height by 30" spread, full sun

Gladiolus - Lift in Fall

This is the first time I have lifted glads. This is what came out of the ground. According to what I am reading, I am supposed to break off the old corm at the bottom and store the new corm that sits on top of it. Somehow breaking off the root part seems so wrong. I suppose I buy glads without root so it does makes sense. Still feels wrong though. I think because I spend so much time trying to save and preserve plant root in hopes a plant will come back from it, I am reluctant to break root off and just toss it away. I guess I'll see how I feel once they are dry. Maybe it will fall off on its' own by then and spare me the guilt.

Benedict

Garden art is very important in my garden. I consider everything that isn't a plant, from containers to bird baths, as garden art. Even when the bird bath has a stump or rock for a base. This is Benedict sharing a view with our cat, Jake. Benedict is our sentinel and sits at the top of the stepping stone steps, facing the drive where he can watch the road and be the first to see visitors approaching. He is so special, he has his own garden. Benedict's Garden extends from where he sits back to the fence on both the upper and lower levels. In front of his lower level is the Nursery and behind the fence on his upper level is the Bird Sanctuary. This area used to be known as the sideyard but Benedict's Garden has stuck since he moved in. In his garden, Benedict has tulips, delphinium, fern, anemone, bergenia and always begonia. You wouldn't know it to look at him but Benedict loves flowers. When we first got Benedict, Wile E. used to bark at him constantly, especially at night. I think Wile E. wondered why Benedict never want to play... or answer. Eventually he figured it out. I do the same thing. I find myself talking to him out there as much as I talk to the dogs. He has a personality for me. Although I doubt anyone else would notice it.

Dark Dahlia 'Cornel'

Cornel is a beautiful dark red dahlia with many layers.  This bloom stands at 3.5 feet and is about 3" across.  Slow to open, it is definitely worth the wait.  It's classification is BA-DR, meaning ball and dark red.  This was one of the dahlia that Danielle brought me in July.

Dahlia 'Brookside Snowball'

This is a big white beauty!  She has layers and layers of pointy petals and the three I have blooming are stunning.  While she only grew to 3 feet for me this year, her stalks are extra thick and sturdy.  This bloom is just over 4 inches across.  Brookside Snowball is a ball type dahlia.  This is one of the dahlia that Danielle brought me in July and it's going to get a more prominent spot in the garden next year.

Time to Winter Mulch

In my zone 3 garden, it is time to think about winter mulch. I have several zone 4 Lily and now a few zone 4 Coral Bells that came from Linda's Garden. The theory behind winter mulch is that you put it on in Fall and take it off in Spring. I have not been historically good at the taking it off in Spring part of that equation. Mostly because I have a huge list of other chores in Spring that bump removing mulch so far down the list, it never happens. Although my garden has never suffered any visible effects of this particular neglect, I often wonder when the Lily stalks will start to have trouble getting through all that year after year mulch and Coral Bells stalks are not as strong as Lily. So this year, I am trying a new strategy with the Coral Bells. I am going to drop full bags of mulch on top of them as late as possible. They will be easy to pick up first thing in Spring and I can use the mulch in the garden where I need it next season. Since the Coral Bells also reside in a raised bed, this method should ensure the mulch does not overflow the bed. I have no clue if it is going to work because I came up with the idea after reading an article about planting annuals in bagged soil that stays in the bag. I can think of no reason that it shouldn't work though and if it does, I have made that Spring chore so easy and fast it will never be bumped to the bottom of the list again!

Beneficial Bugs

The addition of Dahlia seems to have brought with it an abundance of bees in my garden this year and I love bees. Bees are the reason I have so many different cross pollinated Delphinium in the Nursery that brought all of the hummingbirds this year. I also love hummingbirds and for years we have fed them in the Bird Sanctuary but this year we didn't have to. The Delphinium patch was bringing them in droves all season without any help from the feeders. We had bald-faced hornets show up and nest as well. Once I looked them up and found out they ate aphids and were not aggressive, we let them stay and my roses were aphid free this year. I don't think they eat thrips though but that is for another post... on not so beneficial bugs. I think if I had to pick the three most beneficial bugs in my garden this year, it would be the bees, the hornets and the earthworms. With all of the compost I added last year, this year, there were more of all three.

Fall Seed Sowing

Hardy perennials and self-seeding annuals in your zone can be sown in the Fall. The advantage to Fall sowing is that your plants will get a head start in the Spring, bringing you an earlier display the following season.

With hardy perennials, they should just be dropped where you want them. The key is to wait until it is cool enough that they will not start germinating in the Fall or to sow them early enough that they can germinate and set root in this season. You do not want them starting germination but not able to set root before your winter. Seeds require specific light, water and warmth conditions before they will germinate so once your weather turns cool, you are usually safe for Fall sowing. Just remember many perennials will not bloom their first season.

With self-seeding annuals, you know the seeds will survive the winter. In this case, you can get a jump on Spring by sprinkling the seed in your garden in the Fall, the same way the plant would release the seed on its' own. You can let the plants do this for themselves if you want to repeat them in the same space or you can harvest the seed and drop it in any new garden space you would like the plants to grow next season. The seeds will germinate in your garden often earlier than you would consider sowing them in the Spring, bringing you flowers earlier in the season. Another advantage of this schedule is that you need not worry about Spring weather. This year, for example, my garden was too wet to walk in long after seeds should have been sown.

If you collect seed, garden experiments are free of charge and are the best way for you to discover what works in your season, your soil, your garden. In my zone 3 garden of largely clay soil, I have had success with Fall sowing of Marigold, Hollyhock, Delphinium, Viola, Pincushion Flower and Forget-Me-Not. This year I am trying Hollyhock again because I want a new patch in a new space and I am leaving the Marigolds and Calendula to drop their own seed in hope they will appear in the same space next year.

Lift in Fall - Dahlia

The biggest problem with gardening is that advice is often contradictory. This is a function of two things: 1) each plant is often treated differently from zone to zone and 2) often more than one method will work for a single plant. Geranium winter storage is a good example of this, having several methods that will produce very similar results. Although I have lifted Dahlia before, I did not have a quantity that made me feel like I needed to over think the process and also felt that if I lost the few I had, the consequences would be minimal in my garden. This year, my Dahlia stock has become very important to me. The result is that I have been reading Dahlia lift in Fall instructions for a week now. As usual, the advice is endless and contradictory. I have decided to pull the recommendations that make the most sense to me from a gardener's point of view and will be using the following simple 4 step process.

1) Begin the process after the first couple of sharp frosts have killed the tops of the plant off. Above ground plant material will be black when you start. Cut the black, frosted off tops down to 6 - 8" and leave the tubers in ground for a week or so.

2) Dig the tubers, shaking all excess soil off them and removing any obviously damaged root. Label and store upside down for the first few days.

3) Upright the tubers and let them dry in a tray with an open weave bottom. As they dry, inspect regularly and discard any damaged or soft material.

4) Pack and store them in a cool, frost free location until Spring, being sure to keep them dry.

Leaving the tubers in ground for a week or so after the tops are frost killed makes sense because success is always increased with plants if you do not shock them too much at once. Each change in conditions for a plant can put the plant into shock. Pruning, dividing, transplanting, changing water conditions... all of these can cause some level of shock. So one would normally not want to make too many changes at any single time. My thinking is the week allows the tubers to recover from the tops being gone and put themselves into a dormant state. That week has passed in my garden so I will be digging today.

Labeling is very important and only takes a minute or two extra. You can tie a label on the remaining stock, label the container you ultimately store them in or write with a Sharpie directly on the tuber. Any way you choose is fine but you will regret not labeling in the Spring if you don't take the few minutes when you lift.

Drying the tubers upside down for the first few days makes sense because the stems are hollow and will have water in them. Keeping tubers dry is key when winter storing to prevent rot and mold. The upside down position will allow the stems to drain and dry. If I was using one of the methods that would have me removing the entire stem, I could skip the few days of upside down storage.

Finally, packing and storing can mean different things. I will put the tubers in pails, buckets and boxes and will not add vermiculite or peat between them to keep them dry. They will be stored inside my house in the coolest area of the basement and I should not have to worry about humidity level. Our winters are very cold here and we have forced air heat. Humidity is never a problem inside in a Saskatchewan winter. If I lived in a higher humidity climate, I may consider extra packing. The key is too keep them cool and dry in a dark space. Wish me luck and the photographs next year will tell the story of my success, or lack of it.

Oops, there is another one - Dahlia 'Ferncliff Midnight'

Guess I jumped the gun on the last Dahlia in my side of our Dahlia story for this year. This 'Ferncliff Midnight' was a slightly open bud when I cut it in an attempt to save it from our first frost. Since then, it managed to open inside the house for me. On a 5' plant, these 7" informal decorative flowers sit very upright. Described as reddish-purple, they are bright in the sunlight and darker in low light. Either shade is stunning and overall 'Ferncliff Midnight' is a lovely addition to a pink or an orange garden with it's purple tones setting off either colour pallette. It looks just as good beside 'Gerrie Hoek' as it does beside 'Ferncliff Fuego' but I think next year, I will plant it with 'Wine & Roses'.

My Last 2010 Dahlia - 'Yvonne'

Frost has hit my zone 3 garden and that means no more dahlia to introduce this year. This is 'Yvonne' blooming in my friend, Judy's, garden. She is a recommended cut flower with long stems. The plant grows to 4.5' with 4" waterlily form flowers described as salmon-pink. In Judy's garden she is more pink than salmon but because she bloomed so late, I wonder if that is an oddity of this year's weather.

Dahlia 'Orchid Beauty'

A beautiful white dahlia!  This is another of all the dahlia that Danielle brought me in July.  It's a pure white ball dahlia and stands a little over 3 feet tall.  This bloom is 3 inches across and still has more layers to open.  This is blooming next to dahlia 'Glow' and they're a great pair.

Another Collarette - Dahlia 'April Heather'

'April Heather' is an apricot-pink collarette with a pale yellow collar. She is very dainty and quite pretty in the garden. The plant grows to 4' with 4" flowers. Due to the late planting, she did not put a big display on for me this year. We have frost forecast for tonight in my garden so this will likely be the only shot I get of her single bloom. All of the many buds remaining will wither on the stalks with frost. Next year, I will be planting her in the new front bed, much closer to the house.

Direct Seed Sowing: Fall or Spring?

I only sow seeds that can be direct seeded in the garden, using the method known in the seed sowing world as in situ, or, right where I want them to grow. I also try to direct seed as early as possible. Any seeds that can be sown in the Fall, I will drop within the next few weeks. Any seeds that could not survive my winter will be dropped in the Spring. I find that seeds are enormously rewarding in my garden because it is very little work for a big pay off with blooms right through until frost. Although there are some seeds that require specific or complicated care to sow, the vast majority of seeds are easy, requiring only that you drop them at the right time. The easiest way to know when to drop seeds is by watching which plants will self-seed in your garden. If, like Hollyhock in my garden, a plant will self-seed in your garden, you know the seeds will survive your winter and you can drop them in Fall. The advantage of dropping what you can in Fall is that seeds will generally germinate earlier in the garden than you would even consider dropping them in the Spring. In my garden, Fall dropped seed often starts to appear before it is dry enough for me to consider walking in the garden. If I did not drop them in Fall, their flower display would be much later in the season for me. If the plant does not self-seed in your garden, chances are its' seed is not surviving the winter and it needs Spring sowing. If you don't know if a plant will self-seed in your garden, sow the first seed in Spring. The following Fall, collect some seed and bring it indoors to store in a cool, dry, dark place while also allowing some of the seedheads to release their seed in your garden. You can help that process along by taking the dry seedheads off before the plant releases the seed and spreading the seed manually in your garden. The list is probably much longer but the plants that self-seed in my zone 3 garden today include: Marigold, Delphinium, Hollyhock, Bachelor's Buttons, Viola, Calendula, Daisy, Columbine, Yarrow, Goutweed, Speedwell, Summer Phlox and Knautia. Now the obligatory disclaimer: gone are the days when all seeds produced a predictable plant. Some seeds of hybrid plants will not grow true to seed, meaning that the plant you get will not be the plant you took the seed from. It is more likely to be one or other of the parent plants which are the plants that were used to produce the new variety. Still other plants are bred to be sterile and if they produce seed, the seed will not produce a new plant. Don't ask me! I think it makes no sense to have a plant that doesn't reproduce itself and makes even less sense to have a seed that produces nothing. I tend to stay away from those plants and stick to heirlooom, old-fashioned or country plants that tend to act like one expects a plant to act. If you collect seed though, experiments cost nothing but a bit of space in your garden. Try it. You will find it can be well worth the effort.

Dahlia 'Glow'

Another addition to our mutual dahlia collection, this one has been slow to open.  'Glow' is a pompon dahlia that stands a little less than 3 feet tall.  This bloom is almost 3" across and definitely glows in the garden.

Favourite Hosta Bloom

I want to add my favourite hosta bloom to Danielle's list.  This is a lancifolia hosta - the leaves are long and narrow.  It blooms much later than all the rest of my hosta - the only one with a few flowers left.  The blooms are purple instead of the more common lavender.
Hosta are excellent plants in my garden because I have lots of shady spots and they fill in quickly.