Finally, finally, FINALLY- it’s dahlia season here in the Northwoods. From a cold and rainy start to summer to the huge windy storms we have gotten the past couple months, it has been a weird and rocky season for our dahlias, but they have certainly persevered.
I have so many pictures to share, and there are still a lot of buds getting ready to bloom on our plants- so there will definitely be more dahlia posts coming! But for now, let’s get into what has bloomed so far…
Dinnerplate Dahlias
Like I mentioned, this season has been weird to say the least, so our dinnerplate dahlias are a bit smaller than they probably would have been with a longer growing season. However, they are still gorgeous!
The hot pink dinnerplate dahlia above (Emory Paul variety from Swan Island Dahlias) is one of my very favorites of the season so far. I think the petals are so unique.
Just look at it in a vase after we cut it- beautiful!
The purple and white dinnerplate dahlia seen above is the Mystery Day (Eden Brothers) variety, a new favorite.
Other Dahlias
We grew quite a few different kinds of dahlias this year, trying out new varieties from big growers like Swan Island Dahlias and using tubers from last year as well.
The Ferncliff Inspiration dahlia below is technically a medium-sized bloom, but it ended up being as large as some of our dinnerplates (again, likely because of the shorter growing season). I love the pink color and the shape.
The white ball dahlias below are some of my favorites from last year. They’re the White Nettie variety, which you can shop on Swan Island Dahlias.
The super hot pink (my favorite color) dahlia above is a new one for us this year, and it’s definitely a keeper. It’s called Chimacum Katie from Connell’s Dahlias, which is described as lavender for some odd reason even though the flowers are a true hot pink color.
The maroon dahlia below is called Midnight Dancer from Swan Island Dahlias. This is the first deep maroon dahlia we’ve grown, and I think it’s so gorgeous. It goes really well with the Mystery Day dinnerplate dahlias I mentioned earlier in this post, and it’s the perfect color for fall.
The pink, striped dahlia above (Cha Ching from Swan Island Dahlias) is another new variation for us this year. It has a less traditional dahlia shape, making it a unique addition to arrangements like the one below.
The three little dahlias below are a variety called Rebecca Lynn from Swan Island Dahlias. They’re perfect little balls only about 3″ big- super cute!
The very stripey red and white dahlia below, a variety called Tanner Joe from Connell’s Dahlias, is one of the more unique ones we tried this year.
Growing Ranunculus
This year we also decided to grow some ranunculus, also known as buttercups. I have seen so many beautiful pictures of these flowers shared by others on social media, but it turns out that they are quite particular about their growing conditions. They don’t like too much heat, a challenge during the peak of summer, but they still need some sunshine.
Not too hot, not too cold, not too much water, not too little water- we thought we may get zero flowers after reading about how persnickety these guys can be.
We decided to just give it our best shot, even though we had to delay planting the corms until the weather warmed up a bit and the rain stopped. We ended up planting them in pots and placing them in a spot near the house that only gets morning sun, figuring they might stand a chance if they didn’t sit out directly under the hot afternoon sun.
As you can tell from the picture above, the plants grew and we got to enjoy some beautiful ranunculus blooms. We definitely did NOT baby the plants, so I can only imagine how many flowers they would have produced with a better growing season and a little extra TLC.
Just look at how pretty they look with the dahlias in the picture below- truly a perfect combo.
Ranunculus have a fairly long vase life of about two weeks. Some of our blooms have lasted even longer, and still look beautiful. We’ll definitely be planting more of these next year!
By the way, the ranunculus variety we grew is called ‘Marshmallow’ from Eden Brothers, which you can shop here.
Stay tuned for more dahlia blooms!
That’s all for my dahlia (and ranunculus) update for now. Like I said, there are a lot of buds still getting ready to bloom, so I’m sure I will have more pictures to share soon.
Until then, you can catch up on all posts in the Garden Diaries series here.
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