My Dahlia Garden Chart

It was another life time when I was at the Cutting Fields Arboretum on Long Island.  I was with people I will probably never see again in a place I will probably never visit again.

But the dahlia’s stayed with me.

It was the first time I’d ever seen flowers that big, that sculptural.  They were all in rows, tied to stakes holding them up, some taller than me.  It was magical walking between them all.  Much like the first time I visited the Sonoran desert in Arizona.   Everything was vaguely familiar but also completely alien.

I fell in love with the desert, but Dahlia’s were something else.

Dahlia’s, it seemed me, were something that only professional gardeners knew how to grow.  They seemed to need a lot more attention and care than I was capable of or wanted to expend on a flower.

Years later,  Jon and I moved to the the new Bedlam Farm and we were planting lots of flower beds.  At the annual flower fundraiser for the local Opera House, we found bushels full of Dahlia bulbs.

I wanted nothing to do with them, but Jon was intrigued.

He started the dahlia garden and took care of it.  I don’t remember if he dug up the dahlia bulbs that first year. I imagine we did it together.  It was when we planted them the next spring and they grew back so easily,  when I saw how bountiful and beautiful they were,  that I got interested.

Dahlia’s weren’t as hard as I imagined.

Maybe it was because the bulbs we got were already established in the area so they were used to the conditions.  But the dread of digging up the bulbs every fall and replanting them every spring turned to a joy that continues to evolve as all my gardens do.

After the first hard frost, which will happen soon, the dahlias will wither and turn brown overnight.  Some I might be able to distinguish by the leaves, depending on how shriveled they are, and others by the arrangement of petals on the flower.  But because many of my dahlia’s are similar in size and shape, I won’t be able to tell the difference between the red, yellow and pink flowers.

Since the bulbs multiply every year, I always have too many for the plot designated my Dahlia Garden.  So I give them away or plant them in the front lawn.

I also always have so many puffy red dahlia’s that it would be easy for me to give away the few yellow,  pink and orange/yellow dahlias by mistake, leaving my garden with only red flowers.

I’ve been perfecting my dahlia chart over the past couple of years.

By tying a piece of yarn around the stem of the dahlia that relates to the color of the flower, I can keep track of them. And because the dahlia’s vary in the type of flower, my drawings of the flowers make my chart even more specific.

It doesn’t always work the way I plan.  This year I planted my red Dinner Plate Dahlia in the front lawn by mistake.  But it worked out well.  I just happened to plant it along the driveway so we were able to enjoy the large flowers whenever we left the farm or came home.

When the dahlia’s  die for the year, I’ll put the bulbs  in paper bags with drawings and descriptions of the kind of flower they are and store them in the cold storage room in the basement.

This year I’ll put my chart in the basement too, so it will be there in the spring when I plant the bulbs once again.

When I think of it, I’m a bit surprised at how much I enjoy taking care of the dahlia’s.  But they are so worth it, especially this time of year when most of the flowers are done for the season.

Dahlia’s make wonderful cut flowers too and I enjoy giving to friends who appreciate them.