Today we came back from our trip and there are more dahlias ready to be photographed in the weekend. Here are some dahlia flowers from the first half of July.
July 29, 2011
Dahlia season 2011: part II
Today we came back from our trip and there are more dahlias ready to be photographed in the weekend. Here are some dahlia flowers from the first half of July.
July 25, 2011
Mice in the garden
Yes, there are some Mice that I very much welcome in my garden. Blue Mouse Ears (BME) and it's family are the cutest part of my hosta collection. I like small and miniature hostas and BME as well as its sports is fitting my taste perfectly fine. They all have neat clumps with small round leaves. Thick substance is not very much appreciated by slugs. Flowers are very nice as well.
BME was registered in 2000 by E. & J. Deckert as 13x23cm (HxW) plant with moderate growth. I have 2 plants of BME. One is growing in ideal for hostas light conditions - morning sun followed by dappled shade for the rest of the day. The other one (right photo) is getting full sun from 10:30 to 15:30. Both are doing equally great.
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Cat and Mouse is my favourite BME sport. It was registered in 2007 by H. Hansen as 8x15cm plant and is a smallest member of the family as far as I know - true miniature hosta. Last year I bought it from Karin as a 3 shoot plant and it stayed the same size this season but it's flowering. So I hope it will produce more shoots next year. Leaf colors are very subtle - chartreuse with blue-green margin.
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Another mediovariegated BME family sport in my collection is Holy Mouse Ears or HME. It's a stable tissue culture sport of streaked Royal Mouse Ears registered in 2006 by M. Zilis & E. & J. Deckert. Very bright and healthy plant.
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From margined BME family members I have 3 hostas. Frosted Mouse Ears is like HME sport of Royal Mouse Ears. It was registered in 2006 by M. Zilis & E. & J. Deckert. My plant was very unlucky this year. Earlier in the season roedeer stepped twice on it and half of it was eaten by a slug. Despite all that torture it looks good right now with a new flush of leaves.
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Mighty Mouse is margined sport of BME registered in 2006 by Walters Gardens. Although description of FME and Mighty Mouse is very similar as well as their pictures in Hostalibrary their coloration is slightly different in my garden. Since they grow next to each other in identical light, soil and watering conditions I can easily compare them. In FME margin holds its chartreuse-green spring color until now, whereas in Mighty Mouse it turned creamy-white very early in the season.
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Green Mouse Ears is green sport of BME registered in 2004 by E. & J. Deckert. It emerged good looking but got some fungus disease at petiole base so couple of leaves fell off. I figured out that the problem was caused by maple leaf mulch touching the crown. After moving mulch away from the crown the leaves stopped rotting off. I'm planning to further treat the plant and soil around it with fungicide to make sure to kill the rot completely.
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My most recent addition to the Mouse collection is Dancing Mouse a new sport of BME found by M. Fransen. It has wavy yellowish-green margin on blue-green leaves.
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July 21, 2011
Dahlia season 2011: part I
It’s been a while since I posted last time. Summer is in its peak right now and a lot is going on in the garden. Dahlias are starting to be a centre of attention. Most of potted dahlias are flowering for a long time now. Gallery Art Nouveau was the first to flower back in May. It was followed by Melody Mambo, Gallery Salvador, Gallery Matisse, Gallery Art Fair and Melody Dora. Melody Latin and Melody Dixie started to flower a bit later from last days of June. The last low growing variety left to flower is Melody Harmony. Although it already opened first inflorescence I can’t see it since it’s hidden among leaves. But more flowers should open soon on top of shoots. Let’s take a closer look at each plant.
Gallery Art Nouveau. 4 cuttings planted in a 10l pot. Bright color of informally shaped inflorescence nicely contrasting with dark green leaves.
Melody Mambo. 4 cuttings planted in a 15l pot. Very dark deep red satiny inflorescence tops medium green lush foliage.
Gallery Salvador. 4 cuttings planted in a 10l pot. Striking contrast of pretty large, Ø10+ cm, inflorescence on a very low growing, 35 cm, plant. Scapes could be longer to bring inflorescence higher on top of the foliage.
Gallery Matisse. 3 cuttings planted in a 7l pot. Heavily flowering lowest growing pot dahlia in my collection. First inflorescences were showing ugly open center but later opened flowerheads look fine.
Gallery Art Fair. 4 cuttings planted in a 10l pot. The most heavily flowering of my pot dahlias.
Melody Dora. 4 cuttings planted in a 20l pot. This year inflorescence size is much larger than it was last year. I think this is my favourite pot dahlia right now.
Melody Latin. 4 cuttings planted in a 20l pot. Actually it appeared to be only 3 cuttings of Melody Latin and 1 cutting Melody Dixie. I guess I've mixed the labels ☺. But the combination looks good. The shape and size of flower heads is very similar only color is different.
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