Dahlia stake forest

    Right now dahlia garden looks like a forest of stakes. I always put stakes before planting dahlias. It's easier for me to position each plant in the bed when all stakes are in place.

    So for a few weeks dahlia bed looks a bit weird, but dahlias are growing vigorously, and stakes will be hidden behind the lush foliage very soon.

Dahlia update

    All dahlias are planted. This year I had very narrow time window to plant everything and it was a bit stressful. But now it's done and I got time to update my collection catalog. There are about 180 plants of 83 varieties planted in the garden this year. Some are new for the collection. Some I liked so much that they were kept since last year. Some varieties are out of the garden since they didn't fit my taste or were lost during winter storage.
    Among newly acquired dahlias are several varieties originating from France. Some of them are low growing varieties suitable for planting in pots. Here is a preview of these varieties.

Alex

Picture borrowed from Dahliafrance

Avalanche Rose

Picture borrowed from Delbard Direct

Citron Fraise

Picture borrowed from Delbard Direct

Clémenvilla

Picture borrowed from Delbard Direct

French Cancan

Picture borrowed from Delbard Direct

Puerta del Sol

Picture borrowed from Delbard Direct

Riviera

Picture borrowed from Dahliafrance

New additions to the Garden Phlox collection

     Today looked like summer. First dahlias were planted out and more waiting for their turn. Almost all tulips are blooming. Two double late tulips 'Cilesta' and 'Carnaval De Nice' are my first double tulips. Perhaps, I will skip that type of tulips for next year, flowers are small and unruly in comparison with perfect shape of 'Crystal Beauty' or 'Yokohama' for example.

Double Late Tulip 'Carnaval De Nice'

     Couple of days ago I added 6 new varieties to my collection of Garden Phlox Phlox paniculata. All these varieties originated from Russia. Russian Garden Phlox varieties are well known around the world and it was my cherished dream to get some of them for my own collection. During my last trip to Saint Petersburg I visited one of the best perennial nurseries of North-West Russia Severnaya Flora. They have an impressive assortment of perennials in general and Russian Garden Phlox in particular. Here comes a preview of my new additions.

Дымчатый Коралл (Ph. paniculata 'Dymchatiy Korall')

Picture borrowed from Russian Phlox Society

Лорд (Ph. paniculata 'Lord')

Picture borrowed from Severnaya Flora

Мисс Ольга (Ph. paniculata 'Miss Olga')

Picture borrowed from Severnaya Flora

Покровский Барон (Ph. paniculata 'Pokrovskij Baron')

Picture borrowed from Severnaya Flora

Уральские Сказы (Ph. paniculata 'Uralskie Skasi')

Picture borrowed from Dacha Photo Catalog

Фламенко (Ph.paniculata 'Flamenko')

Picture borrowed from Severnaya Flora

Slow spring 2012

    Spring is so slow this year. After a few weeks of unusually warm weather in the beginning of March spring took a break and getting pretty late. But today it was sunny and warm for the first time during last weeks. My young dahlia plants spent first night and day out in the greenhouse.

    One of my garden beds is filled with early flowering bulbs and today they were happy to meet sun. I used my chance to take some pictures.

Iris reticulata together with Crocus chrysanthus 'Romance'

Crocus vernus 'Jeanne d'Arc'

Tulipa kaufmanniana 'Show Winner'

Iris 'Katherine Hodgkin'

    Perennials look very pretty when just unfurling from the winter sleep. Leaves are fresh and strongly colored.

Aquilegia

Dicentra spectabilis

Aruncus aethusifolius

    One of my favorite minis 'Cat and Mouse' shows 6 buds ready to unfurl. That's a nice increase from 3 shoots last year.

Hosta 'Cat and Mouse'

Svenska Dahliasällskapet at Nordiska Trädgårdar 2012

    The Fair is over. Since January my mind was occupied with thoughts on organizing the stand for Svenska Dahliasällskapet and now I have a bit strange feeling that I don't need to worry about how everything would work out any more. We all had a great time. Interest in our stand was enormous, many new and experienced dahlia enthusiasts found their way to us. It was very nice to meet all the fair visitors and to share our passion for these magnificent plants. Here are some pictures from the 3rd day of the fair in our stand.

On the background of our stand we had beautiful canvas pictures made by our new sponsor KB Foto. We are very grateful to them for making our stand so impressive this year. Hopefully we'll keep our fruitful cooperation in the future.

Our selling area is starting to look not so full as it was on first days. We had tubers, cuttings, seedlings and seeds for sale. Everything was very popular.

Charlotte is showing how easy it is to divide tubers and propagate your own dahlias.

We had some potted tubers for sale as well. Karin is showing one of them to the fair visitors.

New arrivals to my dahlia collection. Spring 2012

    In March I received a new order from my favorite dahlia grower Accent Dahlias. Here comes a preview of the varieties that I've got from Ken Greenway.

AC Abby

Picture borrowed from Accent Dahlias

AC Aquarius

Picture borrowed from Accent Dahlias

AC Golden Nickles

Picture borrowed from Accent Dahlias

AC Clouds and Rain

Picture borrowed from Accent Dahlias

AC Twist

Picture borrowed from Accent Dahlias

Harvey Koop

Picture borrowed from Accent Dahlias

Mary P

Picture borrowed from Accent Dahlias

Show'N'Tell

Picture borrowed from Accent Dahlias

Hollyhill Spiderwoman

Picture borrowed from Accent Dahlias

Woodland's Merinda

Picture borrowed from Dave's Garden forum

Wyn's Delta Frank

Picture borrowed from Dahliafrance

Beginning of new dahlia season 2012

    My dahlias have started their preparation for the new season back in the middle of February. I brought up from the winter storage some tubers of my favorite varieties as well as tubers that I received in exchange with Nadezhda and those that I bought from Peter Haslhofer and put them in trays filled with potting media. It took a few days for the tubers to wake up and start to sprout with new growth.

Since beginning of March I'm taking cuttings. It takes about 14 days for them to root in moist coir substrate in a mini-greenhouse.

As soon as the roots appear I plant cuttings in nutritious potting mixture and keep them on sunny windowsills.

Last summer the plants developed from cuttings were growing very well and flowering earlier then those that were grown from tubers. Tuber production from cuttings was fine as well. Some of the cuttings I'm planning to offer for sale in our society stand at Nordiska Trädgårdar 2012.