I know - it's not uncommon to head out and my blooms have 2-12 of those creepers on them. This year they have been heavy on my reds, peaches, white bicolors and oranges. Last year it was my yellow and oranges. I'm wondering if it's my companion plants? I noticed they are all over my marigolds nearby and out front I have 4 o'clock that they are demolishing. Maybe I need to spray?

It's rainy here and should be all day. My plans have changed some so this afternoon will be my first forray out for the day if time permits.

Maybe I'll have some new blooms. That will be nice to see. I feel in order to have any I need to bag the blooms. And well, that's a lot of work.

Alright. I'm off for the time being. I need another cuppa and sit and listen to the rain.

You are making me envious. This year dahlias have been subpar. With our extreme heat and drought and resulting water restrictions my poor plants have really suffered. Small blooms, falling over and dying plants gasping for water. I am amazed that I have had any blooms. Now finally we are cooling and have some rain, but with July and August temps regularly above 100 (111 on more than a few days!) and only 8mm (.31") of rain for the month I don't blame the plants for popping their clogs.

I was wondering if you were in a region of extreme weather. It's been quite the summer for such all over the upper half of the world. I think we are to get .5-1+" of rain today. We've had some deluges but nothing of consistency. And I'm afraid the rains don't help the bean and corn drying back for harvest. I can't imagine how much it would be cost wise to dry them if it's too wet this year. I know my BILs family's fields were flooded a month or so ago when things were finally doing well in the growth dept.

I think I may be saving rain and snow again this fall and winter and get jugs filled for the basement plant water as I can.

Do you plan to raise dahlias again next year? Maybe you'll have a bumper crop of tubers.

Here are a few of my large blooms In the rain:

JBar, sorry to hear that it's been a crap year for your dahlias. Maybe they will bounce back with the change in weather.

Scarlet, lovely blooms. We got rain here early today, so I crept out and snapped some pics too. You could spray the beetles, but there are really only a few products that really work. Makes me wonder if there were a couple waves of them up there?

Some new blooms and some repeats-

Wyoming Wedding


Woodland's Merinda


Prairie Rose


Who Dun It (first bloom that wasn't assaulted by bugs)


Cornel


Nenekazi


Bloomquist Jean (and bug photobomb)


Bloomquist Jody Lynn

I've given up w the JBs today. Remember my Spartacus I was enamored with?

This is what the JBs did to my haughty bloom:




Evidently the soybean field is not enough?

But while out nosing about and shaking my head at the beasts I found a Nick Sr readying:


And I thought I would send @psudan a closeup of AC Paint he sent me. Every bloom has been like this for me:





Thank you for such a lovely!

So I was reading on the beasts and found this article:

https://www.newswire.com/news/...

That then lead to me reading on the product:
http://www.bugvibes.com/produc...

So if I read correctly, they hate vibration. Who would have thought?

If I really felt like it I'd go drown a whole bunch more. But that may take hours.

Well, we're hearing from our dahlia friends from around the world. It seems we're having similar weather problems.
Michigan weather has cooled off in the evenings. 50 degrees last night and 90 degrees at 2:00pm this afternoon.
Radical ! Who can successfully garden in these dry conditions? And yet, here we see some very beautiful blooms from each of you.
Scarlet ! Had you considered purchasing a cheap shop vac and using it for beetle removal? No kidding. That's what the organic potato farmers use in mid-Michigan.
Trying to think outside of the box!

Another great group of blooms, Melissa! Seems you never run out of new ones to post! I took a quick check yesterday and found I have 20 or more varieties that haven't bloomed yet and a couple that won't. Deer ate two buds off my BQ Quill two weeks ago and it still hasn't produced any new ones.

Scarlet, I feel bad for what the JBs are doing to your garden. Such a shame to see the Spartacus bloom ruined. I don't recall needing to spray last year and this year I've only sprayed the lower leaves on the plants in one bed where I found aphids. Several years ago, I sprayed Bayers 3-in-1 on a bloom with 2 JBs. They died immediately. The next day I found 8-10 more dead ones on that same bloom that had come to snack later. Lately, I've only squished one earwig and two JBs that were in the act of procreating (That's a nice, clean way to put it? LOL). But I've started seeing a few more cucumber beetles.

Glad to see your AC Paint blooming but it's odd that the blooms are all the same. I had one like that last year. My ACPs are really slow this year. Just one bloom so far. I had two Nick Sr. plants but skunks destroyed one and I haven't even seen a bud on the other one yet.

Kathy, my mother was deathly afraid of bees since her mother was so allergic to stings. Many years ago, I heard a noise outside the back door. I found Mom had rigged a vacuum cleaner by a seam in the door jamb where yellow jackets were nesting. I was amazed by how far away the YJ could be sucked in. She'd leave it running for a half hour at a time. LOL

Yesterday, I was deadheading some old blooms when I was painfully made aware, AGAIN!, that this is the time of year that bumble bees often spend the night in the blooms. I think that's three years in a row. Guess I'll never learn to look first!

Oh the blooms have all been speckled like that. I did have one with a deep colored petal, but just one. I will be heading out here shortly as my day has changed yet again. Got to love when people are in charge of meetings and do nothing to keep them scheduled. Grrrr

I'm going to hopefully gather a bunch up for a visitation tomorrow. That means a quick JB check. Good gravy I picked off a whole bucket worth after church. I mean I don't mind that God sent us the creepies but come on now, I don't need them all by me.

So maybe some photos later once I head out. I'll probably be cursing the darn bugs again.

Howdy!

Ok I was just out tagging and have decided this week I better start marking stalks with what it is as it's still blooming in case my chart is completely wrong!

Lupin chris:




Just electric in todays light!

Ok your guess is as good as mine. The white are Wyns Ghostie. The bronzey one?! My chart run of those type of colors: Big Brother (menards) Ben Huston (Brecks) or Peanut Brittle in totally the wrong spot. The bloom is about over one lady's hand wide.





So if anyone can help a girlfriend out I would appreciate it. As I said where they came from both could be WHATEVERS that landed in the bag.

I also think I have a Verrones Sandra J blooming. I'll see what it's doing tomorrow. Pretty colors what I saw.

Also may keep my open center dahlia seedling. Pop over to the bloggie in a bit and I'll have it posted. It's got some interesting markings.

Will be taking an arrangement of flowers to the visitation. I had taken her flowers before she passed and she enjoyed. She's a lady who loved the garden.

It's to be a low of 49° or so tonight. Most of the blooms right now are quick to open centers but the colors are so fall like and lovely in how the petals ombré in color. Love it!

I will be heading to a few local dahlia friends gardens in the next week or two. I had one offer me a list of one of her friends who is getting out of the business and I'll take a look at what he has. You know how the dahlia wondering eye is.

I saw today that the news on the Queens travels home indicated the flowers on her casket were some of her favs including dahlias. Good to see!

Happy new week to you all!

Arlene: thanks for the acorn!

My AC Paints from you Dan, are not blooming yet either!

I had a busy weekend + some rain so I did not get out to take many photos. I'm already ready to hibernate. I think this is the earliest I've felt this way! Still waiting on so many first blooms for plants and I'm already ready to sleep

the garden in one shot

i forget... but I think Clints Climax.. a smaller one

Blyton Softer Gleam.. the best cut flower ever. lasted over a week in my house

Prince Noir

Vassio Meggos

Harvey Koop.. new add to the Spartacus Fam

Bloomquist Jean.. finally

My niece's seedling "Patty Ding"

a new seedling I think is really FUN and very pumpkiny

Wow, so many dahlias, Mary!

Sleep is good Mary

Lovely blooms! I too love Blyton Softer Gleam. It has the straightest and thickest stems ever! But beautiful colors. The only downside is the JB garage of the petals - just wide enough to have their butts hangout.

AM: I sent my most beautiful Ottos Thrill to the funeral. I hope someone enjoyed my arrangement. If not, I tried and I was happy with it.

As for blooms tomorrow is another day. But I look forward to the list to go through for next year. Maybe I can find some good ones. The man is retiring from growing and he's closer to 100 then 20. So maybe some old timey ones? I'll have to look. I appreciate her letting me know.

As for the blooms at my house, most open centers now. Temp tonight is to be 46°.

Brrrrr. Still looking like mid October for frost according to my weather app. That's fine. I just hope my hands agree to splitting. I may have to get one of the fancy schmancy plunge cutters if not. I hate what my hands are doing as I age. I'll be asking to have them X-rayed.

Anywho - hope all is well and maybe photos tomorrow.

Scarlet, I think the bloom you asked about is likely Ben Huston. But since you mentioned it came from Breck's, I might need to hedge my bet. LOL My BH has only had two blooms this year but both have been nice, full ones.

Beautiful blooms, Mary! I'm pretty sure your bloom is Clint's Climax. Two blooms opened on my second CC plant a few days ago. No idea why ACP is dragging its feet this year. One of my plants has a bloom and 6-8 partially open buds. Another has a few buds and a third plant has nothing. Maybe they'll start producing in the cooler weather.

I have some new blooms but three aren't quite open enough to show. Maki buds started to open Thursday and two blooms are already 10" wide. I'm glad to have Bonaventure back in the garden. Bloom is only 6" but should get much bigger. The rest of these blooms are repeats or from second plants of a variety.

Ben Huston


Clint's Climax


Maki Still no red streaking on the petals.


Bonaventure


Elma Elizabeth (Amelia Jay photobombing)


Vancouver


Shiloh Noelle

Thanks for the acorn, Scarlet! I just returned it to you for your beautiful photo of "Verrone's Sandra J" on the home page. Congrats for earning "Photo of the Day!

Thank you Dan!

AM: work today brought out all the crazies. I'm totally decompressing. Good gravy - WHY PEOPLE?!

Tomorrow I run to the dentist and see if I need a new filling (well I'm hoping! I don't want a root canal or another crown!). And then home for a bit and maybe I'll have some new blooms but it's suppose to be 45° tonight so I'm unsure if anything will want to unfurl. I sure as heck wouldn't.

I'm in need of verifying marking of my plants. So maybe I will begin that this week. Will see. I've got different colored tape to tie on them and that might be smart as they are blooming. At least the outside rows. I may tie higher so I don't have to crawl on the ground.

Off to go peruse some ideas for dahlias.

Mornin all! It's a brisk morn. One of the cities in the region is 36°. Eez. Not so bad here, it is 46°. But it is still quite brisk.

I was going to go for a walk early this am but sleep was more important as was staying warm.

I'll head out once the kids hop on the bus. I may have a few new buds to look at and I need to check my seed heads. With all the rain they have needed to be milked. I think it's suppose to be dry the next week or so and I'm hoping that they have a good chance to make seeds and dry further. I'm looking for some nice blooms.

Happy day to you all!