Whew, this was NOT a great season for dahlias for me.  The extreme heat, drought, and watering bans meant there wasn’t enough watering in July and August for my thirsty plants. Insect pressure was intense this summer, and I had to put organza bags on everything or watch the petals get eaten away. The flower buds came late and daytime temps have been quite cool lately, so there just aren’t many good-sized dahlia blooms. The cutting garden isn’t all fun and games after all! Some years, you have terrific results, and other years - not so much.

One of the reasons for the limited dahlia blooms turns out to be that my dahlias were planted in an area that was simply too shady. Since I’m home during the day more due to Covid, I finally noticed that the dahlia bed wasn’t in full sun. More time spent in the garden this summer is one of the rare “benefits” of Covid.

Hah! I’ve given workshops on creating and maintaining your own cutting garden at Weston Nurseries, the Stevens-Coolidge Place, and to several garden clubs, and one to the key points I make is “Make sure your cutting garden is in full sun!” Well, let that be a lesson to me!

In spite of the challenges in Covid Summer 2020, we managed to grow some quite pretty dahlias. And there’s plenty of tubers to dig up soon and split and store. We gardeners always have hope, and we look forward to trying again next year!