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Garden journal entry

 

August 15, 2015. This year, I grew some dahlias from seed that came to me in a trade. The seed was labeled 'Bishop of Llandaff', a cultivar with dark purple leaves and red flowers. Since there were several other dahlias on my trader's list, I didn't really expect the offspring to come true – and sure enough, it didn't. None of my seedlings had the dark leaves, and while some had red flowers, others were orange and yellow. Which is fine: I seldom grow dahlias, so when I do, it's nice to have a variety. Some of the flowers in this year's batch are shown on my generic dahlia page, and they're all nice enough. But so far, they had pretty much presented me with their cheerful faces. Today, I was struck by one that apparently developed a shy streak, and turned its face away from me (and from the prevailing direction of the sun!). And it was a thing of beauty: perfectly formed, unblemished petals, backed by delicate, shiny-translucent bracts (or are they sepals? my botanical knowledge comes up short here), held aloft by a gently curving purple stem. So I just had to take a photo of Miss Dahlia's back-side!


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Last modified: September 09, 2009
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