Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Swan Island Dahlia Festival

Every year I choose to order my Dahlia tubers in person, they still send me a catalog that I peruse and sort of get an idea of what I would like to have. But I always end up at the farm with my catalog in hand. Besides the tuber orders they offer large bunches of picked dahlias that Mema usually indulges in.
The youngest son called first thing in the morning whilst we were sitting and having our morning coffee and asked if we could take the "Little Terrorist #1" for a while. They have built a new garage at their home and wanted some "alone time" to install shelving and the work bench, as always we said yes. So we three headed out to the dahlia festival in Mema's little green Beetle.
The following pictures are on my 2010 order for delivery in the spring of 2011.
"Pazzaz"



Taeya with a mammoth sized flower




"Tanjo"
"Passionate"
"Dazzle Me"

"Bride To Be"



"Imperial Wine"
This one Mema purchased as cut flowers and when she put them in a large arrangement on the dining room table, they looked so good with the colors in the room she called the farm and had them add it onto the order for next year. 

"Bitsy"



There are over 40 acres and more then 350 different varieties of dahlias



The Dahlias at Menagerie Manor are grown in the picking garden and are all chosen with the idea that they will be used in Mema's beautiful floral arrangements. So size is important, the large ten inch flowers are never used. I have a few of those as garden fillers in the main gardens but they never make it indoors. Mema prefers long stemmed 4 to 6 inch blooms.

4 comments:

  1. That's a LOT of Dahlias. I never saw so many. And you are getting so many pretty ones. Mema is a very lucky lady. :)

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  2. I love Dahlia's, can you winter yours outdoor where you live? I really need to lift mine here to be on the safe side.

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  3. Melodie,
    I bet that is one flower that won't take Texas heat?

    Linda,
    It's hard to choose, I would like them all:o(

    Rob,
    We have pretty much the same weather so I dig and store all mine after the first killing frost. The big ones that I use as background plants in the main gardens I leave and they seem to do good.

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