My garden last year. Part III: all the flowers

Last year was the first year I focused on growing so many variations of flowers in my garden. It turned out to be the part that brought the most joy. While one might think that the flowers are the least useful plants in the garden, it does not surprise me I got so much enjoyment out of them. After all, I am a visual person. I love bright, vibrant colors not only in my artwork but also in my surrounding environment.

And the colors they brought! They looked like sophisticated, ever-changing paintings to my eyes! So, despite risking seeming like an absolute weirdo to the new neighbors, I spent a lot of time trying to capture their fragile, evolving beauty with my camera whenever I had the opportunity. Especially, since one moment they are there, happily reaching towards the sun, and the next they fade away, wilt, and fall on the ground as the cycle of life demands.

_{The petals of dahlia. They look like flames!}

In my mind, the vision of the beautiful flower garden was reserved only for when I would own the land myself. But the new gardening plot I currently rent inspired me to put my training wheels on also for this aspect of gardening, as it takes time to learn what each flower needs. For example, the spacing or the size differences or how they behave during the phases in their development, and how they are affected by various conditions in their environment. It also takes time to find fun combinations of flowers that go well together and to discover the favorites among them.

So far, my two favorites are dahlias and snapdragons. Both of which come in all the colors and color combinations imaginable. And the blooms of dahlias have so many diverse shapes! They are so, so gorgeous!

Snapdragons do not require much attention or work at all. Dahlias, on the other hand, need a lot of care as they demand to be deadheaded of the old blooms often so that the new blooms would come in their place. I love both snapdragons and dahlias, and cannot have enough of them!

As I write this post I already have purchased more variations of dahlias for this year, and plan to extend the flower beds as much as I can. There will be even more space for all sorts of flowers and I would like to learn some replacement systems as well. Meaning, as soon as one flower type finishes blooming, others would start in their place.

I have other plans for my flowers as well but I will share about that when the time is right!

_{The three stages of the flower garden. The beginning of the blooms, the peak, and once some of the flowers had stopped blooming.}

Any lessons from this year? A few. The first one that comes to mind was about planting dahlia tubers. It is best to wait until the weather is dry, sunny, and warm. I planted some of the tubers too early, and it happened to rain not soon after. I almost lost a few of them to rot. As soon as I realized they had begun rotting, I pulled them out of the ground and placed them in dry soil in the greenhouse where it was warmer as well. I was lucky they recovered.

Another lesson or perhaps refreshing of the memory of something I had known previously, or even slightly came as a surprise. Once the flowers had begun blooming, they did not seem to suffer much if I did not water them as frequently. Now, I might be wrong about it. I would have to run some experiments. For example, sowing the same flowers in two different beds, water one often and water the other one less, and see how they behave. And also it probably depends. What works for one may not work for others. Asters, for example, showed signs of wilting had I neglected them and not watered them for too long.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I had not done much planning of what goes where. That caused the bigger flowers to take most of the space away from the smaller ones and overshadowed some of them completely impeding their progress. So that is something to be more mindful about going forward as I do hope for the best result for all my plants.

And lastly, growing flowers is quite easy, fun, and extremely addictive! I now want to grow all the flowers! More flowers, please!

_{Zinnias loved the hot summer!}

But enough talk! Have a look at the wonderful blooms from my garden last year!

_{Violets. They struggled in the beginning, right after transplantation into the beds. The leaves turned pale, and I was worried they would not survive. But they had plenty of life in them!}

_{I received a lot of compliments for these beautiful dahlias. They are called “Lady Darlene”. I am pretty sure my neighbors were eyeing them. I will have to return the favor and give them some tubers at some point.}

_{I am a bit ashamed to admit that I am not sure what these yellow flowers are. It came along with a dahlia tuber that one of my neighbors gifted me. Does anyone know what they could be?}

_{This dahlia is called “Golden Sceptre”, and I love the shape of these blooms!}

_{The snapdragons, “Majestic mix” at the start of their blooming period.}

_{The blooms of “Fleurel” were huge! The size of my face! Stunning! They also needed support poles because of how heavy their blooms were.}

_{This rose was another gift to me, and unfortunately, I don’t know the name of the variety. It stayed the same height the whole time, and I deadheaded it a couple of times after looking up a video on Youtube. It is one of the aspects of roses that have scared me in the past. They require some experience and knowledge to handle them correctly. That said, I would like to acquire that experience! So, more roses in my garden in the future might show up!}

_{Tansies were part of my flower/herb bed. I am still to familiarize myself with their medicinal properties.}

_{Butterflies love zinnia blooms the most.}

_{I loved the color of these flower peas. They were called “Old Spice Henry Eckford”. Oh, and the scent of these was great too!}

_{These chrysanthemums were another gift from the neighbors.}

_{Bees and bumblebees enjoyed all the flowers, especially zinnias, snapdragons, and sunflowers. However, I felt there were plenty of wildflowers around for them to munch on, and there weren’t as many visiting my flower garden as I had seen at the old place. Or, perhaps there was some other reason. I did hear an angry-sounding hornet flying by now and then.}

_{I snuck a herb/medicinal plant bed among the flower beds. And hey, they have pretty blooms as well. There were calendulas, chamomile, yarrow, tansies, milk thistle, and marigolds.}

_{This greenish/yellowish zinnia is called “Envy”. I picked them because flowers can be green also, ha!}

_{How happy looks is this calendula basking in the golden hour?}

_{The coleus plant.}

_{Right next to my gardening plot is the jungle of goldenrod and lupins. The neighbors were complaining about these, how they described them, weeds, while I enjoyed the bright rainbow colors from lupins and the vibrant yellows from the goldenrods.}

_{Another variety of dahlias that were a gift to me. Unfortunately, the name is unknown to me.}

_{Spanish lavender. This one was a fighter! I transplanted it from the pot at one of the hottest times last summer, and it nearly died on me. I kept watering it, and later it came back to life and bloomed until the first frost.}

_{The white English lavender. While from afar, it looks white, in the closeup, you can tell that there is light purple/blue color lingering.}

_{Snapdragons in all their glory!}

_{Here we can see the coral-colored dahlia called “Gallery Pablo” right next to the zinnias. That was a mistake. I did not realize that these dahlias are of a short variety, and therefore zinnias overshadowed them eventually.}

I now fully understand the people to whom gardens can become their life’s work. There is so much beauty that can be created and grown. I wish for it in my life as well. Even more so since there is so much ugliness in the world.

I hope you enjoyed this parade of colors! Thank you for sticking around! Until next time! I will now go and sow new seeds for this year’s garden!

-M

_{Song of the day: Vök - Adrift}