This wasn't on my bucket list.
But today, I have spent a couple hours researching dahlias. It didn't start because I was super interested in the flowers, but I do like them and my wife wants some in the garden. As we did some ground work last autumn and now spring is fast arriving, we have to make a plan for what we are going to do to make it nicer than a bare patch of earth. We need to grow some grass, but we are also planning a vegetable and herb patch, as well as an assortment of flowers and plants, so it looks more like a garden, and less like a prison yard.
So why did I start researching?
Because I am cheap!
The bulbs (tubers) for dahlias are between 5 and 10 euros each in Finland! For one bulb. Talk about tulip mania... So, not wanting to pay that for what my wife will likely kill in a few weeks anyway, I decided to see if I could find some cheaper overseas, since they are all getting shipped anyway. And while there is cheaper, even after delivery costs, I started looking at other options, since we will likely need quite a few of them anyway.
The dahlia above is from our neighbour's garden.
There are millions of different shapes, colours and sizes of dahlias, but I discovered that once a plant is growing, it will create more tubers to store energy, and at the end of the season, these can be split off and replanted the following year to create more plants. This means that we don't need that many, as we will be able to propagate more over the next year or two anyway.
This is likely not news to anyone but me.
I assume everyone knows about horticulture on Hive.
Since this year summer is going to be largely spent around the home to save some a little money, we may as well send a little and put in the effort to establish the garden now. We have cleaned up a lot of what was here when we bought the place, and now it is time to put in some garden beds, and get some of the trees we want in the ground, as things grow very slowly here - like the Guelder-roses we want, which have beautiful, white, snowball blossoms. Our (other) neighbour has a fantastic one in their front yard.
However, what I am hoping to be able to achieve is to have a pretty easy to maintain garden that has flowering plants that come in at spring, mid-summer and last through to early autumn to cover the time we spend outdoors. I want to plan a colour palette with whites and pinks, and the ground cover plants will hopefully have silver-grey foliage. Some thujas will also go in in a couple areas to break up the garden and provide privacy, but for now, we can't afford to do the whole fence-line hedge - That will have to wait.
I am not much of a gardener (despite people thinking I am paid help when mowing the lawn), but I can appreciate a nice garden. But, they don't just happen by accident, nor are they easy to plan well and get going. It all takes effort. So, if I one day want to be able to sit out on a terrace (which still needs to be built) and love my garden, I have to love it enough to create it in the first place.
I think that this is a life lesson of gardening.
Not that I really know as of yet, but to establish something that is beautiful and lasting, it takes planning, growth and ongoing maintenance and nurture. And yes, it generally takes a lot of work and effort also. But, maybe most importantly, the planning and nurture doesn't bring a quick result, it might take years. So I guess what gardening does teach, is patience.
No wonder I haven't been enthusiastic about it in the past.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
Gardening teaches patience, for sure. Gardens are slo-mo immersive paintings.
Plan on half of what you plant to either die, or not be to your liking. Be prepared to be ruthless! Be prepared to be disappointed! It takes a good ten years to get good at flower gardening, I would say. Whatever you do plant, it won't turn out to be what you thought it would be!
Dahlias sound easy, and I suppose they are, to a seasoned gardener. Some varieties can look pretty sloppy, despite gorgeous blooms. Same for mums. You can cheaply get quite a palette of colors out there, if that's your thing. I don't remember ever seeing a pink Dahlia though. Annuals are good places to start for learning how to garden, easy and inexpensive compared to perennials.
For some reason, I think you might like beautyberries. Very easy, elegant and smallish shrubs, https://shop.arborday.org/beautyberry
That all said, gardening is fabulous. Enjoy!
This is always my problem. I keep things alive - even if they aren't what I want or not flowering! :D
:D :D
Oh, there are millions of colours of Dahlia now! I like the structure of them - they are peaceful. But, I think we will have them in pots, so they won't have to stay where they are.
This is what we will do for larger parts of the garden I think. It is hard here (in my opinion) to have a decent garden, because the season is so short, and the winter so harsh. Not sure if that beautyberry would last! :D
Well there you go, lots of pink! The structure of the flowers is gorgeous, yes, but what you'll see more of is the structure of the whole plant, which can be extremely messy: leggy, floppy, poor color, and sparse. If you can find one in someone's else's garden that you like everything about, I would go with that variety. They also take quite a while to actually bloom, so you might not have the flowers for long before it's time to dig them up and store for the winter. I prefer canna to dahlias for that feature; the plants are gorgeous with no flowers at all, some of them have colored foliage. I've learned that liking the plant's foliage is far more important to liking the flowers, for overall effect in the garden, but might not give you that pink and white thing, they are more in the red and orange family, my favorite combo. Hosta, some of the multitude of varieties have lovely flowers, and are easy long-lived perennials, as long as deer can't get to them. Hydrangea are very romantic and also lots of varieties to choose from, also loved by deer. I think these two are beginner garden plants. Beautyberry would contrast very nicely with both of those, more feathery foliage paired with broad leaf, the foliage (chartreuse) and shape of the plant without berries (the flowers are inconspicuous,but the berries are spectacular) are both pleasant. Stuff that droops over walls can be lovely as part of a whole picture, too. I wished I had not planted any bulbs in my very first garden 35 years ago - I now consider bulbs to be advanced gardening, design-wise.
Whew! I feel like I got something off my chest!
Yes, this is what I am not interested in - but my wife still wants to try! I don't mind if we have them in pots though, because we can move them around as needed.
Will have a look into this. The deer were a problem for the tulips around, but they cleared some forest and now they are pretty rare here. I can't do hydrangeas though - bad memories from childhood!
Glad to hear - now you can have a relaxed weekend ;D
Traumatized by Hydrangea? That must have been something.
Aye, been learning propagating plants for a couple of years now. Sad to see young trees die but also it's a miracle when you cut a small branch of some bush or tree, stick it into soil and a whole new potential plant takes root and keeps growing as a new individual. So far I've had some success with rosemary, lavender, lemons, lilac, and a fig. I planted a fig stick just to mark the edge of something and before the year was out it had leaves and now it has a few branches of its own.
The lemon can't stay outside in winter. In shall need some solutions soon.
Some of the plants I bought. Like 8 pots of strawberries for about 2-3 euros each. Two years later they are over 80 plants and I have them in two gardens.
Lavender was a bit more expensive and so far... harder to propagate. But I think I am net positive on the count. But I am making it in two stages - a cutting taking root into a pot. Then transplanting the pot into the ground somewhere. That second part is harder to get right.
Rosemary came from a couple of discarded branches somebody gave to a colleague and she cut some of those for me. I then cut them further into smaller twigs and I think I have about a dozen still living. A bit easier then lavender so far.
Olive trees look like they might not make it through a whole year. All 3 out of 3 survived the drought last summer but now they look like 0.5 + 0.25 out of 3 survived the harshest cold which was about -16 C for a few days.
Just some of the examples. I think rosemary and strawberry could feel well even in Finland.
I would love to have a lot of lavender in the garden, but it just doesn't seem to do well enough here - or at least, I am doing something wrong. Lilacs are awesome though, as the flowers smell so great too, even though they don't last long. We have two lilacs, but one is going to have to go, as it is falling down and in a weird place.
I think the problem you have with the lemon is the same I have with everything. I am just not sure what to do for the winter.
The herbs go well in Finland for the short summer, and I like mint, basil, parsley and the like. We had rosemary last summer, but my wife doesn't like the taste. Strawberries are always on the list, and my daughter wants to put some in her garden area. We are going to build some boxes so they are off the ground and away from the rabbits and pheasants.
Leave some space for each of the strawberries to spawn their minions. Up to four-five in a chain per root per season I had.
The lady that lived in our house before us had garden beds with different flowers all over the place. We have since pulled the majority of them out. It was just too much maintenance and my wife and I tend to kill plants. It wasn't going to be a good mix. Good luck with with the work you have ahead of you!
Sounds familiar. My wife kills - I keep them barely alive!
When we moved in here, the previous owners had built snail homes. Yes... snail homes.
Wow, that is pretty crazy! I don't think I have ever heard of snail homes before!
Today I took my blackcurrants out of the freezer, an unpretentious bush, many of us have it. And for the hot cabbage soup I took my chili peppers out of the freezer.
We had to tear up our berry bushes, but we will put more in again this summer. We don't have enough to freeze, just for fresh. But we normally go berry picking and get raspberries and strawberries to freeze. Chili might be a good one to grow - though my wife and daughter don't eat it!
Last summer, while in Portugal, my wife decided to purchase 3 small roses from different colors. Temperatures were very high during the day and we decided to plant them next to the well.
I watered them every morning and had to provide them with shade as they were about to die just the second day due to strong heat. The time and care I put into them was quite big, but it was nice to see how they were resisting.
After two months, when I left at the end of September, I hoped some may grow again after the winter. Last January I still could see some of them flourished.
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I plan to spend some of spring around my house and garden. There need some adjustments to be done. Also, I think to take the same flowers out of the garden :)
You really went all in on the dahlia research. The price of those bulbs is insane, but at least they multiply. This is certainly a long term investment, if your wife doesn’t accidentally take them out first hahaha 🤣🤣🤣