True Blue

I'll probably never stop trying to grow blue dahlias, even though they don't exist. No such thing as an ugly dahlia, right?


This is last year's "blue" dahlia. It was a gorgeous shade of white, and I clipped it and put it in a vase with blue food coloring.


I bought six of the little bargain dahlia bulb packages at the grocery store again last spring. Three blue, one magenta, one yellow/pink, and one purple. That's what the boxes displayed, anyway.


Two went outside in the raised-bed flower garden. Four were started indoors in pots, then moved out to the porch as soon as it was warm enough and past chilly nights.


A vole took up residence in the raised-bed flower garden, even though I layered Tabasco sauce and chipotle pepper powder like a blanket and continually added new soil to fill and cover up the holes. All the surviving flowers are tipped over flat due to all the tunnels beneath them. Both dahlias are still alive, but they haven't grown very tall, and I don't think they will flower.


A couple of weeks ago, I found two bargain dahlias at the nursery while looking for red sunflower seeds (which, by the way, were sold out). The dahlias were already blooming, so I gave them a good home. Nothing like easy dahlias!!! I should do this every year!!!

I potted both of the nursery dahlias, and I am keeping them inside, hoping maybe they might last a little longer. If I can get the bulbs to survive through winter, I may put them outside in the garden next year.


Once again, the packaged blue dahlias are not blue. No surprise there, huh? Ha ha! Heck, the magenta one isn't even magenta.


Still, the flowers are gorgeous, and the color doesn't really matter. I love to look at them, photograph them and just enjoy the heck out of them.


One sleepless night I was rocking in the living room, working on a crocheted rock cover, when I noticed the blue solar light I bought about eight or nine years ago reflecting off one of the nursery dahlias.

Finally, at long last, I have a blue dahlia!!!

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