Sunday Selections # 162
Welcome back to Sunday
Selections!
This once-a- week-meme
was originally begun by Kim of Frog Ponds Rock, as a way to showcase some of
the many photos we all take, but don't get around to showing on our blogs.
The rules are very
simple:-
1. post photos of your
choice, old or new, under the Sunday Selections title
2. link back to me,
River, somewhere in your post
3. leave me a comment so
that I know you've joined in and can come over and see what you've posted.
4. hop on over to TheElephant’s Child to see more of her wonderful photos.
Kath and Andrew often
join in as well, although Kath has been quite busy lately and unable to join
us.
There are several other
participants now though:
Jackie K at WorkingThrough It
Gillie at RandomThoughts From Abroad
I usually go with a
theme for my Sunday Selections and this week my theme is flowers.
Specifically, Dahlias.
A week ago I headed into town in hopes of getting photos of the famed Skywhale which was to be hovering over the Botanic Gardens.
It's a BIG whale, so I was surprised to not see any sign of it and asked at the kiosk and was told it was supposed to be "down by the other cafe, it was there this morning" .
I'd missed it! Well that's too bad, an opportunity lost.
Not feeling in much of a photo taking mood, I wandered through the gardens towards the gate and spotted this......
a hedged bed of Dahlias!
naturally I went in and took lots of photos, about 100 or so.
Here are just a few of them, without commentary. Well, maybe a few words...enjoy.
my favourite, love the sunset colours.
see the spider web?
Love this colour!
.png)
Dahlias kind of fell out of fashion and while I am not sure if they have made a comeback, they are a brilliant flowering plant.
ReplyDeleteThey are beautiful - and there are so many different varieties and colours. And shapes.
ReplyDeleteI am sorry you missed Sky-Whale. We had quite a run around before we found her too.
I love dahlias and these are beautiful.
ReplyDeletevery beautiful! I also love the sunset ones!
ReplyDeleteAnd enjoy I did. Stunning!
ReplyDeleteI love the burnt apricot, and the pink tinged, and the deep burgundy and... well all of them really.
And, nice to see them with insects busily about their business - a sign of a healthy garden.
Thanks River.
What the heck happened with my spacing??
ReplyDeleteAndrew; they do make a lovely addition to any garden, but I've heard they're tricky to grow, perhaps that's why not may try.
Elephant's Child; aren't they stunning? I was sorry to miss SkyWhale, but if I'd found her, I'd have missed the dahlias. After photographing SW, I would have headed directly to the gates.
Joanne; I love them too, but I've never tried to grow any. Most of these have stakes and I don't have the sort or earth a stake is easily hammered into.
Cindi; the sunset ones and the creamy white last one plus the deep burgundy are my favourites.
Vicki; I was also pleased to see so many bees. Dozens of then, although I only managed to catch a few on camera.
My dad grew them and I remember them as a child but when I try to grow them my bulbs always rot or something but they grow in others peoples gardens around here, I think they are beautiful.
ReplyDeleteMerle..................
What beautiful flowers! My Sunday Selections this week will be from Ireland. I'll post them in the morning.
ReplyDeleteMerle; when we lived in Puckapunyal Army Base a neighbour across the road grew an entire yard of magnificent Dahlias. I managed to grow a geranium....
ReplyDeleteMildred; I'll hop over tomorrow and have a look.
Thank you for sharing such beautiful blooms, and the insects too (sorry couldn't see the spider's web). I have a cricket sitting on the wall in this room right now. He's been travelling through the house for a few days. Cheeky fellow.
ReplyDeleteMy dad used to grow dahlias and there is a chap in an adjoining street that grows them each year.
I don't think I've seen such a variety of colours as you've shown here, especially the variegated ones.
Pity you missed SW but look at the beauty you discovered instead.
Hey guess what? We've had two days below 30ºC and it's been delightful BUT back into the 30s again for the coming week. Still no rain registered in Perth...98 days now.
Hope your weekend is going well.
They are beautiful, but do you know the only thing I can think of now is those fold-around paper decorations that people used to use in the 1970s, that made 3-D shapes when you unfolded them and clipped the two edges together with a paper clip. I know my grandparents had ones in the shapes of bells for Christmas, did they have flowers too? I can't remember but the petals of these dahlias look a lot like the paper in those decorations.
ReplyDeleteMimsie; the spider web is just a single gossamer string from the bottom left corner to the dark red bloom. I didn't see it until I took the photo.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you've had at least a couple of cool days, we've got over 30C today and yesterday too. I'm not sure about tomorrow, but I'm staying home anyway.
Jackie K; You're right, they do look like those fold out decorations. We had so many of those when I was a kid, every year mum would refold them carefully and the next Christmas we'd open them up again. They got very faded but mum wouldn't buy new ones. I don't remember any flowers, we only had Christmas themed ones, but I'm sure flowers must have been available.
Aren't they beautiful? And such rich, warm colours as well. I particularly liked the two-toned one near the end of your photo series. I have a patch of dahlia in my garden - a sort of maroon/purple shade. I've stored the tubers in my cellar over the winter, so I must dust them off and see about planting them out again soon. Ours flower in September.
ReplyDeleteApparently they grew them here for the tubers, which they ate (in much the same way as potatoes or Jerusalem artichokes). It was only fairly recently that they've been grown more for the flowers. I had no idea that one could eat them. I've always thought of them as just flowers that grannies grew.
I remember those from my grandmothers garden.
ReplyDeleteMarie; I've never heard of dahlia tubers being eaten. That has to date way back to when people were in caves and storing roots and tubers for winter foods.
ReplyDeleteDelores; my mother's garden was geraniums mostly, because they were easy to grow anywhere. The back yard was vegetables. As far as I know, my grandmother didn't garden.
Hee, hee ... my Swede took exception to that remark about cavemen. Apparently they ate these tubers here until the early 1920s. It was seen as a food crop only - I guess when you are poor and hungry you don't have time for aesthetics. Sweden only became rich after the second world war (thanks to staying "neutral" and selling a shitload of iron ore to Adolph).
ReplyDelete