Collarette Dahlia

Collarette Dahlia

Dahlia 'Alpen Cherub'

(DAHL-ya)

First things first, Happy Thanksgiving to all the American readers here. I hope the day is full of family, friends and good food. We are travelling this year to my brother’s area near Hartford (about 1.5 hours away). I am looking forward to seeing everyone.

Most of pictures posted here lately have been taken at times stretching over the last several seasons. There was one mum and a hardy geranium blooming in the garden this week but generally it is a dull and dreary landscape we are now dealing with. Since the foliage is now down you can see all the damage to the trees that happened during the snowstorm of a couple of weeks ago. The earlier Tropical Storm didn’t help either. It is just nature carrying on its business but it looks heartbreaking to me. Sometimes I just want to stop the truck and try and help some of the broken trees along the roads but haven’t so far.

Today’s Flower is a Collarette Dahlia. It is an especially elegant and sophisticated form of the familiar flower. “Alpen Cherub’ is a nice bushy free flowering variety. The flowers are small by Dahlia standards (2-4 inches across) but make up for that by blooming in well coordinated waves. It blooms proudly and the delicate shading on the extra petals is truly beautiful.