dahlias Archives - Nancy Flynn

The Last Bouquet

Nancy Flynn January 17, 2025Apostrophe Blog Archive, Gardening, History Lessons, Photography, Political News, Writing

I picked the last batch of dahlias on November 22nd, seventeen days after the disastrous, shameful results in the U.S. presidential election. It had been a relatively warm fall overall and the dahlias just kept on blooming right up until the day when it was time to cut down the stalks, cover the beds with thick plastic, shovel then rake a thick layer of bark mulch on top—their over-wintering insulation so I did not have to dig up all the tubers and put them into crates full of peat moss and newspaper for storage…

Choosing Beauty…

Nancy Flynn November 16, 2024Apostrophe Blog Archive, History Lessons, Political News

these bleak, dispiriting days since the events of November 5, 2024. Here is the penultimate bouquet from my front yard dahlia farm. One week from today, this year’s deconstruction begins: cutting down the stalks, laying out the plastic to cover the plants, then bark mulch on top of that to (hopefully) keep the tubers from freezing over the wet, winter months…

Water Feature

Nancy Flynn June 2, 2024Apostrophe Blog Archive, Wisdom, Writing

I spent most of this day in my green sanctuary. Away from the world. Hiding out. Holing up by choice. This, the day after the thirty-four guilty counts convicted as felon you-know-who. I weeded. I watered. I fertilized. I scrubbed more green algae from the dahlia fountain. I recycled. I re-planted. I watched birds—goldfinch, sparrows, the flicker—cheep and bounce and hop…

End of the Season…

Nancy Flynn November 28, 2023Apostrophe Blog Archive, Gardening, Home, Musings, Neighborhood

There is a spectacularly bright full moon out there on this chilly, late November night. Yesterday, I cut the final dahlias blooms of the season. They were looking a little ragged after a few nights of just-around-freezing temperatures and cold wind. Then I tackled the plants with my new, awesome Felco secateurs—they made swift work of stems and stalks
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The Last Bouquet?

Nancy Flynn November 21, 2023Apostrophe Blog Archive, Gardening, Musings, Neighborhood, Writing

There was a frost last week in and around the Northeast Portland neighborhood where we live, a couple of miles up the hill from the Columbia River. But somehow the dahlias survived here in our micro-climate that only got to a low of 33 degrees F. I walked by other gardens where their dahlia leaves are now blackened, their unspent blooms still knobby and unopened on their stems…

The Dahlias Are Divas…

Nancy Flynn September 11, 2023Apostrophe Blog Archive, Arts & Culture, Gardening

And, in their September abundance, they are now putting on a glorious show. And now they are in a book—Gratitude, by the outstanding photographer, Kelly Johnson. Kelly was walking around the neighborhood one day during the pandemic and she stopped to photograph some blooms…

Sharing the Floral Abundance

Nancy Flynn August 23, 2023Apostrophe Blog Archive, Gardening

We are now edging into the last week of August. We just survived a stretch of record-breaking hot days and now the smoke has arrived. So many trees and perennials are suffering. But the dahlias are coming into their peak bloom and seem to be thriving! I am not sure if I ever formally decided to start growing a small urban “farm” of dahlias….