Dahlia Season at the Coast

 August Bloomday did not come to fruition for me-3 days in a row of temperatures north of 105 even crisped up the zonal Geraniums. A rude awakening after spending a few days at a quiet inn on the north coast where temps stayed in the pleasant mid-60's . Now that it's not 105 anymore I could actually go outside and trim up the torched plants however now we have the smoke, the ash, the grey and gold horizons all around. Fires are in my county and all counties adjacent so the breeze that blows the smoke away from one direction  blows it in from another.
  My Dahlias did not fare well in the c-note temps. And prior to the the heat wave they have been beset with leaf miners that have made a hot mess of their foliage. I have been spending a fair amount of time researching options for control for next year-at this point in the summer the damage is done and I just have to live with the unsightly result. One bit of advice was to pick off and destroy any leaves as soon as they start to show signs of damage-if I did that right now there would be little to no foliage left. I've been pulling only the most disfigured leaves, cursing at the exit holes and watching for new squiggles. More vigilance will be called for in 2021 but I also plan to grow them in an area that is segregated enough from the garden at large to hopefully hide the foliage somewhat from the general view. My garden is small so it's hard to hide anything but I did manage to successfully obscure the crappy bearded Iris foliage. In such a year a small victory is welcome.

So here are some photos from the Dahlia collection at Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens, taken last Thursday. If it seems like the only place I have been in the last 6 months is Mendocino it is because..the only place I have been in the last 6 months is Mendocino. It was a pleasure to see healthy well grown Dahlias, when my own have endured such pestilence.

 The Dahlias are grown within a belt of Cypress that separates them from headlands and the sea below. Most of them are tagged but at this point of the summer the plants have engulfed and obscured the labels.

 

The supports are just plain old tomato cages-much more efficient for Dahlias than tomatoes if you ask me. You can just see the top ring below the flower on the left. Like the plant tags, at this time of year they are barely visible.

 A few years ago I planted 4 of the pom types, but it was very disappointing and I dug them up and discarded them in fall . I will try them again sometime. Perhaps I need to choose varieties of poms that are recommended for commercial cutting gardens-they are bound to have more blooms than mine did. Either that or I should have given them another year.

 I love the singles too. They leave the damn cucumber beetles quite exposed. Much easier to hide in those dense petaled numbers. My control for these little beasts is to take a hand held cordless dustbuster out into the garden in the morning and vacuum them into oblivion. Works quite well but you have to stay on top of it.

 This one is particularly gaudy.  It would be hard to work something like this into anything but a hot border. I'd love to have a spot for this.

A better view of the lush foliage. So unfair.

 The appropriately Mendocino-ish signage as you enter the garden.

 This is what you see if you venture beyond the trees.

Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens is currently open only to advance ticket holders; members do not require tickets and can walk in any time during open hours. The garden welcomes your canine friends on leash.