Dahlias, Lilies and Pests

Cactus Dahlia

This amazing cactus dahlia is 10 years old! I bought the tuber many years ago and each year I dig them up after the frost has killed the plants and  I over-winter them in the laundry room in bags of peat moss. The following spring, I plant them in a pot of soil and they start growing again.  The other half of the tubers are growing in my 'Angel bed', but the buds have not opened yet. That dahlia plant has a huge Baby's Breath next to it, hogging much of the sunlight. Next spring I will have to find it a more generous spot to grow in.

My favorite 4-legged companion

Flower box- pink geraniums, blue pansies, white lobelia and creeping jenny- lysemackia

Lexy relaxing in the shade

False sunflowers, another late summer perennial easy to grow.

This false sunflower is quite small compared to the giant growing in the middle of my round Angel bed. That heliopsis is over 7 feet tall! Next spring I will have to dig some of it out and give it away at the spring plant swap, or move the stakes back and re-tie it. It has outgrown it's confines and some of it is hanging down over other not quite as tall perennials.

oriental pink lilies

I love these pink oriental lilies. Such a fabulous color! Thanks to Bobbex, the deer have only eaten 3 of my lilies this year. My Stargazer lilies in my stack stone bed have big buds on them now and should be blooming soon as long as I keep them sprayed...

My white daisies are mostly finished blooming now and I have been deadheading them regularly to avoid a massive takeover in the spring. The Maltese Cross in my rock garden have all gone to seed now, too, so I cut the stems down to about half their size last evening.  Also yanked out copious amounts of tall quack grass hiding in among my tall perennials. Today I trimmed off a number of Maltese Cross in my round 'Angel bed' as well as some of the monkshood which is going to seed.

The Delphiniums are next!

The ugly part of gardening: pest control!
Tiny caterpillars had infested my red current bush and had a hay day there. More like a "hay week",  I think! They almost stripped every leaf off the entire bush!  The week before that, I  had discovered masses of aphids underneath the upper leaves of the same shrub, so I clipped off all the upper leaves,  then sprayed the entire thing with insecticidal soap, thinking I had the problem beat. Riiiight!

I also noticed that something in my flower beds were making lacy holes in the leaves of many of my flowers, notably the sunflowers. Many of the smaller ones in my stack stone bed had no leaves left at all. I discovered the culprits yesterday evening, after the sun had gone around to the other side of the house and it had cooled off. There were about a dozen slugs there, one on each sunflower, merrily munching away oblivious to my angry glare. I picked the leaves that they were sitting on and squished them....

I have to spray some Neem Oil on the plants in that bed to deter any other nasty creatures, but rain was forecast for tonight which would mean re-applying it tomorrow, so I will wait till then.