Dahlias are mainly grown for the summer border and cut flowers and they can keep on flowering until the first frosts. They come in many different colours and flower types from a small patio plant to huge dinner-plate sized double decorative specimens.
I am taking part in the 2014 April A-Z Challenge where you post the alphabet every day for 26 days (you get Sundays off for good behaviour) It is about visiting other blogs and forming friendships by leaving meaningful comments.
My idea is to post a flower or plant for every letter of the alphabet. It may be a common name or its Latin name or even a colour, but I am going to try to find you a picture for every letter. Will I manage to succeed? Well I shall give it a good try, and I hope you will keep visiting my blog to see what I have each day.
Colchicum autumnale, commonly known as autumn crocus, meadow saffron or naked lady, is a flower that resembles the true crocus, but blooms in autumn.
Crinums have big funnel-shaped blooms in clusters of up to 10 flowers festooning flower stalks up to 60cm tall. They have an incredibly sweet scent and a long blooming period.
Beautiful Swamp Lily
‘Arabian Night’ is a beautiful dahlia with large, fully-double flowerheads of dark burgundy-red, it is a decorative flower type.
Cosmos atrosanguineus derives its Latin name from its colour of dried blood – but the plant’s popular name, chocolate cosmos, comes from its incredible chocolate fragrance
“Chocolate Velvet” Click image to enlarge
Another lovely fragrant flower in my favourite colour, it really does smell of chocolate… and vanilla! I rescued three of these plants from the market this summer when they were in a pretty dire condition (only cost me £1 each). Re-potted and given a ‘Chelsea crop’ they have flourished and rewarded me with many lovely blooms. Although not hardy so they won’t survive the winter here, I think I have had my money’s worth from them this year 🙂
Mauve Iris
The gardens in the UK seem to be full of alliums at the moment – beautiful swathes of purpleness.
Alliums
Earth laughs in flowers 