Dahlias

I'd say the star of this year was Karma Fuchsiana, exciting magenta and gold colouration and good long, strong stems. New Baby, the vivid orange pompom, hasn't such strong stems but is very pretty.  Autumn Lustre (described as orangey) was a good yellow with long stems, but I think Glorie van Hemsteede is better as a flower.  The big dark crimson pompom has good stems but not great numbers of flowers. Chat Noir had a few flowers but is not so interesting to me as that pompom.  Taratahi Ruby, so I thought, was nothing like as red as the one with that name last year. Hillcrest Royal, dark red cactus, was a bit disappointing. However, the plants didn't grow very well in the wet and cool summer. Actually, they grew a lot of leaves but the flowers were slow to open.

Willow, part three

The two willow structures got off to a good start this summer, the wettest of the last 100 years. I've just finished bending and tying in the long shoots from the top of the willow arbour in the new garden. It seemed best to place them where they would naturally bend to,  giving a random appearance to the roof. The shoots from the sides turned out to look best and work most comfortably if they were brought down to the horizontal. I've started several horizontal bands of woven-in shoots. I hope they will sprout well from the horizontal plane next summer. If growth continues as it did this summer, it won't be many years before I shape the whole thing with a hedge trimmer once or twice a year.

There was at least one occasion when we sat in the shade of the willow arbour not wearing winter clothes.

I want to make the willow trellis a couple of feet higher, but haven't figured out how to do that yet.