Too Big To Fall, A Dahlia Story
I decided to plant bulbs this past winter. I had never been so ahead of the gardening game to even consider planting something ahead of time, but there I was with Sadie at Lowe’s wondering if I could have something as fantastically gorgeous as these hot pink dahlias in my garden?!?! Could I actually grow something that embraced the flowery fuschia abundance that I loved in my chalk paints?
So we bought, planted and waited. You know I’m no good at this so this was agony. I just hoped they bloomed before my mom’s visit in July or at least by our beach trip the next week.
I knew enough to be dangerous…
Here’s where this derailed. I read that if you pinch the dahlia stalks as soon as they “leaf” you get more blooms!
More is more right?!?! So I pinched all those little suckers back.
They started to grow and I see the first little buds in June. YASSS!! Perfect timing I’m thinking. (no, no it was not)
So I’m basically watching these buds like a hawk. Like my baby eggs about to hatch.
It’s mid June. Hatch dammit hatch!!!
Mom is now arriving in 2 days!
They don’t hatch.
Mom is here and now we are all leaving for a 2 week family trip. Nothing.
It’s the day before we leave and one petal releases.
Holy f*cking hell these guys are gonna pop the day after I leave. How could they do this to me??? I’m gonna miss the whole damn show!
I’m gonna com come back to a bunch of shriveled up flowers- all sad and spent.
Johnna to the rescue!
Luckily my girl Johnna took some pictures for me so I could at least have a virtual show.
Two weeks pass and we finally arrive home. Sadie runs for her dogs. Dey runs for his cats. Brian runs to his computer, Nona runs for the bathroom and me, I run for the dahlias!!!
It’s dark and I can’t see them. Like I can’t see them at all! Weird.
I go to bed and first thing in the am I bolt for the garden. Where are they???
Then I look down. I see the pile.
They had all collapsed. Layer after layer of dahlia stalks and blooms piled on top of each other. Crushed by the weight of extreme, audacious, fluffy, fuschias-ness.
I had pinched so much that I had too many blooms per stalk. They got so huge so fast, the stalks could not support the weight and they all tumbled down during a storm.
I grabbed poles and tape and twine and got those suckers back at attention! Those that I could not save, I offer here for you.
Please show me your version of these Dahlias
Here is MINE!
Please enjoy them. Paint them. Copy them. Show me what you do with them.
I’m sure I could make a metaphor about being too large. Shining too bright. Moving too fast. Falling down and getting back up. It seems familiar somehow. But today let’s just #takethewinmyfriends, take the win.
