Last March I dug up a triangular space near the front deck, it was all weeds and moss, and filled it in with the good dirt that Nola's been saving for... I dunno what she was saving it for. I got some eight wheelbarrow loads of it, made a little perimeter fence out of small pine trees that hadn't a hope of bettering their lot, and filled it to the brim with flowers and bulbs.
I put the Babylon Red in the centre. It came with its own bag of Special Dirt. I hadn't a clue what it would look like, other than big and tall. Since then, I've been watching it poke up and spread leaves and put on height and heft, and then three weeks ago it came up with a bud, about the size of a third of a golf ball. Took several days to get to full bud size, and was closer to handball size by the time it started to open. That took another week, just opening. I guess when you look like that, you can take your time arriving to the party.
Known as a "dinnerplate dahlia", is more dessert plate size. But very poofy.
This is a close-up view of its centre. It's not done opening.
This is how it started; there are another two buds getting ready.
(Nola kindly took these pictures for me.)
celebrating my birthday in flowers along with Symphony No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 13, "Winter Daydreams": II. Adagio Cantabile Ma non Tanto (Land of Desolation, Land of Mists) from the album "Tchaikovsky: Symphonies Nos. 1, "Winter Daydreams" and 6, "Pathetique"" by Vladimir Jurowski & London Philharmonic Orchestra
