As I go through my dahlia beds TIDYING UP before the rainy season starts here, I am amazed at the remaining dried and curled foliage hanging on from our brief hot spell earlier in the summer. I thought the damage was minor as it was so much shorter a hot spell, but we have had a lot of days that were in the 90's. The leaves seem to have dried and cling to the structure of the plant rather then falling off. Then mildew hit this fall and I am going through and removing all the damaged leaves I can, in hopes that they will replace them with healthier foliage. Still a lot of bloooms in the garden but there is a shortage of foliage to support and feed the tubers...normally I would expect our season to go for another month, but not sure what is "Normal" now!
Just in case, I am making sure each is labeled well, and the watering has been going well this year... No obvious wet spots at the end of the beds where it has been a problem in other years.
Among my seedlings I found one little single that is so cute, I am going to save it. We will see what it does next year but it makes me smile right now,
