Roman garden just outside Portage
Posted By Ted Meseyton, From the Garden
Posted 2 months ago
Julius and Evelyn Roman/Submitted Photo....Julius Roman stands 5 feet, 9 inches tall. His wife Evelyn told the Singing Gardener she has grown a lot of dahlias in her time, but never one like this. It may well be a variety named Serena, noted for profuse white blooms with yellow centres on a strong, shrub-like plant.
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The weather has been so doggone nice this fall that folks are still doing a lot of garden talk. By the way "doggone" is in some dictionaries. It means astonishingly amazing, utterly confounded or mixed up.
Julius and Evelyn Roman
… live and garden at Bowes Trailer Court on the eastern side of Portage la Prairie. This past spring, Evelyn bought a dahlia tuber from a local garden centre and planted it directly outdoors in full sun. The long and the short of it is she got a lot more than expected from that single dahlia tuber. Now it has been dug and safely stored in a frost-free area until next planting season.
Some dahlias are so majestic, they're dinner plate-sized. You have to see them for yourself, to appreciate what we're talking about. Height and flower size determines whether the variety you select is best for front of the border, edging, patio containers or as back-of-the-garden specimens.
Many dahlias were developed in Holland for the cut flower market because of their extraordinarily strong stems, delightful beauty and multiple colours.
By the way, dahlias are also easily raised from seeds. Varieties such as Victoriana and Delight mixed can be sown indoors four to six weeks before last frost and readily transplanted outdoors to bloom without any difficulty, all in the same year.
Final thoughts
I wish you a day of ordinary miracles. Things like … a fresh pot of coffee; a bowl of soup and a sandwich you didn't have to make yourself. An unexpected phone call from an old friend. Your keys right where you left them. Only green traffic lights on your way to work. The fastest lane at the grocery store checkout. A good sing-along song on the radio and some of your favourite hymns at church.
Ted Meseyton is the Singing Gardener and Grow-It Poet from Portage la Prairie. His e-mail address is singinggardener@mts.net
