Beautiful, colorful dahlias continue to bloom at my Bedford, New York farm.
Dahlias begin to bloom with great profusion just as other plants pass their prime, and they last right up until the first frost. My all-dahlia garden was planted in a large bed behind my vegetable greenhouse and we saw our first dahlias of the season already blooming in June. We have flowers ranging from small to giant dinner-plate size in all different colors and shades - many from Swan Island Dahlias in Oregon, from Floret in the State of Washington, and from The Flower Hat, a flower farm based in Bozeman, Montana.
Here are more of the gorgeous flowers in bloom, enjoy.
I have already cut many dahlia flowers to decorate my home this season, but there are still many to enjoy out in the garden.
There are about 42 species of dahlia, with hybrids commonly grown as garden plants. A member of the Asteraceae family of dicotyledonous plants, some of its relatives include the sunflower, daisy, chrysanthemum, and zinnia.
The genus Dahlia is native to the high plains of Mexico. Some species can be found in Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Costa Rica as well as parts of South America where it was introduced.
Dahlias were first recorded by Westerners in 1615, and were then called by their original Mexican name, acoctli. The first garden dahlias reached the United States in the early 1830s. Today, dahlias are grown all over the world. I love the many striking colors and forms.
It is also the official flower of both San Francisco and Seattle.
The Dahlia is named after the Swedish 18th century botanist Anders Dahl, who originally declared the flower a vegetable, as the tubers are edible.
Flowers come one head per stem. The blooms can be as small as two-inches in diameter or up to one foot across. They are divided into 10 groups: single, anemone, collarette, waterlily, decorative, fall, pompon, cactus, semi-cactus, and miscellaneous.
It can also vary in height, leaf color, form, and shape. This is because dahlias are octoploids, meaning they have eight sets of homologous chromosomes, whereas most plants have only two.
Dahlias produce an abundance of wonderful flowers throughout early summer and again in late summer until the first frost.
Dahlias are popularly grown for their long-lasting cut flowers. This is a cactus dahlia with its beautiful ‘spiny’ petals rolled up along more than two-thirds of its length.
Dahlias thrive in rich, well-drained soil with a pH level of 6.5 to 7.0 and slightly acidic.
The majority of dahlia species do not produce scented flowers or cultivars, but they are brightly colored to attract pollinating insects.
There are some 57,000 varieties of dahlia, with many new ones created each year.
Josephine Bonaparte, wife of the French Emperor, was so enamored of dahlias she grew prize varieties in her garden at Malmaison.
The dahlia was also a favorite bloom of England’s Queen Victoria.
Dahlias come in white, shades of pink, red, yellow, orange, shades of purple, and various combinations of these colors – every color but true blue. In the 19th century, a London newspaper offered a pound, or a little more than a dollar, to the first breeder to create a blue dahlia—the reward was never claimed, but there have been many attempts that are near-blue. Like many flower varieties, there is also no pure black variety—only dark red and dark purple. This one is white with soft lavender tips.
From the side, many dahlia petals grow all around the flower head giving it a very full appearance.
When planting dahlias, choose the location carefully – dahlias grow more blooms where they can have six to eight hours of direct sunlight.
And to prevent wilting, cut only in the early morning or late afternoon. And only cut them after they open to mature size – dahlias will not open after cutting.
This is a single dahlia with just one row of petals surrounding the center disc.
Here’s another dahlia just opening. I hope to still be seeing beautiful dahlia blooms through the season – maybe even until Halloween. Visit the American Dahlia Society website for the many classifications and colors. What are your favorite dahlias?
It's always so important to keep up with the maintenance of my Bedford, New York farm - especially the four miles of carriage road that meander around my homes, gardens, horse paddocks, and through the expansive woodland.
My carriage roads are all covered with natural colored gravel. Over time, rain and traffic cause the gravel to shift or run-off a specific area. Yesterday, Pete Sherpa and Fernando Ferrari took on the task of adding a fresh top layer of gravel to the driveway outside my guest house studio. They edged, weeded, leveled, and then dropped and raked about an inch-and-a-half of new stone. The project took a few hours to complete, but it was an easy way to smooth and maintain the driveway and give it some instant curb appeal.
Enjoy these photos.
I have four miles of gravel-covered carriage road at my farm. Gravel roads are attractive, easy to maintain, and accumulate less pollutants over time. It’s important to edge and shape the roads regularly, so they drain properly and look tidy.
Here is a closer look at the section of road after it is edged nicely.
The driveway in front of this guest house is a high traffic area. Because I do a lot of shoots in this outbuilding, crews often need to park here to load and unload equipment. Over time, rain and use have shifted the gravel. It was in need of some attention and maintenance.
First, Pete used a lawn and garden edging tool to create a fresh and crisp outline for the new surface layer of gravel. He starts by the stone pavers and goes along the edge of the driveway removing any weeds or excess buildup of stone dust and gravel that have washed out of place.
This is a razor-back half moon edger. It’s designed to cut back grass or move rocky soil that ends up over the edges of flower beds and sidewalks. The top edge also has a turned step for secure foot placement.
Pete also cleans the edges of the catch basin and shapes the area for better drainage during storms. A catch basin, or storm drain, redirects rainwater to prevent ponding and flooding.
This area tends to get a lot of runoff, so it is important to keep it shaped properly. The old gravel and stone dust have moved quite close to the catch basin and needs to be re-graded. Stone dust is crushed stone, which is sometimes called crusher run, rock dust, or quarry dust. Stone dust is used as a base layer or setting bed for laying stone pavers or gravel.
The carriage road leading to the driveway was also edged.
Here is the new gravel for the area. I like to use native washed stone in a blend of gray tones. This gravel is from Lawton Adams in nearby Somers, New York.
The dump truck with gravel is now ready to pour onto the driveway. When maintaining a gravel road, one only needs to drop about an inch or two of fresh gravel once every two to three years.
As Fernando drives, Pete directs the gravel to drop slowly out of the back of the truck, so it is easier to spread.
Fernando drops a small amount and then moves up a couple of feet to drop a bit more. Doing this saves a lot of time and manual labor.
Next, Pete uses a landscape rake to spread and level the gravel.
This razor-back aluminum landscape rake has a wide head and teeth to level gravel quickly and smoothly. These landscape rakes are easy to find at home improvement shops and some gardening centers.
This rake also helps to clear the area of unwanted debris.
Pete starts at the edges of the driveway and works toward the center.
This day was warm with little wind, so flying dust from the gravel was minimal.
Here is the new gravel around the catch basin – it looks so much better than before.
Another mound of gravel was dropped on the other side of the driveway. This is just an added layer of gravel for maintenance. When creating a new gravel driveway, the space should be filled with at least six to eight inches of crushed stone on top of stone dust. To calculate how much is needed for a specific driveway, multiply the width by the length by the depth in yards to find the cubic yards of gravel.
Pete carefully spreads the gravel over the center of the driveway.
He also is sure to grade the gravel for proper drainage – peak in the middle of the driveway and incline slightly to the sides.
After a few hours, the driveway looks completely different with its new surface layer of gravel – another important task checked off our list.
After days of hot, humid weather with temperatures in the 90s, we're finally getting a brief respite here at my Bedford, New York farm - temperatures this week are in the 80s with a little less humidity, but unfortunately, still no significant rain.
Supporting a working farm is a lot of work. In order for it to thrive, the animals, gardens, pastures, and my home need constant tender loving care. We also keep a running list of all the chores that need to be done at any given time, so everything always looks and functions at its best.
Here are some photos, enjoy…
This is my allée of pin oaks. Quercus palustris, the pin oak or swamp Spanish oak, is a tree in the red oak section of the genus Quercus. This is the first allée one sees upon entering the farm. They have grown and developed so majestically over the years with good pruning, watering, and feeding.
Across the carriage road is my large Equipment Barn, where we keep all the farm equipment and vehicles when not in use. We try to keep it as organized and as clean as possible to save time hunting for tools and supplies later. Here is Fernando blowing all the debris out of the equipment shed. He does this in the morning when it is empty.
We’ve been using STIHL’s backpack blowers for years here at my farm. These blowers are powerful and fuel-efficient. The gasoline-powered engines provide enough rugged power to tackle heavy debris while delivering low emissions.
Nearby is my pool. During the summer, my daughter and grandchildren love to use it whenever they visit. The surrounding hedges and lush green lawns are regularly manicured to keep them looking their best.
Here is my outdoor grounds crew foreman, Chhiring, mowing the lawn around the pool. He is on our Kubota SZ22NC-48 stand-on mower. We use this to mow areas where the riding mower cannot go.
My new yew table in the pavilion outside my pool is wiped down and the chairs are all dusted clean. The yew table was made from a tree I cut down at my former East Hampton home. It was repurposed and made into this long table earlier this year.
It’s all in the details when it comes to many of the chores we do around the farm. At my Winter House, this was one of the brass weatherstripping saddles earlier this week. They all needed a good polishing.
Enma uses a very soft sponge and metal cleaner to gently wipe the dirt from in between the grooves of this saddle.
And then wipes the entire saddle down with a clean rag.
It looks much better after some time and elbow grease.
Here is Chhiring watering some of the boxwood shrubs. We haven’t had any significant rain here since late June. It’s been a very dry, dry summer. Every day, my gardeners and outdoor grounds crew make sure every garden, grove, and allée gets some water.
Over in the goose yard, my geese love to watch all the activity around the farm. I have 16 geese here at Cantitoe Corners – Sebastopol geese, Toulouse geese, African geese, Chinese geese, and of course my Pomeranian guard geese.
The geese are watching Fernando as he mows their pen. He is using my Kubota ZD1211-60 zero turn riding mower. It has a 24.8 horsepower diesel engine and a wide mower deck. On the right is one of several pools I provide for the geese to keep them cool during these hot summers.
Fernando also trims the grasses around the tree pits outside the goose yard where the mower cannot reach.
The “soccer field” lawn is also looking very clean and freshly mowed. At one edge of the lawn are six weeping hornbeams, Carpinus betulus ‘pendula.’ The weeping hornbeam is deciduous and has a tight, dense growth pattern.
We work very hard to keep my gardens looking well-manicured. This is what I call my Stewartia garden, where I have several Stewartia trees and many other shade loving plants. It’s been freshly weeded and looks great. I don’t use any chemicals in my gardens, so I do tend to get a lot of weeds during this time. And, if left alone, so many of them quickly overtake healthy flowers, plants, and vegetables, stealing their sunlight, water, and soil nutrients. It’s important to weed, weed, weed.
Down at the chicken coops, Dawa checks for eggs twice a day. Chickens reach the peak of their egg-laying schedule when there’s the most daylight, so summer is naturally their best season. As winter approaches and hours of daylight diminish, so do the number of eggs the hens lay.
On this afternoon, Dawa collected more than 30-eggs.
Here, my beautiful Friesian, Geert, is getting cooled off with a little water after being out in the paddock. All the equines are also groomed every day – their hooves are picked of any mud, stones and debris, and their coats are cleaned, and brushed. It’s a time consuming task, but it keeps my stable residents healthy, happy and comfortable.
And back at my Winter House, more watering with our Gilmour Adjustable Circular Tripod Sprinkler. I’ve been using Gilmour hoses and sprinklers for some time. This one is watering the plantings on my terrace parterre. In the center of the garden bed is one of two hand-casted antique fountains I purchased many year ago and finally installed in 2018. They look so nice on this terrace and all the visiting birds love to bathe in them.
Here’s another sprinkler in one of my pastures. Despite the lack of rain, everything looks great. What are some of your most important summer chores?
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