The first dahlia started to bloom. We are early this summer. Usually dahlias start around mid August.
Not quite sure what will I have blooming later in the autumn. Seems that the long period of high temperatures has made everything to be unbelievably early.
Well at least I have plenty of watering to do.
I have tried and tried to grow Barlow series columbines but with modest luck.
I guess the winters up here are a bit too much for the Barlows.
Currently I just have one Bordeaux Barlow blooming. Well it is a good thing that there are so many columbine varieties available and many more to test and try.
First cosmos flowers are starting to bloom. The ones I have gotten from my mom always go first. The others follow a month later in August.
I have been trying to find an early blooming variety with no luck. Simply because the summers are so short up here in the north.
This far I have not had any luck. My luck might change this year. A new variety is already making buds. We will see.
If I have no success then I just give up and continue with the one from mom. One variety is enough if it is a good one like I now have.
This is the second summer when I can enjoy sunflowers blooming early.
Happy that I found Ruby. It grows fast and starts blooming as early as in July. About a month earlier than any other variety I have tried.
The color of the flower is nearly brown when it opens and it changes to a mixture of yellow, red and orange when days go by.
Now that I have found the sunflowers again I wanted to try a new color. The ones I have cultivate earlier have always been yellow.
I ended up choosing a red variant called Ruby. The summer was cool so I did not expect much from my experiment but in the end it turned out that the Rubies did not mind. Enjoying the constant rains we had.
They grew to be strong and tall and even started to bloom late July which is early here in the north. My reliable Teddy Bears have not even started yet and it will be September before they start their show.
I think I will see red sunflowers next year as well! I was so happy with the results.
When the bud opens the color is red but it slowly fades to orange. They are beautiful to watch in the evening light which really highlights their colors.
PS. Bought my seeds from Stockmann and each seed germinated.
Gardening in the North 