It’s amazing what you can get at Costco.
I bought a fairly cheap bag of dahlia tubers in mixed varieties there last spring. Then I left it sitting next to my desk until September, when I finally planted the (by then) shriveled-up tubers.
They came up strong, nevertheless, and this light yellow and burgundy one surprised me; I didn’t remember anything so nice on the photo on the bag (which I had tossed).
The others were more ordinary: a couple in yellow with just a bit of burgundy streaking, three in solid burgundy, and one in yellow with orange streaks (sent right to the cutting garden).
I put the burgundy- and yellow-flowered plants in the center of the long border along the lower lawn.
Their bi-color streakiness will go well with the red, yellow, and green tropical foliage of the plants pictured above* and with the yellow and green variegated gingers below on the left.
Growing behind the dahlias and blooming all the time is a shrubby Hypericum, possibly H. perforatum or St. John’s wort.
The dahlia plants as a whole are not very pretty at the moment, mainly because I didn’t stake them early enough. I’ve planted two shrimp plants** up front to hide their legginess
. . .eventually. There’s one in front of the gingers too. I should be able to maintain them at about 2′ high.
I think the whole yellow and burgundy arrangement will give some drama to this center section — once everything grows a little more. Those gingers will get at least 12″ taller.
Above: looking down the border to the left to a pink and burgundy (dahlias) section –also still in progress — then yellow, purple, and, at the end, red with some pink and blue/purple around the edges.
Click any of the photos for a larger look.
*I think a croton and a coleus.
enclos*ure 