This year was my first with dahlias. Boyfriend took me to Mohonk last summer and I was obviously enjoying the garden more than anything else, and I decided my new favourite flower was the dahlia (gosh, they have the most impressive garden there! those dahlias were to die for.)

And so, I just have to brag with some pictures :) hopefully you'll enjoy as much as I am. Some of these were bought already growing in pots, some of these I started on my own. Went online and found some tubers from dutch gardens and american meadows.

Otto's Thrill. I grew this one from a tuber I purchased. this one has become my new fav of the bunch! I absolutely love the shade of pink. I also noticed today that the petals are super iridescent on this one in particular! So pretty! the camera does not really capture that aspect, but I think it still gives a pretty nice view.

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My Floodlight Dahlia. This one didn't take to growing height-wise for a while. This picture was taken on my cell phone back in late June, (so excuse poor pic quality) this is one of the first blooms. Now, though, It's nice and tall and has several big healthy blooms at once :) I wish I had a more recent picture. I purchased this one in a pot.

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My...darn, what's this one called? I bought this from pot as well, and lost the little tag thing. This one is by far my tallest and probably the strongest. It's huge. It's about 5' right now and still growing taller everyday, it seems! Many big blooms on it at once. I love it ! If someone could tell me the name, that's be lovely.

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Mystery Day. I purchased the tuber for this. I think the flower is supposed to be a bit bigger, but this one has really only begun to grow in height. It's probably about 3 1/2 feet tall right now. Though I'm pretty sure it's just my fault because I planted my tubers a little bit late. A pretty little flower it is, though!

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Sights of Summer. Bought this in a pot. It's in a nice sized container. I'm really kicking myself though. There were plenty of really fantastic sight-of-summers when I picked this up at the greenhouse, and I got this one because I was sure I wouldn't be able to fit the others in the car without snapping it in half! There was one that was growing so rapid. it was HUGE! I kept trying to figure out how to fit it in the car, but to no avail. So i got this somewhat smaller one. It's healthy as far as I know, but it's just not quite there yet. The blooms on the other ones were HUGE. These blooms have only been about 2-4" in diameter. The coloration is not as brilliant either. But overall it's not a disappointing plant.

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Claudette. This one's doing great. It's got about 10 blooms on it at any given time. I purchased this in a pot. I should have gotten a shot of this as a whole. (and AFTER deadheading, not before. sigh)

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Ecstase. This one's okay. I'm honestly not in love with it, really, but I don't dislike it either. It grows and its healthy and it has a nice bloom, I just dont really love the water-lily type blooms as much as the others, I'm finding. But I'll definitely keep it. It's pretty enough. Bought this one from a pot.

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I forget what these are called!! they're fairly short but with good 3-4" wide blooms. Started these from tubers as well.

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I have some purple pearls too, but I don't have any pictures of them :[ they're doing very well, though. I started those from tubers.

And here's some other fun pics from around my garden :) enjoy!

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zinnias seem to have caught some kind of disease :[

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