Dahlias in August

I planted 21 dahlia tubers, not sure how many have come up and not all have bloomed yet. A couple haven't even set buds which is disappointing. But the ones that have bloomed are stunning. I will try to list their names below the photo. All of these will be wintered over and divided, if it works out, to make even more dahlia blooms next summer.

I don't know the name of this one, but it is a lovely semi-cactus dahlia in soft pink

Linda's Baby showing up peachy coral as in the catalog

I think this one is Linda's Baby; two different colours on the same plant

I don't know the name of this one

I think this is Jowey Linda

Esli dahlia, by far the most blooms of all

Creve Couer, the tallest dahlia in deep fuchsia, this bloom is 7 inches across

Cafe au Lait dahlia in gorgeous shades of taupe and blush

Cafe au Lait, showing pale pink on the outer petals

Cafe au Lait dahlia, this one is pale yellow on the same plant

Small pompom dahlia that wintered over from last year

This week's bouquet

I figure I should cut the flowers and put them on the table where we spend most of our time, so that I can be enjoying them up close. This week's selection features giant dinner plate dahlia Creve Couer, some pompom dahlias, cosmos, phlox, echinacea, daisies, black-eyed susans, hollyhocks, balloon flowers, and the beloved funny amaranth. Favourite flower this year though is plain old echinacea, or purple coneflower.

August flowers

Snapdragons are blooming well this year

A prize dahlia, a dinner plate red, called Creve Couer, grows 3 feet tall and has large shaggy blooms

A candy pink ball dahlia, blooming profusely, I think this one is Esli

Peachy pink ball dahlia, I think this is Linda's Baby or it could be Jowey Linda

Red echinacea

Flowering tobacco, aka nicotiana, reaching over 2 feet tall in a pot

A container on the deck with reiger begonia and impatiens, a winning combination

Knitting a shawl

I wanted a project that would just be interesting knitting with no fitting issues to deal with. So I decided to make the Suncrest Shawl by Tanis.

I has one ball of silk/wool sock yarn, hand-dyed by a local artisan and it was lovely to work with. It was just too pricey to knit socks with it, so a shawl was just the right project for this yarn.

This image does not do justice to the colour; it is much more variegated and a prettier shade of green than this image shows. I had great difficulty keeping the counting straight and there are many errors. After unpicking long rows a couple of times, I thought that I would just get to the end of the row and either add or decrease stitches to get the right number at the end. It seemed to work. The lace pattern was not at all visible until I completely soaked it and spread it out to block. Now I can see the pattern and it is lovely. This will be a gift for my daughter Elena, as I am not a shawl person. However, I do enjoy knitting them and am looking at the Great British Baking Shawl as a future project. I particularly like knitting with double weight yarn, rather than worsted weight. It is just much more comfortable and it also weighs less as you knit.