GordonHawk said: I call it a cage fight garden... Contestants go in and battle for water...food and a place in the sun.. Like a botanical reality show...

Always a pleasure to see your rooftop gardens Gordon and just as beautiful as ever

Cinda - lovely blooms!

Thank you Gordon!

I'd love a Dahlia Forum!

Gordon - loved your comment about the botanical reality show!

Cinda - lovely start to the world of dahlias.

I would love to see a dahlias forum here too. I do go on the one in cubits, but most of the participants there grow dahlias to sell and they grow hundreds of them. I started growing dahlias about 5 years ago, and now have about 70 varieties. I also would like to see how others incorporate dahlias into their gardens (stakes and all) and have it look natural.

Dianne... nice collection... which is your favorite .. do you have a favorite supplier you'sd like to share with us

GordonHawk said:OH...like most things on my rooftop... the Dahlias do well.....i guess... if you can calll a 7 ft tall plant that has dozens of large flowers most of the summer... this is a large red one now ...woops the pictures on on the ipad... BRB with them... Oh these aren't from there.... but most years I have some from Swan Island Dahlias... out in WA I believe... this one I got in the late winter .. and started it inside... BRB

@GordonHawk I would really love a Dahlia that gets 7 feet tall. Do you remember the cultivar. Sounds wonderful, love your pictures also and you have such a nice roof top garden.

Thanks Susan... it's indeed a love...
no I don't have a name for it... it was from a nice nursery here... I got it in the winter as I was there for some plant foods... it was packed and called red... big breeders will get a good one sometimes .. and through tissue culture make millions of them... and since they can't call them what they are or pay roalities.. they call it red...
So you like CHOCOLATE Susan...it sings... I make piles of ice cream here... I made some from a Spanish Chocolate this week... 85% carob.. and covered with flakes and shards of the dake spanich and some white Chocolate... it's so thick with chocolate.. like a frozen moose ... I have to serve it on a bed of whipped cream... like a frozen moose
pictures of that in the next OT Post...

Oh Susan. It won't be an OT post at all... Here is it's last wilted and bleached out flower. Of the year... Btw that,s the Spanish dark

I was wondering about Spanish and chocolate... It's that they were the first Europeans to mess with it.. As they got it here in the new world...first

Gordon, that sounds and looks delicious!

I love Chocolate ice cream! Your Spanish chocolate looks wonderful! You could make a lot of people happy with that stuff.

Just curious, what do you do with your dahlia in the winter? Do you bring it in or dig it up and replant it the next year?

I bring it in... Lots of things I keep alive in suspended dormancy @ about 40*F in my cool room I started building it today out of 2" foam sheets ..foamed together

Wow, you have been busy!

Looks so good, Gordon. I'll trade you my Bodacious (took the photo today) for a taste!

That is well.....Bodacious!!!

Gordon you never cease to amaze with your rooftop garden my wild kingdom should look 1/100th as good.

Thanks, Susan. It was supremely bodacious earlier in the season.

It looks huge! How big is it actually?

The height is around 4.5' and the flower size is 8" in summer, a bit less now. Not many blooms but each one is perfect.

Well... it certainly is grand... I'd give you lots more than just a taste for some early season Bodacious...
Well.. Ginger....your arrangment of the plants is much like mine... a botanical research station... just mine are all cramed on top of one another it just gets filled in... like if everything you had was on the front porch... rather than spread about .. in the greenhouse.. and off to the side... in front and in back... I love your plants..