Dahlia of the Triffids

Yes, it's happening, we're going for a botanical-literary-cinematic pun for every post. Start the groaning now.

So I dug out my dahlia tubers yesterday. They truly were monsters. I wish I could tell you which varieties they were, but of course I have totally forgotten. I think I went wild and ordered them from Sarah Raven as a treat (for me, not for her, I doubt she was that thrilled). Anyway, there were two delicious dark burgundy kinds and a bright orange one. They all grew like topsy* once planted, although I have to say that the vase life of the orange ones was pretty disappointing, they went rather crispy and curly round the edges - like a sandwich left out in the sun. They did pretty well in floral foam, and I made some lovely table centres out of them, which you see pictured, in September, which I thought were an autumnal delight, if I do say so myself. Was just about to divide them when it started hailing in a thoroughly aggressive manner, and I had to take cover in the greenhouse, with a rather worried dog. After the icy deluge I have to say I rather lost the will to garden...

Have not made a SINGLE wreath today as direct consequence of eating the biggest Thanksgiving dinner ever in the history of the world (fact) and being simply too full to deal with moss and wires and spiky things.

* Factoid of the day. I was just about to wonder out loud what 'topsy' was, thinking maybe it was a sort of weed, but I looked it up and in fact it comes from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher-Stowe. The character Topsy is a wild ragamuffin, who says, "I s'pect I growed. Don't think nobody never made me." and it passed into common use. You see! Putting that English degree to good use, and maybe making up for horrendous puns? No.