Dahlia delights

Earlier this year I made a New Year's resolution I knew I would be able to keep. After seeing Sharon from My French Country Home's swoon-worthy photographs of the peachy bloomed Dahlia Cafe au Lait, I decided to put aside my various preconceptions about dahlias and have a go.

I'd always steered away from growing dahlias previously as the varieties I saw were always seemed so garish and artificial looking. I have to admit that there was probably an element of garden snobbery about them as well, although now I have to admit I'm at a loss as to why! Perhaps it's because I think of myself as much more of a billowy gardener and preferring pastel hues to traffic stoppers! But the more I looked around the more I saw that dahlias were beginning to shed their "only for male gardeners of a certain age" reputation and were starting to pop up all over the place.

And I'm very glad they did! I have been out in the garden every evening after work, patiently waiting as the button sized buds swell and became the size of cherry tomatoes, imagining the Mille-feuille-like layers of pastely, peachy pink stuffed into that tiny space - like a ballerina's tutu stuffed into a hat box!

This foray into the world of dahlias has certainly whetted my appetite and I know for sure that there are definitely more tubers on the horizon for my garden!