Where the biggest dahlia bed is now, I planted a very late blooming perennial sunflower 2 years ago and I will let it take over the entire bed. I've never been able to key it out. It blooms in October here and grows 6 to 10 feet in height. Early-spring, that bed already has daffodils and tulips. Midspring Cerise Queen yarrow is scattered through it, and tuberoses in summer. I will probably also go scatter some opium poppy seeds to bloom in May. The sunflower does not really start growing up until late spring and the other stuff should do well enough around and under it. I'm not real sure what I'll do in other places. I'm moving more and more toward natives and plants that naturalize easily.


Maybe it is just because I have so many of the dahlias, but the rest of the garden was being neglected as I tried to keep up with deadheading. I have big cages around them that I built, but they get so big that they still needed additional staking, and/or many would topple the cages during high wind. In general, I found the selections I grew exceeded their expected height by 1 1/2 -2/12 feet. They also require supplemental watering here, and I am trying to move away from having to routinely irrigate.

If I can legally ship dahlias to California and you want any of mine you can have divisions. (same offer to the rest of my fellow "12-steppers" of the garden. Let me feed your addiction!) I've got photos of all of them, or can direct you to photos of them on the Swan Island website.

Janie