Dahlia Festival

It's fall again....I can tell not by the weather, or the kids going back to school; fall is marked every year in our family with a trip to Swan Island Dahlias in Canby, Oregon. 

Jourdan is a HUGE gardener....he has 45 varieties of dahlias in his personal flower garden.  Notice I said "varieties", he has multiples of some of dahlia tubers (they multiply like tulips).  Anyway, every year we go down to the festival and admire the acres of dahlias in the field.  Jourdan and his dad often go through the catalog as we walk and make selections of which ones they would like to have in the yard.  Then, when the walking and looking are all done, they have to narrow down their selection (because I forbid them to spend more than $100 in a year)....this is often a painful process of elimination.  So, even though I forbade the purchase of new dahlias this year, they managed to max out their previous year's budget anyway!  I give up....I'm not strong enough to be the "heavy" and deny them their dahlias.

This year was particularly fun because we got to include Aunt Maile in our visit to the dahlia festival.  It was fun to have her along for this year's adventure. 

THIS is why dahlias are so fun....every flower looks so different from the other.  Some are huge (dinner plate varieties), some are tiny (pom pon), some are open like a daisy, some are spiky, some have one color, others several.  There are so many amazing flowers.

Yes, that HUGE white flower is ONE bloom.  It's amazing, I tell you...some are literally as big as a dinner plate.  (The new Americanized over-sized dinner plates! )  This one is easily bigger than Julia's head.

If you've never been to the festival, and you live local, you should definitely add it to your "list".