This last week has seen a gradual emergence of the first ever decent bloom on Dahlia ‘Pink Petticoat’, a variety added last year to supplement my existing selection of dahlias. Last season, however, saw a mere handful of blooms, all either distorted or weather-damaged, not doing much for the variety’s credentials and leaving me unsure of its appeal. Despite a near-perfect bloom, I am still uncertain about it this year, probably because it is bigger and blowsier than the dahlias I would usually choose, but with the delicate pink shading and twisted petals I can see its potential attraction. As I write this, the colour on my screen looks distinctly lilac, but rest assured it is a pale pink!
With no guarantee yet of future blooms, I cut this while I had the chance, adding it to stems of a mystery gladiolus that are just beginning to emerge from their sheaths of ugly sword-like leaves. I have absolutely NO idea where these gladioli came from, the only gladioli I ever recollect buying were the bargain ‘red’ ones used in a Monday vase a few weeks ago and a ‘green’ variety which never produced anything other than leaves: these are clearly neither. In truth, I would never contemplate buying varieties of any plant that had remotely ‘salmon’ coloured blooms, and all I can think of is that they might have come free with something else. At any rate, once they have made their elegant-if-nothing-else contribution to this vase they and all the ugly sword-like leaves in the borders will be removed and quickly forgotten…
Although I used the title ‘Pink it Up’ it seems as if I have now all but talked myself out of either bloom being truly pink; nevertheless, I am sticking with it and the chosen prop, a piece of pink fabric with the edges ‘pinked’ with pinking shears. If I had chosen a different vase and added the also-picked pink zinnias and hint-of-pink sedum, it would undoubtedly have looked pinker – but enough is enough, and they were added to the long-lasting limonium and stipa of last week’s vase instead.
If you would like to share blooms or other material that you have cut from your garden or foraged locally to make your own vase today, please consider sharing them with us on IAVOM by leaving the usual links.
Rambling in the Garden 
Oh no! I suddenly feel sorry for the gladioli and want to rescue it. Although it does look very like the hesperantha (kafir lily) I have. If I lived closer I would rush round and adopt it. 😆
I am going to dig them all out so you are welcome to some/all of them – they must have been in the ground for a few years and haven’t done anything before now, so the occasional bloom does not make up for all the ugly leaves the other years…
I smiled at Wild Daffodil offering to adopt your gladioli. I’ve never had any success with them, so huge congratulations on two pretty stems. I’m not offering to rescue them or the Dahlia as it would suffer too much here in the drought Lovely arrangement. Here is my contribution: https://noellemace.blogspot.com/2022/08/in-vase-on-monday-of-shooting-stars.html
No, they just don’t seem to flower for me either, otherwise I would be happy to tolerate the foliage for the sake of blooms in a colour of my choice 😉
Beautiful. Colors are so subjective. To me the gladiolus looks more pink than the dahlia. My experience with dahlias is limited but they never look quite like the marketing images. https://pbmgarden.blog/2022/08/22/in-a-vase-on-monday-respite/
I suspect that the dahlia looks more pink when it’s not next to other pinks, as even looking at it in real life it currently looks more lilac/pink than I thought before I picked it…😉. I think it is the size of the bloom I am not so keen, although it is large rather than huge
I like the pinks! Especially pinking fabric. What fun. I like to use the glad foliage in arrangements for its spiky accent with Alstroemeria. Just a thought. I like your Dahlia as well. We are all succumbing to the charms of Dahlias it seems. Thanks for hosting. https://theshrubqueen.com/2022/08/22/in-a-vase-on-monday-berry-good/
Thanks Amelia – I did like the effect of the foliage in the vase, but am not going to grow gladioli for the foliage which seems to be aall I normally get!! 🤣
Same here with the gladiolus, disastrous in the garden.
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Hi Cathy, I’m not a salmon pink person either. But looking at colours on screen it’s also important to keep in mind that you need a calibrated monitor if you really want to see the true colours. I think most people probably don’t have this. I once looked at my blog on the (uncalibrated) device of a friend and almost got a shock. You should give the gladioli corms to someone who’s more appreciative of the colour. 😉 It’s a funny year for dahlias at least at my end. In the pot they get destroyed by slugs and in the border it’s way too hot and dry. Here’s my contribution, albeit not a pure IAVOAM, hope it’s still acceptable: https://personaleden.wordpress.com/2022/08/22/hallo-herbst-hello-autumn/ Best wishes to you and the Golfer xx PS: By the way do you have news of Christina? Hope she’s well.
It’s the fact that the gladioli don’t flower as much as the ugly leaves, Annette! I haven’t heard of calibrated monitors but assume it’s not something the average pesron would bother with. I guess cameras record colour differently too – I remember having one that seemed to focus on reds in particular. Haven’t heard from Christina for ages, so will perhaps send her an email – no idea if she even looks at blogs these days
yes, colour management is a complicated subject. I’ll get in touch with her too x
I have thought about it but never grown Glads. What do you have against them…in case I change my mind.
It’s the fact that they don’t flower Beverley, and their foliage year after year is far from inspiring… 😉
Ha! I added ‘Pink Petticoat’ (despite its name) to my dahlia collection this year. It’s one of the 3 that’s had buds for weeks now without reaching bloom stage. It’s odd (and somewhat annoying) that, as good as cameras are these days, the colors in our photographs don’t come out the way we see them – it happens to me quite often. I failed to plant gladiolas this year and, other than a couple I thought I’d pulled last year, I found I missed them this year – they can be difficult to rid yourself of when you tire of them, though…Here’s my post: https://krispgarden.blogspot.com/2022/08/in-vase-on-monday-not-much-to-work-with.html
Intersting to read that gladioli can be hard to get rid off Kris – and that you have Pink Petticoat too! It’s intersting that it seems to be a poor performer – I have another variety that only seems to put up one stem each year, even when I pinch it out, and this year even the single stem is only a few inches high…very odd
Oh that’s yet another dahlia I’ve not heard of Cathy 😂 Just how many are there 🤔 I can see it’s attraction. I’m more drawn to the glad though and will join in the rescue party. I do agree with your comment about the foliage which always looks so stiff. As Kris says they can be hard to eliminate. My vase picked in advance of this afternoon’s welcome rain is here : https://greentapestry.blogspot.com/2022/08/turning-japanese.html
I got this dahlia and another from SR last year as there was a free p&p offer at the time 😉 If you would like some of these gladioli I will happily send you some as they are all going to come out…
How odd, both that you did not plant the Gladiolus, and that they are blooming now. I was just about to ask if you planted the bulbs late to get them to bloom so late. Weirdly, of all the Gladiolus that were planted here a long time ago, but were not reliably perennial, a few somehow survived. Only they have been reliably perennial for several years. Otherwise, they do not seem to be any different from the others that were planted with them. Then, this year, several more grew up with them! Not only were they different colors, but they bloomed much later, and just finished earlier in August. (Gladiolus bloom during June and July here.)
I will have planted them Tony, but certainly didn’t buy them – and because they have never flowered beforee I have no idea what their typical flowering period would be!