Dug Up The Dalias

  I took this photo days before I dug up my Dalias and stored them in the warm dry basement for the winter. Chris Thompson, my friend who's been farming in cooler climates his entire life and more than half a century, gave me these North Creek Raft-red Dalias several years ago. In his experience, this is the variety of Dalias that do best in the Adirondacks. They've done well here at my sandy farm. The foliage is a deep, lush, healthy green and the stem a thick deep maroon from the time they peek through the ground in the spring until the first hard frost in the fall. Wistfully, as soon as they are really starting to bloom, it's time to dig them up due to cooler temperatures.