ANOTHER HOT ONE - TRIAL AND ERROR AHEAD!

We are very warm here in North Central Washington already. I looked at my dashboard thermometer today and it said 89, which was not quite as high as my husband saw when he was driving around town today - 95. In any event, the temps could somewhat explain how much I was sweating when I was finishing the planting in one of my home dahlia beds today! I've moved my beds around this year, in an effort to better achieve the balance of sunlight and heat necessary to grow great dahlias. One of our NCW Dahlia Society members has his dahlia planted along the western boundary of his yard, where he also has a tall fence, which provides afternoon shade. His flowers did pretty well last year, in spite of the record setting temps in 2014, so I think it is time to take a page out of his book. I only have around 30 plants in three 4'x4' beds, but they are some of my favorite varieties, including some new introductions from some of my Snohomish County friends. So far, the ones I planted a couple weeks ago seem to be doing very well when compared with the beds in my tradition spot, just below our deck with a full-out western exposure. I have also built a 4'x4' bed and a 4'x8' bed on the northern edge of the yard, which I haven't planted yet. I will probably still plant it, probably with some of my second and third year seedlings. It will be interesting to see the variance in the blooms and foliage come August. With temps like this in May, I can only imagine what will happen in the next few months. I've found that dahlia growing is a series of experiments, and if you aren't curious enough to keep tweaking what you've learned, you may get discouraged and give up - I hope you don't. I've learned so much more from my failures than from my successes, and I continue to learn so much from others who share.......Enjoy the journey!