Dahlias for Mr France.

When we were young and bought our first house in 1965.

it was a new build  on a small estate, in the north of England.

At that time, when the builders had finished building,
the garden was not landscaped ready for the new owner.

 We had a lot of preparation to do, before it even resembled a garden.

We were both very young and didn't know much about gardening then.

Then one day, my husbands father who didn't visit us very often,

arrived with a big brown paper bag full of Dahlias.
I wasn't  familiar with the different varieties.
So didn't know what to expect.
I must admit they grew quickly, but those huge flowers 

which were mainly the big blousey cactus type,
were not to my liking, and since then I've never planted them again.

There are not many flowers I don't like.
but these are not one of my favourite flowers.
~~~~~~~~~~

I'll let you into a little secret.

Until a few years ago Mr France didn't know a weed from a cultivated flower.

However he's now started to take an interest in the garden.
and during that time he'd asked me several times
' What was the name of the flowers my Dad planted in our first garden '
and because I didn't like them, I told him ' I couldn't remember'



But I've been caught out.
as he now comes with me to the garden centers,
He saw the bags of Dahlia tubers with the image stapled to the bag,
and said 'these are the flowers I mean'
~~~~~~~~~~
After all these years, I've only just told him I knew
what they were. but as I didn't like them I said
' I couldn't remember what flowers he meant.'

We made a compromise and chose another variety.
So he's happy.
These are the variety we chose and we both like them.

 Dahlias Collerette

I quite like the look of these.
( Looks like a nice flower to paint in my Garden journal )

He immediately put two bags into the trolley.

Back to my first garden.
Looking at the old photos we had lots of colour from the 'Nemesia'
but my planting left a lot to be desired.
I can also see some other plants there
that's NOT on my list of favourites  'Gladiola'
I think that's because it's tall and spiky and only has one flower stem.

As I've shown some photos of our first dog, 'Ricky'
I thought I'd tell you a little about him.
He was a miniature poodle and I may add nothing like a posh poodle.
 At that time Mr France worked shifts and thought it would be a good idea
for me to have a dog for company, as he worked late hours
and sometimes during the night.

 When we arrived at the kennel to choose our new puppy
he was a bit surprised when he saw the breed of dog I had set my heart on,
 Something small and as we thought would be easy to look after.
 But who could resist a little ball of black fluff.

But he was nothing like a poodle in character.
As he grew he liked nothing better than to roll in anything that smelt nasty.
which was usually just after he'd been to the poodle parlour.
So we soon put a stop to that, and he only ever went to have a quick trim
around his face and feet  as we couldn't manage that ourselves,
and we trimmed the rest and shampooed him.

I hope you enjoyed my little trip down memory lane.

and you forgive me for keeping my secret from Mr France.

He's looking forward to summer, to see the Dahlias growing 

in the big stone pots we have on our sun deck.

Do you keep harmless secrets from your husband ?

à bientôt

Barbara Lilian