In a blink of an eye, January turned into November and we're at the end of dahlia season.

It feels like yesterday that I was anxiously hunting down dahlia varieties and making lofty growing plans. Pete and I planted over 250 tubers by mid-May and had big hopes for a wetter year compared to 2016. And, boy, did it rain! It rained a little too much in beginning which caused some of tubers to rot and stunted the growth of over half our plants.

Nonetheless, the plants had a huge growth spurt late July and August and we had a fantastic growing year (our best since 2014). Since September, we cut buckets and buckets of blooms and so many that we had to give away bunches to our neighbors. Admittedly, by the end of October, we looked forward to the killing frost that never came. Last weekend, we decided to cut down all of our plants; bloom production fell off with cooler temps and less daylight. Next weekend, we're going to start digging and dividing the tubers.

The end of dahlia season is always bittersweet. There was never enough time to weed, stake and deadhead, but I so miss their sunny faces. We endured lots of long, Friday night drives to western Mass from the city just so I could have quiet, early mornings to harvest. Pete did his best to capture our growing season so I hope you enjoy these images.

- BB