Dahlias floraison

I intend to plant a big cutting garden this year—the backbone of which will be a rhapsody of hot colored dahlias! I love the idea of masses of dahlias floraison—that's French for in full bloom—and just imagine vases perpetually filled with these bright and cheery varieties, all in warm shades of pinks, oranges, and yellows. (I am also planning a big wild flower meadow, but that's another story for another day.) For the dahlias I have most of the tubers all bought and have sturdy wooden stakes ready to plunge into the earth for supports. I also need to make sure I beef up the soil with loads of composted manure because dahlias are very heavy feeders. I recently read in the Encyclopedia of the Exquisite that legendary gardeners Vita Sackville-West (Virginia Woolf's lover) and Katharine White  (New Yorker editor) discussed in their letters to each other how "vulgar" they thought dahlias (and gladiolas) were, and even went so far as to call these razzle-dazzle blossoms "simply embarrassing." Isn't that hilarious? Well I think that my new dahlia cutting garden will be a panoply of colorful wonderment!