Snapshots: Hello, Steve!

I got one. I typed ‘(Jazz hands emoji)’ because I seem to think that’s funny but then I realized the emoji looks a lot like Steve, so emoji it is: I got one! 🤗 I said the other day, talking about how my dahlia plants came to naught, that there might still be a chance of a lone bloom from among the five tubers I planted. And here she is. She’s Stevie to me, but her official name is Dahlia ‘Steve Meggos.’ She is a beauty — 6" wingspan, and a light yellowy-peach color I wouldn’t expect to have chosen on purpose, so props for surprising myself.

The notes I made the day I bought the tubers say “Steve Meggos: Peach, 5' tall, 9" bloom” and I might have picked her for her projected height. Or maybe I was picturing her with the others I planted alongside her, which were meant to be peony pink, eggplant/burgundy and butter/white. I honestly don’t know if I thought that far ahead when making my dahlia-tuber-impulse-buy at a maker fair one spring Sunday. But what I can show and tell you is that she looks amazing in a vase with the dahlias my friend Jen brought me from her garden on Sunday — all shades of light and dark pinks, with their centers also now fading to peach.

Despite my intended nonchalance and self-deprecating humor in that last dahlia post, wherein I thought I had conveyed how non-fussed I am about my half-hearted first attempt not having panned out, I’ve gotten a number of messages from kind people who thought I might be upset or put out about it, or taking it personally. And I genuinely appreciate the reassurances! I’m not taking it personally at all, nor rejoicing in the fact that a lot of people had a rough dahlia year, although that is useful information in assessing this year’s attempt and recalibrating for next year. But I’ll also be back next week with some thoughts on my attitude toward mistakes and ‘failures.’ (Spoiler alert: I’m pro-failure!) And in the meantime, savoring the success of this last-minute dahlia.