Dahlia 'Firemountain'

Mine are slow to emerge and it looks like the earwigs are feasting on the leaves....hope I get some blossom...
This is a beauty. love the purplish leaves.

this one emerged from the GC Lori!
not many earwigs here this year, plague of the year must be sparrows , in a positive way - i think we are housing the whole of the 2012 Gers generation under our roof. they make so much noise, squabbling away , but it feels nice to be able to do our bit for their dwindling numbers.
although with all the sparrowhawks, honeybuzzards and kestrels they attract, constantly buzzing around the garden, they need to breed like rabbits.

even slugs are not much of a presence this year???? yet!!
:~)))) long may it last

It is interesting the difference in insect populations when the sparrows are present?...I, for one, welcome every little bird I see...and the dragonflies. Do you have many toads? I find that when the toads are plentiful the slugs abate...I'm filling the new pond and went down to start the cycling pump this morning to find a toad in the pump housing! He could have been sucked in and julienned~
It's really hot today...too hot to do much or anything besides sit in the shade with a lemonade!

yes we house the Gers toad population as well lol.
i think they initially found so many hidy holes underneath the many many old ridged rooftiles i use in the garden that word must have spread, i love them.
at night the midwife toads in particular, they make a sound a bit like a tiny bell ringing and - get this - the males carry parcels of eggs on their back untill they hatch for weeks on end, those female midwife toads have got it sorted!! but i like the great big lumbering ordinary toads too, the most amzing thing is that Jesse - the snakekiller - is very wary of them, i think they might emit something nasty when they feel threatened.
i wish toads woould eat snails though, but dont think they do....?