Bill and Barbara Hughes Garden

Our garden tour and August Dahlia Society Meeting was hosted by

 Bill and Barbara Hughes.

To say we were all impressed would be an understatement.  They have a dream garden with the perfect place to grow dahlias.  And do they ever grow dahlias!  Most every variety and color is represented with each plant growing to it's fullest potential.

 Megan barely visible between one of the raised beds.

 A huge bumble bee finding just the right spot to settle in for the night.

 Bill is a person that seems to have more than the usual 24 hours in a day.  He has his career, beautiful home and garden to tend, wonderful photography skills and a life long model train hobby that is unbelievable.  He also fits in a round of golf on a regular basis.

 Spence, Megan and Jan enjoying the view.

 Mark couldn't be happier surrounded by his favorite flowers.

 Bill and Barbara enjoy their wonderful deck surrounded by an impressive collection of hostas.   Despite rain and hail we had a lovely dinner on the deck when it cleared off.  Thanks to Bill and Barbara for the delicious hotdogs and hamburgers, and to our UDS members that brought everything else to complete the wonderful dinner.

 Foxy Lady

 Juules Allstar

 Verrone's Obsidion

 Weston Spanish Dancer

 Rae Miester

 Kelsie Ann Joy

 Ginger Snap

Glenbank Twinkle

Thank you Bill and Barbara for your fantastic hospitality and the garden tour!  

We loved every minute. 

 Also, thanks to Bill for the terrific portrait photos of his dahlias.

Megan's Garden

Megan's hard work makes the Utah Dahlia Society a huge success and that same dedication shows in her own garden.   Her colorful choices of dahlias along with many beautiful annuals and perennials make her garden a showpiece.

 Show n' Tell

 Miss Delilah of course

 Paul Smith

 Victoria Ann

 This is an extra special dahlia that just happens to be named Badger Twinkle.

 Megan surrounded by the beauty she and her husband, Bruce have created.   The raised bed gives her enough space to plant more dahlias.

 Annuals and perennial plants accent the landscape.  Megan has plans to terrace more of the hill to add another dahlia bed.  We all want more space for just a few more it seems.

 The flower bed that welcomes you to the Badger home.....

.....along with Bentley.  He is a sweet boy and loves to spend his days outside with the pretty flowers.

UDS Demonstration Garden

Our garden tour this week is the 

Utah Dahlia Society's own Demonstration Garden.  

It is a lovely garden growing on land lent to us by 

The Granger Christian Church located at 

3232 West 4100 South in Salt Lake City. 

 It is an appropriate spot because it is a little slice of heaven for us to be able to try different varieties of dahlias to see how they do in this harsh climate.

We are very pleased to have this very special plant in our garden this year.  It is a seedling donated to us by

 Steve Nowotarski, a generous member of the ADS Board.  The dahlia is going to be named for the ADS Centennial which will be in 2015.  

 We are watching this plant carefully and can't wait to see the bloom.

 A mass planting of Miss Delilah, one of our favorite varieties for it's  low growing habit in this climate and the abundance of blooms throughout the season.

Our fund raising efforts were put to good use by buying  new stakes for the entire garden this year.  They are made from metal conduit, cut to size and drilled so we can attach each plant's identification information.

 Aljo

 Hy Mom

 Embrace

 Just Married

 Chilson's Pride

 Mark, UDS President busy disbudding

Mark and the other members of UDS are very proud of our demo garden this year and hope you will take time to visit it soon.