Summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
– William Shakespeare, English poet and playwright

Our Indian summer arrived in late August and after two-plus weeks of hot weather is preparing to depart. How I wish it had come in July and stayed through August! My dahlia plants would still be blooming. Instead, I made my last bouquet of the season last week. My dahlias either have shriveled brown buds or no buds at all. The powdery white mildew has turned to dry, browning leaves.

A summer birthday bouquet for my old college roommate Susan.

While it’s September, autumn doesn’t begin until September 22nd. So technically it’s still summer and I have a few more bouquets to share. These bouquets were made with late-August blooms. If you compare these to ones from June, July, and early August, you’ll see how much smaller the blooms are. With fewer blooms, the bouquets themselves have shrunk. That said, they are still Nature’s gifts to behold and enjoy.

A petite bouquet of late-August flowers for my friend Soizic.

This is volume 6 and there will be one last edition before I hang up my clippers. Even before the dahlia stalks and leaves completely turn dry and brown like a field of season-ending corn stalks, I am thinking of where to move some of the tubers in other parts of the yard to give them more space and more sun and less wind.

One of the last bouquets for the winning bidder of my Portola Middle School auction donation.

A gardener never sleeps, never stops thinking about seeds and bulbs and tubers, soil amendment and compost and fertilizer, ladybugs and hummingbirds–even when the season begrudgingly makes way for the next season.

A silk sheath as colorful as my summer garden.

I dream of a time when I have so many varieties of dahlias and other flowers that I can create bouquets that aren’t a mash-up of everything in the garden. Next season, next summer.

Carmela Rose necklace, Anthropologie ring and bangles, and Abacus earrings (Portland, ME).

Harmonious accessories for a colorful silk sheath.