Now they are gone for the year, it truly feels like winter in the garden.

Is there anything you don't grow, Maggie? I never had any luck with Chrysanths, but I did used to have some lovely Dahlias and I particularly like the poms in both species. I always found that both were hard to integrate into mixed planting, seeming to demand a space of their own.

If you try mums again Terry, use whatever it is you feed your roses with. They sure do well for you!
I love dahlias more in a vase or pot, than border too. They look nice to me in a deeo full border, with the poms sticking up among foliage of other plants, but that is difficult to do, isn't it? - since the dals need full sun from day one. I can plant them in late winter for a spring bloom, but the tubers seldom make it thru our summers, where in colder parts of US, they will croak over winter if not lifted in fall. Ironic isn't it. I once saw an allotment in England with a row of carefully staked dahlias along with the veg crop and imagined the gardener was growing them there purely for cut flowers. Oh to have a sunny space for a cutting garden - rows of tulips, dahlias, canes of sweetpeas, summer zinnias ......... pang