Why have I lived so long without fall crocuses?

After years of looking at the fall blooming crocus options in bulb catalogs, this year I finally bought a few.

Oh. My. God.

I am in love. Why on earth have I lived so long without these marvelous things? This is Crocus speciosus, and as you can see, if is insanely beautiful. Elegant. Graceful. Intricate. I think it may be even better than the spring flowering species I have been nuts about forever. Why did I buy so FEW? Next year they're going in by the hundred.

Sciency answes: Really big dahlias

David and Connie sent this question:

I have a question about Dahlias. I love the dinnerplate dahlias, but have not been able to find varieties that get 14 inches in diameter or larger. Do you know of any varieties that get that large?

Sadly, I am going to have to say no, I do not know of any dahlias that
get larger than 14 inches.The largest official dahlia size
classification is "AA" which covers anything over 10 inches. I think
about 14 may be about the upper limit when it comes to flower size. But I admit I'm not a dinnerplate dahlia grower, I like them smaller (as you can see in the picture above) if any readers are dahlia nuts who know better, please chime in!
But, if you are interested in giant dahlias of a different sort, you
should check out this post from the amazing Annie on tree dahlias!
These things don't just have big flowers, they are insanely huge plants! My growing season is WAY too short for them, but if I live somewhere warmer I would TOTALLY be growing them.

Seasonally appropriate aphids

Here is a scary picture for Halloween...

This is a milkweed plant I went past on my ride home... what with the orange aphids, the black mold growing on the aphid poop and the overall grossness, I figured it would make a good shot for today.