it is now officially summer. And The Dahlia mystery

Today it will be 100 degrees.  We have house guests so, bummer, cannot sleep in the basement.  It is always cool in the morning and I love sitting on the back porch and watching my favorite garden. .
take a look

Dahlia bulb number 1 above

here is number two.  What, you may say?  yes, looks awful.  All I can figure is it was the hail as the hosta got somewhat beat up.

But here is the confusing thing: Look at this dahlia which is next to that sick one:

I mean, those dahlia are 12 inches apart in the garden?
I always wonder if there is something "rotten in Denmark" because the impatiens near that sick dahlia are not doing well whereas their cousins inches away are growing?

Then there is the tomato plant mystery in the front. One plant is simply NOT growing at all.  I got it at a good nursery.

As I've pondered the tomato plant mystery, I came up with these thoughts.

1. I attended a garden show in the spring and the woman said to put plastic containers, milk, water, tea, in the bottom of a big pot so as not to use rocks or a lot of potting soil because the containers become too heavy.  I think she MUST have meant for flowers ONLY.   I woke up this morning thinking a phrase, "teak root downward, bear fruit upward."   I thought, "Is that in the New Testament?"  I did a search at Bible.gateway. Nope.  So I finally just put the phrase into Google search and sure enough, I had memorized this verse in Isaiah 37:31- And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward.

I think that my vegetables in the big pots are not growing because they do not have a good root system.  The plastic containers was not a good idea.  I am giving them fertilizer but they are certainly not thriving.

2.  So what does this all mean?  Well, without root nourishment, plants cannot survive.  They have to go deep to bear healthy fruit. The interesting thing is that there is some fruit but it is sickly, unhealthy, probably not tasty.  I see this as a spiritual lesson.  If we don't care for our souls, taking root in the Word of God, in communication with God's Spirit, we won't bear healthy fruit in our lives.  Fruit?  I think of the fruit of the Spirit:  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness.  Not to mention the "fruit" of people coming to know Jesus.  So these plants in the front are a painful reminder to me that underneath is as important as what appears from the outside.

About the dahlias, I think the one dahlia that is 12 inches from the sick one is located a little closer to the porch and must have had shelter from the hail storm on June 6.