Colour in the autumn garden

In Ireland, on a windy and wet autumn day like today it's easy to believe that there's no chance of any more good weather at this stage, the concept seems like a dim and distant hopeful dream.  But it looks like the weekend is going to be dry and sunny, so the late show of colour in the garden should hopefully continue for a few weeks yet.
The Dahlias are still flowering away, if anything they're getting better as they were late started off this spring, subsequently taking quite a while to get going, especially with the cold early summer holding them back. 

Here's a few that are looking good right now, and each one very different to the next.

'Halo' I picked up in France last year while on holidays as a shriveled tuber that was being sold off cheap, a lovely single pink.

'Purple Haze' is a stunner, deep plummy purple with an almost black reverse to the central petals.

'Blue Bayou', well obviously not blue is it? Wishful thinking on behalf of the breeder methinks, blue being a colour not found in Dahlia. Colour aside this unusual Dahlia (Anemone flowered group) seems to draw most comment from anyone who has seen it. I still haven't entirely made up my mind about it, I'm giving it an 80% liking rating. ;-)

Lastly the shocking coral pink Dahlia 'Karma Fuchsiana'. It's a difficult colour to place in the garden but a spot in front of Canna 'Durban' seems to work well, the pink flower picking up the stripes in the leaf behind. The flowers produced vary in their doubleness, some having more petals giving a fuller look, but this one looks no worse for exposing more of its yellow centre.