BIG Dahlia

Congratulations Plantlady, that is one wonderful lookin dahlia!!

Amazing! I love the color as well.

That is AMAZING! I've never seen a dahlia that size before. It's beautiful! You must have given it a lot of TLC.

Actually, no TLC involved at all. It's a late bloom of an extra seedling tuber that was stuck under a fir tree in an area of the garden that I've been trying to tell the husband we shouldn't be using for a number of years- needless to say he now thinks HE'S right & will keep on using that part of the garden!

Seedlings!!! Do you actually pull the dried flower apart and find seeds attached to the end of the bit of blossom (like I do with a zinna)?

I can almost feel another chapter of dahlia growing about to start.

Your photos are lovely. Make me glad I finally got my digital camera.

You can pull the pod apart & hope that the birds & bees have done you a favor & crossed 2 compatable parents & given you something wonderful BUT you can also grow thousands of seedlings & only get one or two worth keeping. We have been hybridizing & crossing AA dahlias for almost 20 years & have had a lot of duds- sometimes you get a wonderful one the first year & the 2nd or 3rd year it goes to pot & you have to feed it to the cows!! That's when you start crying- or cursing the dahlia gods- but then they let you come up with another wonderful cross & you get a magnificant dahlia & you're hooked all over again. If you thought growing dahlias from tubers is an addiction just wait until you try seedlings- one reason we now have upwards of 8-10 thousand different dahlias out there in the gardens- most of them are seedlings!!

Plantlady, what type of staking system do you use for large dahlias? I'd really like something that blends into the garden.

We use green metal fence posts to tie up in the gardens where we grow dahlias for show. They are tied up about every foot or so. I don't think you'll ever find anything that doesn't show & will hold up the big dahlias well. I know some growers use tomato cages & some use rebar but we've found for the big ones that the fence posts work best- & they're green so sort of look OK. In the big garden for rows of seedlings & seed parents we use Christmas tree twine & string it through holes in crossbars-- see the pictures in our "Seedling" album. The picts. are towards the end around pages 5 - 6 -7 or so.

Here is a link that might be useful: Wynne's Picture Albums

plantlady2....we also like the green metal fence posts for the large tall dahlias.....for the shorter to medium ones we use concrete wire made into large cages...but i also put a stake by them when the tuber is planted.....and tie to it when small.....