Weird green buds
Poochella(7 WA)December 2, 2008
I had one plant of Lavender Perfection throw out mostly hard green buds that looked like little artichokes. Never did get a bloom off that plant, but a few stray lavender petals broke through some of the buds eventually.
Have never seen anything else like this in all the years I've grown dahlias. Any guesses on the cause?
I'm discarding this plant, by the way, but am just curious on the cause.
Throw some cheese sauce on them and call it broccoli.
We have a seedling or 2 a year that do this- we call it the "Green Thing" & I use it in arrangements-- then people want to know where thay can buy it!! We generally don't get as much hard center as yours has but more of the frilly bracts-- almost a cluster of them.
There was a long complicated answer when I asked a botanist friend about it- something about the genes getting messed up & a cluster of the green bracts are all you're left with. This year we had one that had one petal & all the rest bracts-- looked like a rude finger if you know what I mean >:) There's even a fancy name for it but I can't remember what it is!
They look really cool in a weird arrangement with Wyn's Eeekk!!
I think I saw some "green thing" oddities at the Snohomish Co. show a couple years ago, Cory. Perhaps at the National Show earlier than that down in Seatac. They were not unattractive: just flowerless.
Cheese sauce! Perfect. I may save the tubers and consider the progeny a source of vitamin A, Granny. They had really great stems too LOL.
It was probably at the ADS show. I think Angus Hunter took some there that year. All the big-wigs were appalled & all the cool, funky people went-- "WOW-- what's THAT!!"
That was the same year we entered it on the ADS bench in Vancouver just for fun. We got the first & last DO-NOT Award-- the judges there had a sense of humor & hung a do-nut on it. (Someone stole our do-nut the next morning!)