3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias
It's the torrents of rain that get them every year where I am. I left about 15 in the ground I didn't care for, duplicates, or bad plants, etc. Two came back which surprised me, because the others were all tattered stalks with nothing but fibrous mush underground, as they are most years. I didn't think our 2009 winter was bad at all, certainly warmer than most.
I have overwintered dahlias for at least 10 years. I plant them about a foot away from my south foundation wall. I didn't like one, so I left it in the ground and it has come back for the 10 years. I started leaving others in the ground near the south foundation and I hardly ever lose one. This is in Rochester where it gets down to 10degrees most winters and very little sunshine. I am between z5 and 6 because of Lake Ontario.
Keski
The one thing I DON'T see posted is the fact that they just may not bloom!
3 yrs ago I ordered 8 tubers from a WA grower and 3 never bloomed, 2 never even came up. Last year, ordered 9 more (OR grower this time) and at least 3 either rotted or never grew. This year, another dozen ordered but one in particular has just sat and sat in the pot. It is not rotting, looks like the day I opened it but it simply refuses to sprout.
Because it may be a late bloomer, I am just leaving it alone (except to dig it up periodically to see what's wrong.
Sometimes you just can't do everything right or have done nothing wrong.
David
We must live in the same region, with all the rain. I am right on the WI/IL border.
Yes, I would bury the tuber right up to the first set of leaves (so the leaves are above the soil line). If it quite a stretch to the next leaf node I would clip it off at the first set so it will not flop later in life. I am glad that I don't have deer. It seems like every other critter but no deer thank heavens, nothing stops them, even their massive feet trample everything even if they don't take a nibble.
And there is no stupid questions! I learned by many experiments and doing what works for me best. There are probably 10 ways to plant your tuber, I just share what has worked the best for me over the years.
How fun that your veggy garden is planted, I love watching them mature and produce fruit, I still find it amazing.
Happy Gardening
Keriann~
Reminds me of my very first experience with dahlias. I moved into my very first house with a garden space in my 20's and my mother gave me a few tubers. They were in a 12x12x12 cardboard box, that got shoved under a table in a room that was going to become my studio space and were completely forgotten.
In July I noticed something red under the table, and low and behold a dahlia had sprouted and flowered with no soil. water or sun, and was poking up out of the box!
Hi there,
I think it is in the nature of Dahlias to form tubers in order to survive in dormancy till next season. The size and number of tubers actually produced varies from plant to plant (well, genetics+ enviroment). In a book on breeding Dahlias was said that one criteria should be that a seedling produces a couple/ plenty of tubers.
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Dahlias seedlings form tubers in their first growing season. You can enhance the number of tubers by planting the seedling stem slanted/angular and covering some pairs of leaves (nodes) with soil. At every node should grow aditional tubers, provided the growing conditions are ok.
I hope that helps, if you have lots of space I would grow some from seed just for fun, have a nice summer, cheers, Lin
Thanks soo much, Plantlady, and Lunaria. I knew there was a complicated process to it, and than it can be done,( not that I want to.
I'm afraid I dont have enough years left to start such a process, but I'm so grateful to those of you who do, and let us enjoy your successes.
I would also imagine its like having a new baby, waiting to see what comes up!
According to Washington State Univ. most dahlias have virus. Sometimes when a dahlia is stressed by other factors the virus symptoms show. Some dahlias are affected very negatively by virus and these varieties tend to disappear over time as the stock gets diseased.
I love the single, open-faced dahlias because the hummingbirds are nuts about them around here. Since these are not often available in the horticultural trade, I have several that I selected from seed that are tall, bloom like crazy all summer, and in hummingbird favored shades of pink, red, and orange. The plants are totally covered in blooms all summer until frost.
I do have a few doubles as well, but I ditch those if they are too floppy and shy bloomers. I like "Seduction," a double two-toned purple that stands quite rigidly and flowers a great deal.
Phytomaniac, better to find dahlias later than never at all. They do pack a punch in a vase.
I want to stand up for the little pompons! No body likes the little fellows much, but to me they are a stunning pack of petals rolled into one petite package. I think they have value used in contrast to the larger blooms, in mixed bouquets, or standing alone in a little vase. There are some good ones out there in a variety of colors.
Uroboros, I bet your garden is zooming with hummingbirds. I don't care for the singles much because they don't hold up well when cut, but for a garden plant, yes, they have value too.
Right - I wouldn't worry about them at all. On those first warm sunny days - everything in my borders wilt including the perennials. It's normal and by nightfall they perk back up. As long as you have had them out and hardened them off reasonably before planting, I think they are fine.
Thanks for the input. Since I have some tubers in the same bed I want to refrain from watering as much as possible until those show.I have been getting similar mid-day wilting on a few of my perennials. Our weather has been crazy warm for this part of the country. This is the weekend that many people around here traditionally put out annuals, but we have already had many days in the 80's and 90's. I am expecting a bumper crop this year.
yeah, and if you google it use the word 'dahlia' in front of it.
One article
http://members.shaw.ca/hydahlia/smut.html
and discussion below
Here is a link that might be useful: Dahlia smut and diseases discussed here, see linked photo
Thanks again Poochella. It doesn't seem as though the conditions for smut have been provided, but the symptoms are certainly similar.
The dahlia in the middle photo has some chlorotic and deformed leaves that don't show especially well in the photo. I'm afraid it's dahlia mosaic virus. If it is, I have no idea how to proceed, so I guess I'll wait everything out.
What height of dahlias are you growing? I always miss topping or pinching a couple each season and they are much more sparse and with fewer branches/flowers than the others. I wouldn't bother on the short little bedding type dahlias, but I also don't grow those. For the average garden or dahlia patch, I highly recommend topping for a fuller plant. It's fast and easy.
Are Dahlias as much vole-candy as oriental/trumpet lilies? I lost about 20 orienpet/trumpet/oriental lilies to voles despite using hardware cloth cages. I learned that the regular hardware cloth is too large for the small Eastern voles; I should have used the small mesh kind. Aaargh!
I live on the border of zone 7b/8a, and we got 2 nights of 17 degree temperatures last winter. Would I need to dig up Dahlias or could I leave them in the ground?
Would voles chew through plastic pots to get to the Dahlias?
Susana Mc
We have plenty of voles here and have only had two tuber clumps nibbled over the years out of hundreds grown. Each season I'll find a few holes in the garden descending right next to a dahlia and still find no damage to the tubers, so they're eating something else, thankfully. One year, I was watering in/filling in one of those holes and out sputtered soggy little Mr. Vole himself. I did not towel him off.
Don't know about lily bulbs; those rotted or otherwise disappeared. There are lots of videos and reports of vole trapping methods online and they do mention seeds and tubers as a food source, but voles haven't been a deal-breaker here.
Susana, if you mulched well over the root zone with leaves/straw etc, I think you could easily overwinter clumps in the ground unless you have an inordinate amount of rain. You'd want to divide them every few years to maintain the health of the plants though.
It's not so much the stem, but the collar tissue formed below it where eyes will be formed producing next year's plants. See the blue triangle mark below. That's the collar. The stem is above it. The many light spots on the base of the stem are not eyes, they are just bumps.
Another example with eyes circled.
After many disappointments, I now don't plant anything that isn't showing a sure eye or shoot before going into the ground. Perhaps it's time carefully unearth your tuber and see if it has signs of life. If nothing's happening, then it's time to contact the seller for a replacement.
I'm sure it would be fine with no pinching - but each time you pinch it gets bushier and more stems - that looks like a big dahlia 'bouquet' already. What variety is it? It is funny how their growth is different - some have that very full and robust foliage and some are much more delicate.
cindy, I dont know the variety, I know they are red in color. My neighbour gave me a couple of tubers she had dug up last fall. I thought I had actually killed them over the winter. We just had them in newspaper in the basement, along with a couple of canna lily tubers she also gave me, but looks like they survived as they are growing well so far. I can hardly wait to see the flowers!