3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias
Hi again;
I failed to mention in my previous posting we have found that spending a little more and using yarn rather than twine, we use green and buy it in 2 pound skeins, there does not appear any harm to the stalks/stems at all when tied loosely.
Charlie
Thank you for the responses. I use 52" tomato cages for staking. I have only minor problems with broken stems. Just the blossoms.
I prep the bed in spring with 10-10-10. Then feed once a month with 15-30-15. Next spring I will prep with bone meal to boost the phosphorus. Thanks for the idea. I'm not sure about boosting the Potassium. I put a few left-over bulbs on the edge of my corn patch. Corn is K-intensive. Although I get adequate blooms, the plants are two feet shorter than the same bulbs in my main garden.
Yes it is only certain cultivars: Wheels and Poodle Skirt. Both are novelty blooms.
It kind of depends on your local market prices--I'd take a look at what others charge there. Prices will certainly be far higher in more urban locations than in suburban or country ones.
'Round here, I can lay hands on a 4" potted plant for about $6-$7 for something unusual but not exotic. If I drove half an hour south I could do it for $4 to $5.
Are you sure either is accurate? All the pH meters I've had have read in the same range--all of them wrong by almost 1 point.
I did try a simple soil-water-reactant test out of idle curiosity. The pH actually was very accurate...if I were trying to test the pH of our water.
good Lord! I did start a hard topic. This year in CO, it has rained constantly. Never happened before. That will help wash out the salt in my soil as it was high in salt. I have basically solved the whole matter. Moving back to where I came from and had big, tall, thick dahlias. I do love some of the CO plants and hope to try some. Thanks for all your info.
>>Unless i have this wrong, i'm pretty sure all dahlia's have tubers and are tender perennials, not true annuals.
Correct, although I treat my Harlequin as annuals as a general rule. I don't have to, they could be lifted.
Really, a lot of plants in our gardens are short-lived perennials we treat as annuals in our respective climates.
>>I don't know anything about dahlia seed in particular, but i can tell you that no plant seed conceived naturally is the exact same as the parent,
By definition, although I've collected seed from plenty of Salvia species and the daughters are the same as the mothers, for the most part. Over time, the Salvia splendens are getting a bit taller and I did breed a few cultivars together to get the leaf and flower style I wanted.
Dahlia are incredibly unpredictable. We humans have two copies of each chromosome. Many flowering plants have more than two (even some with odd numbers like some zinnia species--Profusion has three). It helps if you can't meander around and find a mate whose genes don't resemble yours by keeping harmful mutations from reinforcing as easily.
That's why plants can self-fertilize and the daughters usually do just fine.
Dahlia have eight copies of each chromosome! (The technical term is "octoploidal.") The number of possible recombinations just on a self-fertilization is incredible.
Unfortunately it means it's hard to breed any two plants and get anything you expect.
The only reliable way to reproduce a dahlia with the same characteristics as the parent is by cloning. You can split the tubers, or root a green shoot, both work fine.
Most of us split the tubers to reproduce our dahlia but some people around here do root cuttings.
Thank you guys for the information! So I guess I shouldn't be asking for "Pooh" seeds anymore! :-) I'm going to try out the Mignon seeds I just got in a trade, and that seed packet on Swan Island's website is so tempting . . . because of the beautiful picture!
Powdery mildew gets much worse as the weather cools down later in the year. I saw an organic gardeners dahlia patch that looked like field of snow white dahlias(leaves not flowers) on about August 10th one year.
Whatever you do, keep on top of it. Once a plant turns totally white on all leaves, it starts to die and the tubers do not store as well.
I have not sprayed my garden for insects in over ten years. But I have had to spray for powdery mildew each of the last 4 years.
To grow early dahlias, you do not want 2 foot tall plants but rather plants about 12-18 inches tall. You would start taking cuttings in March and the goal would be to have the plants ready to go into the ground about May 20th or so in your area(but watch for killing frost warnings). I leave all our cuttings in the 2.5 inch pots in the greenhouse and grow them tall using 20-20-20 greenhouse fertilizer(Jack's or Plantex). You can bury the root ball slightly deeper when you plant. 12-18 inch tall plants will start growing immediately and will bloom many weeks earlier than tuber plants. However, they do not grow well in shade. Dahlias want full sun. You get lots of flooding rains there that we do not get. It is hard on tubers that are just starting to sprout. I think plants from cuttings may be just bit more hardy but standing water kills all dahlias in a day or two especially in warm weather. One cannot grow plants to the 12-18 inches without a greenhouse. You can root them under florescent lights but they do not grow well after that. I move the rooted cuttings to a heated greenhouse about 20 days after taking the cutting. About 11 days to root the cutting and another 9 or so days to grow some roots to survive in greenhouse.
Mouse droppings, you say? I think the culprit is most likely those cute hopping menaces, the grasshopper. They are out in force this week, I noticed, and I am constantly snagging them up off blooms and stomping on them. Japanese beetles leave droppings, too, but they are smaller, and those beetles are finally starting to go away in my neck of the woods.
Thanks Ted
What I could have done is listened to the program again but did not and now I forget what radio program it was
I find I listen to a number of radio garden programs on the internet and then do not always remember which one I was listening to
There are thousands of named varieties, and without the first part of the name, is very difficult to ascertain. There are plenty 'over the puddle' in the UK and Australia, too, that may never make their way to our shores.
Best bet is to browse dahlia nursery websites, and find your own favorites that you can actually get in the US... Tastes vary tremendously, and there are many shapes/sizes/colors to entice.
I just posted this on another thread, but it's well worth reposting so you can browse the companies that specialize in dahlias but don't rank in the top twenty of search engines.
Here is a link that might be useful: Big list
I visit the Swan Island farm once per week to tend the ADS Trial garden that is located there. If you attend on the week end, they will have the floral displays that are done by florists in their tuber storage building. However, it is crowded on the week end. I am there on Tuesday mornings and the crowds are very tolerable and parking easy. Lots of dahlias to see and be sure to bring your camera.
Thanks y'all!!
Beautiful blooms, thanks for sharing.