3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias
>>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.
The purple one is called Sky Angel. It was the first to bloom and there are TONS of flowers on each plant. I got the tubers from Lowes, so 3 for $9.99. t I will say they should've been separated (or whatever the correct term for splitting them up) but I didn't know how to go about that, it being my first year.
Reasonably common, actually. I currently have an orange zinnia that has one bright pink blossom on it. The blossom is malformed, however, so the mutation is deleterious--just not nearly enough to kill the plant, the branch, or the flower. I'm idly waiting to see if it produces seeds. It probably will.
Plants have fewer problems with mutations than we do, so it's not at all surprising to find an altered branch, blossom, or petal. In many years of gardening with tons of flowers in 2,000 square feet, I've seen that happen...not often, but perhaps once a year on one plant.
Unusual combinations of genes from tight inbreeding are much more common and occasionally useful; my Salvia splendens is now more the height and color of cardinal flower.
If you like it, you can take a snippet from the branch and try to root it as its own plant.
If you hate it, chop off that particular branch down at the base and it probably won't re-occur. If it does, it probably won't come back next year. If it still does, it's a mutation in the tuber's stem cells and you're stuck with it.
>>you are on the verge of killing your plants with too much love ... be weary of such .....
Not even close. While using some fertilizers is unwise without a soil test, most are OK and there's no real danger of killing your plants.
Standard in the gardens for me is 18 pounds of Milorganite per month from May to August, plus a half-strength Miracle Gro feeding weekly through mid-September.
Deaths so far...well, the rabbits do nibble a few. But otherwise, zero.
I'm starting to limit phosphorus sources in the garden as my numbers are finally showing where they should be for flowers. Potassium is actually slipping a bit and will probably need specific enhancement next year.
Most micronutrients are in the correct range, except boron, which rides a little low. I'm working on that.
Nitrogen is the kicker, it gets used, absorbed, out-gassed to the air, and leached out. Which is why the heavy hitter is organic, to limit leaching.
Your water would be safe. Just as mine is, and has been every year.
>>if you change your potting media every season ... [and you better for all the salt build up] ... i cant believe you would need more that one or two fertilizings PER SEASON ...
The soil in my pots is now six years old and of better quality than it was when it went in...because I keep pouring organics into it. They sit in the rain, get flushed (by accident, mostly) when they're watered, and sit out all winter. No salt build up.
This is just starting to open, but the Blue Boy are doing beautifully. There are two flanking blossoms that will open later on, and a host coming up out of the parent plant.
The color here isn't true; this particular flower is almost a perfect violet, just a little less saturated. If all of them bloom this color and size, I'll be absolutely thrilled!
The second and third Blue Boy are in bloom and as nice as the first (which I trimmed and put into a bud vase, where it's gorgeous, but top-heavy!)
The equally cheap Sun Lady bloomed two days ago, highlighter yellow. No, seriously, I was up before sunrise this morning and wondered what was glowing in the garden in the very dim dawn light. It was the Sun Lady.
Two more Sun Ladies are opening.
The Color Spectacle is budding up and getting ready, it should bloom by Monday or Tuesday if the weather holds warm.
So again, late plant away as long as the tubers are healthy! They're a great late season surprise!
These are pictures of what I'm seeing today.
What looks to be dried out/bitten off.