3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias
Well, based on all the data I gathered last year:
It took an average of 42 days to go from a newly planted tuber to being able to take the first decent cutting (e.g. the sprout had > 3 sets of leaves.) The minimum was 28 days, the longest was 87 days.
It took an average of 124 days to go from cutting to first bloom (flower actually open fully.) The minimum was 73 days, the longest was 181 days.
I didn't use any fertilizer, just water from the lake for watering (which is pretty high in nutrients.)
My suggestion, just based on what I've read, would be to disbranch and disbud liberally. This might put all of the plant's energies into fewer flowers, which might help it bloom sooner.
You might also want to consider planting them in containers you can bring in in the fall. If they haven't bloomed and frost is nearing, you could bring them inside and put them in front of those windows you use in the spring. It wouldn't surprise me if you could get them to bloom once inside.
Best of luck!
Cheers,
Russ
linnea56, you have nothing to lose by planting them. They will very likely come, and you will very probably have flowers before frost. Sturgeonguy has a good suggestions however, and it is something that I often do, in that planting in a large planter produces a nice result. If it does freeze, they are much easier to cover up, or bring in. While most of mine are in the ground, some of mine are in planters. I get to move them where I think there is a need for more colour.
Dahlias prefer a slightly acidic soil, so I wouldn't add any lime. I don't know how Earthboxes work, but you might consider adding water-holding polymers (i.e. Soilmoist) to the bottom few inches of soil where the roots will be. Containers need to be watered regularly.
Here is a link that might be useful: about soil and dahlias
I hate those twisty stalks. You don't say how tall that one is, but maybe you could plant most of the twisty part underground and allow the end (hopefully, straighter) to remain outside to grow. Easier to stake and easier on the eyes too.
If that doesn't appeal to you, you can grow it twisty and hope it can be supported as is, or break it off and wait for the regrowth that almost always occurs. IMHO.
You might try Riverdance a cheerful red anemone with lots of early blooms. It gets taller than 3.5' for me though, and is a very broad plant that would require a strong stake for sure.
Raz Ma Taz is a small (
Nescio is also 3' or less and early to bloom. You can always try to get a jumpstart on your season by starting in pots.
Good luck!
When you say 'dead tubers' does that mean they're shriveled dry, rubbery, or rotten? If not, you could certainly put the tubers or clumps covered shallowly with barely damp soil, in sun, and see if that encourages sprouts. Some take a long time to show up, but this is pretty late not to see some signs of life.
I'd try that, before giving up completely.
http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/cropprot/thrips.pdf
Check out the site above. Your problem may be thrips. At first I thought fungal disease but the leaves wouldn't be as healthy as they are.
I can not give you any specific advise, but I do recommend that you go to the bottom of this page and click on the number 2 which will give you the next set of 30 messages. The third message down is "Dahlia Information" by me, corgicorner. This will lead you to information on the American Dahlia Society site, and I do recommend that you download it and read it, and keep it for future use. It is an excellent aarticle from a reliable source.
I hope you become more acquainted with dahlias, and get to enjoy them, and share them with others.
It is raining today so I was thinking of you jroot. There is nothing more depressing than to have the drabness go on and on and on. There is so much work to be done this time of year. Now I live in MA. so we needed the rain, but I hope you have finally got some good weather. What do all the people in your area do with the high rental fees, when it rains. Not good
Yeah, I should know better...although after hearing "rain" & "thunderstorms" in the forecast for over a week I got a little excited!
Finally woke up to the much needed rain this morning though! Of course this came after I finally broke down and chased the sprinklers around yesterday, therefore putting off collecting flowers to press until today because they were wet. Well, now they are most definitely too wet!
My house should love me by the end of the day, since I must now keep warm by doing housework! Nothing better than having the doors flung wide open, with the rain as my stereo while I scrub everything down!
There are various hardiness zone maps out there. The link below is to one.
You are definitely in the have-to-dig zone in Vermont and have done the right thing by digging and storing each year.
Here is a link that might be useful: hardiness zone map for NE U.S.
I'm almost psoitive I have 5 new growths but I'm curious, do Dahlias grow as single leaves from the main stem or can they grow many leaves from the main stem? I know that I have two growing single leaf and I'm not too sure if the plants sprouting multiple leaf from main stem are Dahlias also, however the main stem and leaves look very much alike.
loswan, they usually have opposing leaf pairs on either side of the stalk/s that emerge from the tuber, clump, or cutting. Leaf nodes will give rise to laterals right at the stalk junction and send out branches from which your flowers will come.
I'd let your leaves go on to develop a bit and see if they are truly dahlias or something else.
Double Trouble does look like a very good possibility.
Here is a link that might be useful: Photography and Gardening blog
Swan Island Dahlias sell Double Trouble in a collection. A
Here is a link that might be useful: Collection
Hi there, actually Dahlia's need LOW nitrogen fertilizer. I don't know what to tell you to do. I will leave that to someone else on the forum. You can go to the site
www.dahlias.net to read more about growing dahlias.Look under care and culture.
april
For potted plants that I intend to place in the garden, I like to use dark containers (or paint them black) so that they disappear behind the foliage of other plants and aren't so visible in the border. But I love the idea of using anything and everything as a plant container (although I've managed to kill a couple of things by forgetting to drill drainage holes!)
Hey, I have a brugmansia in a pot like that. However, I decided to bury the pot in the ground. Works well with the brugs, as I merely shovel prune the plant in the autumn when I bring them inside for the winter.