3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias
Wow! I really enjoy looking at your pictures, especially since all my plants FROZE this weekend as we had a really early snowstorm that dumped 5 inches of snow all over my plants! I especially love the last picture, and BTW I like the dog in your other post.
Bishops Children are open centered dahlias from the dahlia Bishop of Llandaff. No dahlias come back true to the parents from seed so you are likely to get a mixture of colors if you try to keep seed. The blooms from the tubers you get from your Bishop's Children will have the same color as their parent. These open centered dahlias are the easiest to get seed from & if you're not fussy & looking for good show quality dahlias they can be fun to experiment with.
As for keeping them growing over the winter- they need a lot of light unless you just cut them back & store them in the container. They will get really leggy if you don't have lots of light. See other posts from the last few days on this forum about some people trying to grow them inside over the winter.
Joelsm,
This spring I sold a lot of cuttings I had taken from my tubers. I gave a set of instructions to each person that covered, first, what to do with the cuttings and then how to care and eventually store them. It pretty much covers a year in the life of a Dahlia enthusiast.
I will be revising it based on this year's experience, but not until I've lifted my pot tubers (which should be over the next month.)
So have a look at this link; Instructions: How to care for Dahlias from cuttings and then feel free to ask more specific questions.
To answer your question specifically:
Let the weather kill your Dahlia above ground. Once it has been frosted a few times, the plants will eventually turn black and collapse. Your tubers will be fine at this point. Cut the stalks 6" above the ground and remove the dead plants.
Leave the tubers in the ground for another week or two. Only lift them if there is a chance of many inches of snow, or a severe frost warning that would freeze the ground. Typically, you shouldn't have a problem leaving them the extra week unless you live in an extreme climate.
After the one or two weeks, lift the tubers. They will have formed "eyes," or the very beginnings of new sprouts. These form after the main stalk is cut. They are your guide to where to cut your tuber clumps to separate individual tubers. They're essential for cutting.
There's lots of ways to store them over winter. I use the "saran method" for individual tubers. See this past thread; Saving tubers? I thought there was a FAQ... for a discussion about various ways to store.
Cheers,
Russ
Why on earth would anyone want to plant dahlias that they knew would most likely show up as virused. They would infect all the rest of your dahlias. It's universally thought that chewing & sucking insects- of which we all have one or two-- spread virus. Wouldn't the rest of your dahlias then be at grave risk if you grew these Karma dahlias?
Ellie
A lot of the commercial growers take orders now but you can't get the tubers until early spring at the soonest but Wynne's Dahlias ships to South Africa in Nov. so I'm pretty sure they'll sell anytime after they dig.
Ellie
Here is a link that might be useful: Wynne's Dahlia Stuff
Yeah, I really love my Thomas Edison. Funny how we can't get it to show as dark as it really is.
Thomas Edison - BFD: 8" diameter flower on a 42" bush.
Cheers,
Russ
Well, I figure I can reduce the time by providing better lighting while they're starting and getting them growing earlier.
My spreadsheet says that to have them by the end of May you need to start the tubers on January 7, 2009...;-]
Cheers,
Russ
dahlia newbie--if the tubers are still in the ground & not pulled out & blown away, you can cut off the stock near the ground -- leave about 6" of stock if you have that much. The plant will regrow & the tubers will still be fine. Then you can dig them later or not depending on where you live & if you have killing frost.
Hope you get everything all fixed up better than ever!
THANKS Plantlady. Nothing got uprooted in the Dahlia patch that I can tell, just a lot of "snappage". Your advice sounds like a great solution...I think I'll try one or two cuttings too.
I got a pleasant surprise this evening while looking through the yard...I had randomly planted a tuber that I didn't have room for in my dahlia bed at the base of a tree in my front yard this summer, and I forgot all about it. Tthis evening, I found it in amongst my cast iron plant while picking up more sticks and limbs. It's about 20 inches "tall", but kind of laying down. It has a bud. JOY. Don't know what it is, but I'm going to stake it tomorrow and keep watch. Looks like it might be something white.
Lucinda ,I have two bushes one is huge the other small. Ithink I my take the small bush in the house for the winter. I will use it to take cuttings from. So next year I will have way more. I also want to see if I can get it to bloom sooner. Next year I will be able to tell you how well I did.
Hello Scott-
Me too. Had some sort of soil fungus which ate up an entire crop of dahlias this summer. It was tres bizarre as the flowers seemed to die from the bottom up and the flowers were stunted yet when I dug up the tubers they were solid as a rock and appeared to be fine with the exception of those white nodules. Just glad to hear I am not the only one. Excellent shots btw.
monica33flowers, I will try and tell you the names of the Dahlias in this bouquet. First they all came from Swan Island so you can go to their site and look them up. The tallest one in the vase is Vassio Meggos. The one to the right in the first photo is bold accent. There are four of them in the bouquet. There is one cloudburst in the vase. And a couple of touch of class. I hope that helps you.
Thank you, Viking!
I have a feeling I'm going to be spending quite a bit of money next year at Swan's Island. Gosh, I just can't get over how gorgeous all of your bouquets have been.
Thank you for the information