3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias
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.
I can not speak directly to your area. I live on an island out in the Atlantic Ocean so our weather is controled my the Ocean currents. I have had blooms from May till now. Some of my Dahlias started blooming the first week in September. The ones that bloomed in May were grown inside then moved out side in May. Sams club sold blooming Dahlias at the end of August as fall plants.
I would say that Swan's "late bloomer" means September-October...to them. Consider a planting date of mid to late May. If you can plant earlier, you can bloom earlier. If you start inside, you can bloom earlier again.
All my Dahlias this year were from Swan's. I have had blooms come as early as 73 days, and as late as 216 days. Consider 73 days an early bloomer, and 216 late.
I have mostly stayed away from late bloomers. This fall, however, I'm going to try and start the late bloomers much earlier than the early bloomers in the hopes of "normalizing" them (e.g. getting them to bloom closer to the same time.) This does mean starting tubers in early December for those late bloomers. If you're not up to that, then consider you'll have a lot of green in that spot until, hopefully, just before frost...and then maybe get a full flower (which is usually the 2nd or 3rd bloom) before the frost kills it...hardly worth the effort in my book.
Cheers,
Russ
Lovely photo PD. Yes, Alyrics is right. A flower frog will allow you to place the short stems in a shallow amount of water and then you won't have the problem of the flower petals going 'slimy' in a day or two. However, if your just looking for a quick centerpiece...you can always do the 'float' method ...
Jim, You can leave them in the ground until the ground freezes. A heavy frost or a few nights in the 20's won't hurt them usually as long as ground doesn't freeze. If you are concerned or delayed in getting them out of the ground just put some mulch over them but don't delay too long in your climate.
Here in the Atlanta area we can leave them in the ground all winter with about 6" of mulch over them as the ground never freezes. The temps usually get down to 12-15 degrees for the low for winter but one year got down to -8 below zero. I had left a few tubers in the ground that year and most of them didn't freeze. Some did though.
I talked with a man from central Ohio who didn't dig his tubers in the winter. He piled leaves about 2' deep over them and they didn't freeze.
Hi Jim
You could leave your tubers in the ground till a hard frost. Usually anywhere from October to Thanksgiving the above ground stems are brown and dying after a light frost or 2, then a hard frost. You should let the frost kill the tops off and cut to about 3-4". The eyes will show better if you've let the tubers ripen and harden off after the frost. That is if you want to cut the tubers up in the fall. Poochella has posted wonderful descriptions and photos in past yrs - just do a search. You can also wait till they start to sprout in spring to find the eyes.
If not you can employ my extremely difficult method - lift the tubers and put in brown paper bags and write the name and color. I don't clean them - I just store them. You can put a few handfuls of peat into the bag. Then I lay all the bags into a box and store in my garage up off the floor. My garage rarely freezes in the open air - so the box remains around 40-50 degrees. If its a cold winter I wrap it in bubble wrap or double box it. I lay in a wheelbarrow and pile tarps on top or something to insulate.
I've had good luck with this very low end technique last winter and didn't split my tubers last yr, so I may have to next yr.
Huey - whoever kept tubers in the ground in any part of OH must live in the city and have a super protected spot. Our ground freezes 6" deep or farther depending on the yr.
I've left tubers in the ground in here in Zone 5 - same latitude as Syracuse and they are mush as soon as the ground starts to freeze.
Poochella also gave me the tip of sprouting tubers in plastic bags in the early spring inside the house. I put a couple handfuls of potting soil, a tablespoon or 2 of water and lay the tuber in the open bag, I lay them out on plastic trays from the Dollar Store in a sunny warm window.
Wynne's Dahlias-- they're great!! Wonderful people who introduce dahlias. They grow about 7,000 plants & bring out new ones every year.
You can get to their albums by clicking on View our Picture Gallery - or get the price list or order form by clicking on either of them. They don't have their '09 list up yet but you can get an idea of what they sell by visiting the albums & the price list.
Ellie
Here is a link that might be useful: Picture Albums, etc.
It is not red like the Akita. I seem to have two plants of it. The tag is from Dutch Gardens and they have it listed as a Zanobia. The picture on their site doesn't look like the dahlia that grew at all. But, that is the name. Good Luck. I will post more pictures of it.
1. Heavy dew can cause the petals at the back of the bloom to do this- or if you've had rain the backs can be affected in this way esp. on bigger dahlias.
2. This is common when dahlia petals get wet & fall on the leaves. Keep the petals picked off the leaves as you dead-head.
Beautiful blooms. I like the canna foliage as a backdrop...I think I'll copycat! Do you know the name of the creamy/peachy colored variety? I love the Madagascar Jasmine too! Nice garden!
I throw cannas all over the gardens. I love them and they keep multiplying!