3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias
Wow! I love the purple one! Looks great! This is my first year with Dahlias too, and mine haven't bloomed yet. I'm in zone 9, texas. I planted about 6 weeks ago, and they seem to be growing nicely, should start budding any day now, I hope! Thanks for sharing your pics.
It sounds like it has been "pinched", either by human touch or by mother nature's agents. If you leave it, you will get twice the blooms. Personally, I feel that the blooms is the reason for growing dahlias. Certainly not al the work. LOL. Personally, I would leave it.
I'm starting to trim off the bottom leaves now, so that the air can circulate around the stem. That seems to be helping. I had one sulking, and I thought that I would lose it, but after trimming the bottom leaves off ( up to 4 inches - depending upon the size of the plant - one has to leave enough to sustain the plant), the sulking has stopped, and it is doing better now.
I have heard "trim off the bottom four inches" so many times from new dahlia lovers I just know they are researching your old posts and listening to you, jroot. You (and a few others here) are gifted instructors!
Glad shes has stopped sulking. But what I would like, more than anything, is a picture sometime in August, of what your happy dahlia and tropical plantings. Promise?
I think I watered right before 10am (we are allowed to water between midnight and 10am every other day here).
Dahlias looked droopy from the night before (usually they perk up by the morning, but not this time). So, I have decided to give them a drink. It was hard not to wet the foliage. I guess the leaves got burned.
Thank you Jroot for answering.
The good news is new foliage is coming up, so I did not kill it completely, as I thought.
The lesson is learned!
~Natalie
Oh yes ! that´s how spider mite damage looks like. Like explained, permetrin or pirethrin based insecticide gets rid of the problem if applied correctly and frequently, once or twice a week for the first two weeks and then weekly for the next three or four weeks.
Insecticides do not spread it Pdshop, they simply don´t kill them, they seem impervious to anything you throw at them.
Down here it´s the never ending story with dahlias, since they begin to grow as early as mid march ( when it´s hot and dry ) then your plants get spider mites, then it begins to rain, it gets warm and moist so slugs and snail come out and if it´s not slugs and snails then it´s powdery mildew ( too much moisture ), oh well, if it wasn´t that way then it wouldn´t be fun to grow them.
I would argue it depends on the variety. For example, if I had a small low growing variety like China Doll (18" tall, 4" diameter flowers) I think it would be fine to have multiple main stems. On the other hand, if its a 4+ foot variety or one with large flowers, I wouldn't want two that close together as they'd be competing for the light/water and lots of flowers would end up being mushed between them.
Of course your blooms may be a bit smaller because of the competition, but it won't really matter unless you're showing.
Cheers,
Russ
Well Lizalilly, I've just learned more about voles then I thought existed. Apparently they leave visible above-ground evidence of their activities.
If its not voles, then it could be chipmunk. They typically have 30'runs with many exits and that run was in one of my garden beds a few years back. They didn't actually eat my plants but some plants died from having their roots exposted to the frost and snow. As unkind as it was, I resorted to sticking ammonia soaked rags in their 'doorways' and that solved the problem.
Here is a link that might be useful: Voles and pest management
HMMM,I had not thought of CHipmunks! I know we have squirrels so that is a possiblity. From the damage I found today I think I am going to be at least lifting and saving one tuber off of each as back up this winter. And making sure the rest is buried deep and mulched. It could be that these were not planted deep enough last time.
Anyhow, the potted dahlias are all in now! Now about the rest of the big glad order....
It is an almost overwhelming job to catch up after taking so long off gardening. Maybe I am glad this summer is the coldest on record since sometime in the 1800's here! Then no one will know that things actually never got planted!
But I expect to have enough dahlias no one will notice the missing zinnias and sunflowers! Dahlias sell better anyhow at my flower stand!
They look great and healthy. Might want to give them more room, but I know I've crammed plants close together and suffered no ill that I could see. For me, some plants just grow like gangbusters into broad, bushy specimens. Some are leaner. You might get away with that spacing, time will tell.
Are those woodchips mulching the surrounding area? I raked up most of mine after having more visits by petal-eating earwigs last year having made paths of woodchips through the garden. Have read from one grower that he/she has no or little 'debris' for the earwigs to hide in at the base of their dahlias. Just one thought, but a thought I took to heart.
Last year I had a dog run through my new dahlia plants so I had to put some up in plastic storage containers. Had great results. I also build my own wood containers. They are on the large size. I have four dahlias in one wood container that is 2foot high by 6foot long and two foot wide. I hope that helps.
Hi A,
I have none in containers this year but did last year and they do fine. The taller (4 ft) dahlias are perhaps a bit less productive in flowers than garden-grown, but they do just fine and produce as many tubers. The containers I used are ~14" diam x 14" tall. I used 1/3 potting soil, 1/3 compost and 1/3 veggie soil mix which is a high % sand, compost, topsoil mix. I used Soil Moist granules. Watering more often as the pots are black, was the only difference in care.
I started mine in the garage mid April. Planted them outside May 11th and now a few are getting ready to bloom.
Thank you so much everyone for your helpful answers. Here in WI we've had so much rain I think maybe they were just water logged. We've had about five days of sun and I can see new growth so they are coming around.
Thank you!