3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias
Not all dahlia varieties need topping, only the larger varieties, when it should be done depends on how you want the plant to grow, if you want to grow a single then you remove the remaining sprouts as they emerge from the soil. When it´s time to top ? when the plant has grown tall enough but not yet hollow inside ( around 10-12" ) that´s when you remove the top, the process can be repeated again on the branches for a bushier plant.
Pinching the buds does produce larger blooms, significantly is a matter of interpretation because depends a lot on the variety, is some varieties ( like dinner plates ) it is really significant, in other varieties is not that significant. One stem has three buds, a main one in the center ( the largest ) and two secondary buds, one to each side of the main, you pinch the secondary buds as soon as you can spot them, that means as close as you can to the main buds stem.
Topping is done to make a fuller plant on any sized dahlia. It will also keep some of the taller ones a bit shorter.
You want to disbud not just for showing but so you get a long enough stem to have a nice cut flower-- not a bloom on a 3" stem.
Ellie
Not too late to plant, and frankly with your east coast heatwave I think you're sane to avoid exertion in that heat. You might get late blooms, depending on variety and length to bloom, but what of it? Plant them when it cools down enough to dig. You can always save the tubers for an earlier start next year.
What a lucky soul you are to have incoming dahlias from all directions! I don't know about D.E. and grasshoppers, have no experience there.
I had always thought diatomacious earth was for softer-bodied insects. Grasshoppers are extremely hard to control. I'm hoping all the rain we've had this spring will do a natural job of it.
I think that you can get 'em with Sevin when they are small but after they are grown, I'm not sure anything will do it.
pd, whatever you use to fight the slugs snails and critters, it will pay off if you do it consistently. Diatomaceaous earth, crushed baked eggshells, slug baits, whatever: just use them.
I never had much luck with the beer traps though. I think they got too diluted by our frecuent spring rainfalls. They'd only catch one or two overnight.
Years ago to entertain a young nephew, I promised him a new video game if he and his sibs could pick 100, 200 or 300 slugs (I forgot the number now, but it was a lot.) They were done with the task and home with a slithering, disgusting 5 gallon bucket crawling with slugs in about 45 minutes! So much for entertaining youth in Western WA.
But the population has dwindled to completely manageable since those days with seasonal baiting, and occasional slug-icide. It's really quite rare to find anything but new slug hatchlings and the big banana slugs in the woods these days. Three cheers.
Raul, ah yes,I remember hurricane season now. I think I'd prefer hot and cloudy to cold and rainy, except for the fire ants! Every climate has its own pests and set of challenges, doesn't it?
Poochella-I do believe it is a fungus of some sort. It seems to have progressed on to other leaves and the spots have become larger and more brown in color. I got a fungicide and have sprayed them, so hopefully it will stop spreading. Now if only the sun would come out perhaps they would really start growing! This weather we have been having seems to have stunted them a bit.
Poochella, thank you AGAIN! I have printed out the fertilizer suggestions so I can take it to a feed/farming supply and get the right thing (I'm between the burbs and the country, so lots of places to choose from). I had heard that growing tomatoes and dahlias is very similar, same nitrogen, same drainage, staking...that would have inspired confidence, except that I've never grown tomatoes either...haha.
Also, I just got done looking at your pics from last year in the gallery, just happened upon the thread that was yours. Absolutely breathtaking. I don't know if I'll get the gumption to tackle dinnerplates, but yours were all beautiful, and it was great that you noted the ones with the best stems...I'm after good-looking cut flowers, so I've bookmarked the thread for next year. Some that I got for this year are Maarn (orange ball), Hulin's Carnival, Rebecca Lynn (M), Kathy G (BB), Cornel (BA)-dark red, and Chilson's Pride (BB)-pink/white. I didn't choose them, they came in the "boquet" mix from Hamilton Farms in Michigan. I'm really looking forward to Chilson's Pride and Cornel...Hopefully I'll have some pics to share this summer! Your photos are very inspiring, I'm so glad to have found this forum and your pics!
Is not always sunny here Poochela, it depends greatly in which area of the country you live, I live in the State of Guanajuato ( central Mexico, where dahlias are originary from ) where we have a very well defined seasonal pattern, from November to late May it´s warm, sunny and dry most of the time, then from late May until late September it rains for days in a row, then we have a few days break before it rains again ( whenever you see in the weather channel a hurricane is forming and moving in the Gulf of Mexico heading it´s way to the Gulf States you can picture me with a rain coat and an umbrella ), it gets sunny, humid and I can barely keep the lawn under control or it become a jungle in a couple of weeks ( gotta mow twice a week ).
Many of the mysteries of dahlia growth have a reason, dahlias are native to the central part of Mexico ( the zone where I live in ) even though what we grow is grown somewhere else and even with the manipulation by man to create new varieties the plant continues to follow the seasonal schedule of growth and development from the place from where it originated and maintains the same requirements, we can´t eliminate millions of years of evolution with a few hundreds years of domestication. That´s why dahlias grow when it´s warm and the soil is moist ( during the rainy season ), that´s why in warm areas tubers don´t need to be lifted during the winter, down here it sedomly gets too cold for the tubers to survive and the soil never freezes over. The plant grows when the climatic conditions are right, warm and with plenty of water ( the seasonal pattern I described ) and go dormant when one of the conditions is not fulfilled which is the abundance of water ( when the rainy season ends and there´s no longer any rainfall ), the plant withers and all that remains is the tuber.
Back then during the age of the dinosaurs when I was a child I remember that along the roads dahlias grew wild ( wild varieties ) exactly during the summer just to dissapear during the late autumn, but they didn´t grow one next to the other, they grew individually several feet away ( where they get plenty of sunlight but also with lots of air circulation to maintain the foliage dry ). We are the ones that insist in growing them close together so we are not imitating the way the grow in the wild, they can tolerate and even thrive on how we keep them but the price we pay can be diseased plants if we push it.
It was quite a show to see the infinite color scheme and simplicity of wild dahlias that you no longer see because the land being developed for other uses and more modern farming techiques where farmers don´t grow crops on the road because they need it to transit, also, no longer you can see a lot of plants growing along the roads because they mow continously in order to keep the area around the roads clean of vegetation, where there used to be dahlias now there´s only grass.
vikingcraftsman-- we're just starting the season & the garden looked like this in April.
The walkways are now all green - annual rye grass planted, growing well & mowed a couple of times. Won't have blooms for quite awhile yet but most of the dahlias have popped up now. Can't wait to have all that wonderful color back!
Plantlady: None of my dahlias have ever looked like the ones in your photos. I am beginning to believe that here in Kansas, they never will.
After another storm with high winds and rain, they look like wet dogs, luckily I only planted 9 of the 26 or so I have to plant. IF and that's a big IF, it ever dries out, I will plant the others. All I can do now is keep my fingers crossed and pray Mother Nature will be kind to me this year.
Thanks for sharing your photos of your beautiful dahlias.
Poochella: I wish I had used the method you sent me from those people in Colorado for planting. It's another one of those "shouda,woulda,coulda" times. Trial and error I guess. If I plant dahlias next year, maybe I will try that method. It would be worth the effort if I could rest easy after planting and not worry every time it stormed. Here in the midwest/plains, that's a given every spring. Thanks for your advice. It's great to have this forum for those of us who are not that experienced. You have helped answer lots of questions for me over the last 3 years.
I don't remember my Bishops having the dark foliage till they matured a bit. You won't really know though until they bloom. I thought York was wonderful - a very hard to describe color and I know why Llandaff is still the #1 seller - what an outstanding plant.
Definitely tell the vendor of anything that doesn't produce. Mine was happy to record the fact so my next year's order would receive credit, and, to boot she threw in 2 extra tuber choices for next year. I did not need anything to be replaced immediately, but I did get the feeling had I asked she would have accommodated with anything she still had stock of.
I have a very good experience, and I think all vendors would likely strive to be as accommodating.
Cheers,
Russ
Man, I like the look of Wheels too; very bright and cheery.
Phyl, I didn't answer your earlier question on the already-blooming one you bought: yes, it will likely produce tubers and yes, you can save them as you would any other dahlia tuber (which means about 40 different methods to choose from. Good luck with that!) I'm so sad I killed my Pooh tubers..... next year perhaps I'll get it back.
Best luck with your new flowers!
No, when I get my photos developed (at WalMart) I only pay an extra $2 to get them to put it on an unformatted WalMart disc at the same time. Then I can upload them onto the computer. They have formatted Kodak discs too for more $$ but I have not tried them yet so I don't know what the dfference is.
Then I just uploaded my photo to photobucket.
Many folks say to let the dahlia get hit with the first frost in the autumn, and then bring it in when the leaves are turning black. The idea behind that is to force the good of the plant into the tuber.
Others say, get them out just before frost.
Your call. If it is a light frost, I prefer the former. If it is a really heavy frost, I hope that the soil protects the tubers. As I say, your call.
Keep it in the sun. They love that. I also prefer to plant them directly into the ground, with a stake behind it for support.
Enjoy !
I believe that I have replaced about 6 so far this week which have turned to mush around the stem dirt level. The plant just falls over. The tuber is solid. Some of those I had just purchased as well. I feel your pain, pdshop.
Yikes! My condolences as well.