3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias
Russ,
Try the heavier stuff that wholesale nurseries put down....It is tough as nails and can be used over and over. I found regular landscape cloth disintegrates after a while. It comes in assorted widths and you pin it down with big u shaped pins and best of all it keeps the weeds from springing up.
Jan
The best garden cloth I have found is Baycor cloth - have had it down for 4 years now and it is still good. Bermuda grass however can grow through it - but you probably don't have that type of grass where you live. I get the Baycor in 3 foot rolls anything wider and the roll is too heavy to lift. Not cheap but very good. I put bark over the ground cover cloth because it is very hot where I live and the cloth is black and absorbs the heat, but in a milder or damp climate it would be great just plain. I do have problems with weed seeds germinating in the bark over the cloth and since I try to go organic as much as possible, I have to hand weed a pre-emergent should prevent that if you use. I ordered mine from OBC Northwest in Oregon and put it down with the six inch metal staples which I order by the box - those aren't cheap either due to the freight - but it sure has saved me a ton of time in weeding - so I guess time is money saved too. I have even taken up a few beds and saved the cloth and re-used it on other beds.
I got cheaper cloth and it didn't last worth beans - more trouble than it was worth.
Dig the thing out of the crappy soil, then dig a hole 2' wide and 1' deep where you want to plant them. Put decent soil in the hole, and put the tuber (and sprout) back in.
IMO, nothing can be done in any other way if the plant grows spindly and pathetic. Put as many chemicals into clay as you want and it will still be clay, and won't drain properly, and therefore won't service the Dahlia well. Not saying you have clay, but whatever you do have isn't suitable for Dahlias. So change it.
Cheers,
Russ
Sorry to rain on your parade, Russ, but tomorrow ( zone 5 southern Ontario near Guelph ) the forecast is from 2C to 4C. I would wait until after that, or be prepared to cover them on Tuesday night. I know that I will be covering all of mine tomorrow night (Tuesday).
Jroot,
There's forecasts, and then there's forecasts...;-]
I'm 50' from a fairly large lake. It does all sorts of things to forecasts, especially considering it is currently 25C at 8:00pm.
My Dahlias will be within 5' of running water, which isn't going to get any colder than 5C no matter what the air temp goes to for an hour or two.
Anyway, I'm not putting anything out which I only have 1 of, so if it all fails misrably, I'll just do it again when I have time...;-]
Cheers,
Russ
Kristin, where are you? Are you in driving distance of Vashon Island? I have several nice whites for cutting I would be glad to share with you, or start cuttings from but do to my recent knee replacement would need help digging them. Email me at lilymolady@gmail.com.
I have Center Court, Karma Serena, Angel Dust (I think I stll have it!) and I have many plants I would like to give away to replace with new ones..fine flowers, just ones I am bored with. Among those would be French Doll, and Brandon James. Many others could be divided. They ahve been in place for 2 years now.
and don't use bone meal because the dogs dig it up.
* * *
I have a girlfriend who lives a few miles out of town. Whenever she uses bonemeal, all the dogs in the area (fenced in thank goodness) start barking and when she uses bloodmeal all the feral cats visit her yard.
Mt thoughts on fertilizers. Nothing..NOTHING. can beat a good 3" layer of compost. I heap it around my plants to a min. 12" diameter. The worms move it into the earth, create air holes, and it helps retain moisture. This stuff is magic.
We built a new bed last year. It was junk until I added 3" of compost in late July and then it just exploded.
CrAzY LaRrY
I'm too tired to have anything uplifting right at this point, Phyl! Any day one wakes up is a good day to me. How can one have an aching achilles tendon planting dahlias? It isn't an Olympic activity. Perhaps I need a consult with Dr. Scholls.
Busy time of year, but when I go by all the stakes and read the labels of planted dahlias, I get to experience the annual thrill of anticipating what splendid wonders will unfold in a few months' time as a result of the effort. That's uplift enough.
The sound of your roses and complementary dahlias is heavenly. The winter tasks aren't that daunting but are a must in your zone. I will say right now, you are smart to stick with just three to start, because already ALREADY I'm dreading digging up what I'm just planting in now! LOL. There are so many gorgeous flowers forthcoming though, I hope, that that is reason to get up with the birds and start all over again tomorrow.
I hope you have a camera for Fuzzy Wuzzy and the others in all their splendor. Don't forget to post them in the Gallery section of this forum if you get a chance.
Happy growing!
Thanks again, poochella! I finally DID reposition the dahlia tubers the other day...and it has rained off an on again since then. I am SO TIRED of rain & grey skies. But I am excited to see small buds on about 1/3 of our roses (20). We need some sun & heat around here!
Yes, I'll have to take some pictures this summer. :0) Phyl
Thanks sturgeonguy. I think your Id might be correct. I will write that name down and keep it for reference. I like knowing specific names for different cultivars just for reference in the future.
Triple_b, that red one is "Berger's Record". Im sure some nursery carries it. I bought it from a street side vendor in San Francisco's Mission District. He had TONS of different colored Dahlias, cymbidium orchids and palms. I also got this Cymbidium orchid from him for $10.
FWIW, I butchered my tubers last year and had more than a few that grew roots but no eyes; ergo no sprouts. No matter what you do to the tuber, if there isn't the right crown material attached to it, it will never sprout.
Your next question may well be; "what is the right crown material?" Well, my answer will be that it is crown material which has shown eyes forming. IOWs, its a matter of leaving the tuber in the ground after the frost so that it begins to eye up before you cut the tubers apart...or, doing the same thing in spring; let the tuber clump warm up, show eyes, and then cut it.
I read a ton of descriptions and still botched the work...because my tuber clumps didn't have any eyes when I tried to cut them apart.
Finally, and again FWIW, the longest it took a tuber of mine to produce a sprout capable of cutting (note: not an eye, but a sprout) was 9 weeks and 2 days (Matchmaker, Outta Da Blue, Iceberg, Patches). I have another, Playboy, that still hasn't produced a sprout capable of cutting and its been almost 11 weeks.
So, either wait that long, or call it on account of lack of crown.
To me, its a dud tuber if there's no eye within a month.
Cheers,
Russ
Russ summed it up nicely on needing crown material with eye tissue to begin with to produce a plant. I'd say a month is about the longest I'd wait too before tossing as a 'blind' tuber. (Maybe longer if I really, really wanted that variety.)
Kitkat, chopping off the rotted fingers was good. Get rid of anything rotten to prevent it from spreading. I should ask if the 'fingers' are coming off the crown near the old stem, or off the larger main tuber. If they originate off the tuber, you'll have no dahlias because they lack crown material like Russ said. If healthy, the compost pile is a perfect place for unusable tubers but anything rotted or discolored gets treated as trash here.
Books, hmmm. Bill McLaren's book is highly regarded. The ADS puts out "Raising Dahlias the Easy Way" which might be useful. Check Amazon or such for others.
Here is a link that might be useful: dahlia books