3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias

Where would I get the Sea Oro and Long Island Lil? I am going to change my color scheme next year. Too much pink and purples.

Sorry pd, have been busy digging.... Long Island Lil from the Big List is available from 3 sellers:

LONG ISLAND LIL Arrowhead Dahlias

LONG ISLAND LIL DanÂs Dahlias

LONG ISLAND LIL Endless Summer Flower Farm

Sea Oro is an origination from a Seattle grower Sea-Tac Gardens and is a marvelous flower.

It was also my second year. My first year I didn't read anything, just put them in the ground. They were spectacular. Than I had a whole winter to read everything about dahlias. I started doing the pinching at the 3rd set of leaves. That did me in. I would get about 4 to 6 long stalks with flowers on the very top. So discouoraging after the first year. I also had pests. Whitefly was one and it was awful. I used everything that was suggested. I jut hope they don't come back next year. Try some in containers were you can keep an eye on them.

Do read up this winter on the use of horticultural spray oils. Steve in Baltimore County.

Get a spritzer bottle of water and mist the tubers in the paper bags lightly if they seemed shrivelled. You might save more moisture by packing all the paper bags inside a box for less air exposure/drying.

I don't know if we are the exception for gardening supplies, but our local farm and feed store is wonderful at carrying supplies I use, including bulk bags of vermiculite at a reasonable price. Perhaps there's one not too far away, Daniellalell?

Here's a commercial supplier who offers to check your area for local distributors. Might be worth a shot to contact them.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bulk Vermiculite

Hard to find gardening stuff this time of year around here. Now I know for next year to buy vermiculite in July or August...The seasonal stuff has all been christmas christmas christmas since Oct. As a matter of fact the other day I was starting to get some bat flower and bird of paradise seeds started..you think I could find anything I needed? NO. No seed starting mix except for store brand. I had amazingly found a couple of bags of MG Cactus succulent soil that a local hardware store had leftover to pot up my Heliconias in, even though that wasn't what I wanted either. I potted up the Heliconias and used the extra soil for the seeds..I hope they do OK with it.
I need to move south where its warmer longer and this kinda stuff is available more.
Lol, It's just so hard for me to spend money in the summer time on stuff I know I'll need in the fall..I always think, well, I can buy plants right now, and the fall stuff can hold off...now look at the pickle I'm in cuz I'm so plant greedy. This happened every time I went to HD this year..I'd have peat, vermiculite, potting soil, mulch all in my cart..then I'd pass something I couldn't resist..then the reduced rack..then more plants i can't resist..then the fall stuff gets put back for next time. ARGH!!
I checked my tubers today and all seems well so far in the bags. But I am going to go on a vermiculite mission tomorrow..someone has got to have some somewhere.
Thank you all very much.

An eye on a dahlia is a specialized set of cells that will go on to produce next year's plant/s. On a clump dug in fall, the eyes will look like small, raised white, yellow, and sometimes pinkish pimples . They are found on thickened toughened collar material around the stem of the plant from which tubers have grown, and are sometimes found on the underside of a clump. Some are latent eyes which haven't bulged out yet, so if in doubt, save that tuber and see what happens in Spring.

You must have an eye to produce plant growth for next year. The biggest mistake I've seen people make is hacking off the tuber right below the collar in the thinner neck. An eyeless tuber simply won't produce a plant- ever. "Blind tuber" is the term used to describe those. "Worthless" might be another. Here's one of those: tons of roots; nothing to grow. This tuber had no eye.

To get the eye and some tissue behind it, one has to stab/cut into the collar around the eye and sever that whole eyed tuber from the clump. It gets easier with practice. Hacking into halves or quarter clumps isn't out of the question, but I don't do that. I find it's easier with dividing clumps in fall when they are full of moisture and softer to cut. They will dry and harden up over winter making cutting tougher, but the shoots will often be much more obvious in Spring.

Photos of eyes on the collar of a clump/tuber.
Here's an obvious eye with another formed at about ten o'clock above it. Raised lighter pimples.

This cooperative variety has more obvious shoots, formerly eyes. There is an eye on the tiny tuber to the right, outlined in dark blue.

An eye outlined in blue.

central eye with brown, surrounded by 4 light 'pimples,' also eyes at 12, 3, 6 and 9 o'clock. An eye to the far upper right marked in blue on another tuber.

Some tubers have a pink cast when dug, but really obvious eyes. Not all well-formed tubers have eyes. Get those that do first, then move down to less desirable weak/thin-necked tubers which are prone to breaking or rotting.
I just found a tuber from 2006 in my garage, in a plastic bag all year- still waiting for that eye to show up. Obviously, it had no eye, and no growth potential, but I was suprised at what good shape it was in for a year out of the ground and no special treatment.

Eyes are much less obvious on these tubers, but it shows how one should be cutting into the collar material, not just cutting tubers off at the necks. As the tuber dries, the eyes will recess and re-emerge in spring like magic.

Dig in and excavate those good eyed tubers from your clump! I don't know how people do it with knives; thin sharp shears are dangerous enough for me.
I will cut along the blue line to separate these two tubers, each with eyes/shoots.

Good luck with your dividing this year. It isn't hard at all once you get the hang of it.

See, I told you a picture is worth a lot of words. Steve in Baltimore County.

Also my regrets about your son and I laud your way of paying tribute to him.
I have very successfully over-wintered clumps however clumsy they are. I have not even used vermiculite thus far (although I have a friend who stores her clumps in shredded leaves).
I second Poochellas' suggestion that you can always wait for sprouts to form in the spring and divide in half or whatever depending on what sprouts. So much easier!

ML

Just wanted to say "thanks" to both Poochella and Misslucinda for replying to my post. I decided to go ahead and store the clump in a plastic bag with some vermeculite, per Poochellas' advice. Also the photo you posted of the Clearview David was beautiful. I will have to order one for next year. I had planted one that looked similar, it was called Seduction but unfortunately it got some kind of disease where the bottom of the stalk got black and mushy. I cut it off and hoped that when I dug them up, I would be able to at least have some tubers, but there were none. The whole plant was a loss. Oh well, you win some, you lose some I am learning, the hard way.

I would toss those affected, yes.

I had several tubers/plants that I suspect were infected with something from their very sprouting this season. They are all going to be garbage as I don't want whatever it is to spread.

O no, I had that too! My largest clump I dug up had that on it..I left the clumps sit to dry then that stuff just rubbed right off..Should I still chuck mine? I wouldn't be heart broken, it was only one clump..but I hate to throw stuff away when it comes to plants...Bad enough I feel like a murderer cutting them down, lol.

Thanks for your help. They are rubbery but not mushy so I think I will try to save them. I thought putting them in sawdust might help to dry them out a little. The rest I have been wrapping up in saran wrap or plastic bags. I'm still very new to dahlias so I have much to learn.

yah, and even when you're very 'old' at dahlias, there is still much to learn...

They are pretty hearty little beasts that will try their best to survive for you, so no harm is trying to save them at all.
Good luck.

We've had several frosts and I've cut down masses of dahlias.. I don't know that I'd wait two weeks (it won't hurt) but you shouldn't need to wait that long. I've cut one day and dug the next and had no problem seeing eyes. Just think and look for 'pimples' on the collar area surrounding the stem. They tend to be light yellow/white or sometimes pinkish, raised swellings on the collar.

The biggest mistake people make is chopping off the tubers at the neck. You really need to stab into the hard collar area to get some tissue behind the eyed-up area.
Eyes marked in blue. Green part is the main stalk of the plant around which the collar with eyes forms.

I want to get it done so will do it this weekend. If I can't see eyes I will just store them whole.

I bought my dahlias last spring as flats of annuals. They produced wonderful tubers that I pulled up this week. I only paid flat price (36/$12). This seems SO cheap compared to the stuff you are talking about. Are they something different? They were plants about 12 inches tall, very bushy, soming in about a half dozen colors. They were beautiful. If these ARE the same as other types, why not always buy like this?

You bought border dahlias. The other ones are show dahlias- fully double blooms on 3-6' plants. Some have huge blooms-- up to 15" across & 12" deep. Look at the list & pick a grower/supplier- then look at their website to see the difference.