3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias
Mirek, it is so enlightening to talk to fellow gardeners from "the other side of the world" about these beautiful flowers which we all love so much. Thanks for sharing with us your wonderful photos of your beautiful flowers.
My secret is to start them early inside, and gradually get the young plants acclimatized to the sun. When all danger of frost is past, then I plant them in a sunny location. I admit that I do feed them regularly with a fertilizer with a higher middle number to stimulate earlier blooming. I stop all fertilizing at least a month before frost comes in the autumn. Then they are carefully dug up, cleaned, dusted with a fungicide, labelled and wrapped, and finally put into my cold cellar with does NOT freeze for the winter.
What are your secrets?
Two of the best secrets of growing dahlias are to pinch out the tip of the main stem while the plants are still small. See: http://dahlias.net/dahwebpg/Topping/Topping_1.html
AND to disbud the flowering stems before the side stems overgrow or crowd into the single flower you want to keep. See: http://dahlias.net/dahwebpg/disbudding/disbud1.htm
just a thought, white flies? this year has been particularly bad in my area, I have sprayed 4 times.
I do know that the symptoms described can be attributed to these tiny insects and the growth hormone regulators they inject into their host. I have, first hand, seen the dwarfing and yellows to death that white flies can cause.
FWIW
Thanks everyone- next year is always the one of hope- this fall I am going to add aged manure and peat to the soil and stock up on some pesticide -good advice on the white flies I seem to recall that they thrive in dry conditions(even though I hate spraying). Will also mulch to improve water retention- we had floods up here about two weeks ago (here in MN that is) and things bounced back. I think it was just such a hot nasty summer. chalk it up to that I guess!
Well, a few years back, my wife and I had a sucessful experience transporting dahlias from Denver to Minneapolis for a Nationl Show.
What we did was to get some balloons, fill them with a little conditioned water, pull them over ends of the stems and wrap them with rubber bands as insurance against leaking. On the stems that were too large for standard balloons, we solved the problem by getting a package of condoms and using them just like the ballons.
As an additional challenge our 7:00am flight was canceled, and we spent about nine hours in the Denver terminal with two boxes of dahlias following us everywhere we went.
When we arrived at our hotel in Minneapolis at about 8:00pm, the dahlias looked great and won their fair share of awards the next day.
Here is a link that might be useful: 2007 North American Dahlia Shows
I wonder if the new restrictions on carrying on water would make this difficult. Maybe the balloon trick? Probably should call the airlines and check. I would sure like to take a bouquet of my dahlias to my daughter in Maine in a couple of weeks!
Go for the 4 foot + varieties. In a border, where they need to fight for light, they will very likely shoot up higher.
Do they grow taller each year? I can't really say that is the case. I had some dinner plates that were huge last year, but not so tall this year. Others are much taller this year. I think the preparation of the bed with good nutricious soil makes the most difference.
Hey jroot and red-
I would like to hear more about this. My 3-4 year old "Babylon Bronze's" have shot to about 7 feet this year and its not for a lack of light as I have full sun in that location and no one is crowded. The new guys, ones I did not pinch back are at a maximum of maybe, at best, 5 feet.
Anyone else care to comment?
I doubt you could get the soil in the pots dry enough to keep the tuber without killing the dahlia. I wouldn't try it. As for the one you want to bring inside, it will probably get very leggy and not bloom much, but you could keep it trimmed when it does get leggy and keep it alive. Be sure to "harden" it off gradually when you take it back outside in the spring.
Finally found out the name, I looking at the companies website that supplies the nursery where i got the bulbs. Then I found it, its name is Caballero, at least that is what it is called in Canada
Here is a link that might be useful: Van noort bulbs
Beautiful, beautiful! Your photos are as good or better than a lot of online catalog photos! What a fantastic garden you must have! I love Castle Drive and Robin Hood. Does Castle Drive remind you of Hillcrest Kismet? Just curious, how many dahlia plants do you grow? It seems your arsenal is tremendous--and lovely.
Annabeth
Thanks Annabeth. It is a labor of love for sure. I do not know how many plants I have, I'm too tired to count. Between 325 and 350, I would guess. There have been deaths and there have been suprise tubers or plants planted and I have no time to take a full count recently.
Nothing in the world reminds me of Hillcrest Kismet. That is one orangey pink beauty to behold. Castle Drive is nice, but smaller in size and pink and yellow; although nice enough in itself.
No problem!
You can of course disbud those oppposite of that and remove just the middle one, but I think you get stronger stems the other way. Depending on how much time I have I will nip off those buds that will form flowers never to be seen.
I ordered my Papageno from Swan Island Dahlias. Maybe this is a plant that needs more time to grow and mature. I also ordered a Zorro tuber from them. The first bloom is going to open any day now. Keeping my fingers crossed...please NO FROST !!
You bet I cut the first flowers! CAn't wait to get my hands on them and arrange them. No flower is safe from my flower snips! The sad part is when an arrangement I really like does not sell at my stand.... I feel so terrible for the flowers! I had one that was so delicous I wanted to eat it the other day....Grandma June (small dainty pink flowers with just a touch of yellow in the center), arranged with pink and yellow snapdragons, and pale pink English roses and lime green nicotiana....no one wanted pink anything that day or the next and it withered away in the sun. Meanwhile the purples sold readily. Atleast I get first chance to play with them all!