3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias
Thanks for response Poochella! nice to hear from you again. Yes I did order from reputable supplier. Got out the paper work and I did screw up a bit on the odering dates vs. delivery dates. No biggie! just curious! While everyone else is in the process of digging, tagging for next season, I'm just beginning to enjoy the blooms that I have right now! Will not dig this year, but leave well enough alone. DD was over & spotted by Dahlia Bible, all the info. you and JRoot provided us with last year. "Mom, you gotta read the instructions", really hate it when she's right! Got aluminum tags, plastic bags, etc. good to go!
DDs are soooooo good at giving advice! Especially when it's advice we've tried to pound into their own heads over the years. "Look thoroughly" often comes back to haunt me when I'm searching for something around here.....
Enjoy your flowers. Get some photos if you can.
If it was wet & you didn't "milk" the pods they might have rotted. If they were late blooming they wouldn't have ripened enough. If you used insecticide when the plants were in bloom you might have done in the bugs that would have pollinated the blooms. If the bees weren't there when the plants were in bloom, you need to flit about w/ paintbrush in hand like I do & pretend you're the bees! :)
thanks -- you're right about the water, where does it go? It puddles up and sits for awhile and doesn't drain down thru', 'cause of the hardpan - I'm surprised actually I didn't have a whole bed of rotten ones!! Will have to start amending the bed when I get the raised bed built -- hated to move, my last dahlia bed had wonderful soil, built up from compost over 10 years, wish I could have brought it with me. Where about's your farm - do you open it to the public in summer? Kathy
We're east of Ferndale, WA - about 13 miles south of the Canadian border. Yes, we do let people come & look at our gardens in summer as long as they call ahead & let us know they're coming so someone can be here to show them around.
Thompson and Morgan, and Park's Seeds, both have several varieties of dahlia seeds. T & M has large cactus, double, and pompom varieties, and both carry dwarf varieties, collette, and dark foliage ones like Bishop's Children, Redskin, and Diablo. There is a thread on Stargazer dahlias from seed from Park's, but the photos no longer load.:-(
Anyone have good reports on specific dahlias they started from seed? I'm tempted to try 5 or 6 different ones.
Dahlias from seed may not resemble the parent exactly but will be a certain type and may be something entirely new and exciting. Also there are single species flowers that I imagine would come true to the parent since they have not been hybridized.
Dahlia coccinea var Palmeri. I got seed of this from Plant World in Devon - http://www.plant-world-seeds.com/
In my opinion they're more attractive than 'Bishop of Llandaff', with finely dissected, very dark foliage and lovely deep red flowers with a darker centre, rather than the yellow centre of 'Llandaff'.
'Bishop's Children' is a good seed mixture and widely available.
I grew a cactus-flowered mix as well (I can't remember where from, but again seed is widely available) which produced mixed results. Most of the plants had lovely flowers in a range of colours, but some had rather lax stems. You just have to wait and see, and keep the best ones.
I've also grown saved seed and got some attractive plants. It's definitely worth doing.
If you ever need to find a supplier for dahlias just go to the Colorado Dahlia Society site & look at the "Big List". The Colorado Dahlia Society site also has a list of suppliers complete with addresses, so that when you find someplace that has the one you want you can find out how to contact them.
Here is a link that might be useful: Colorado Dahlia Society Big List
White Alva's, Spike, Lula Patti, Kenora Clyde, Hy Mom -- all pure white. Ivory Palaces- while classed as yellow is more of an off white in the ivory color range & huge. Look in the Big List on the Colorado Dahlia Society site to find suppliers. Oh, yeah--- & PLEASE call them AA sized, not dinner plates >:)
As the winter goes on & the weather's depressing I'll try to get a few more pictures of our garden posted but right now it doesn't feel like anything to do with a glimpse of heaven- Yesterday I was on my 9th day of fall cleanup & carted 35 large wheelbarrow loads of trimmings, fir needles & leaves to the compost pile & I've still got 2 gardens to go-- oh, & all that useless lawn to rake up! & we don't even have many trees that drop leaves on us- just fir & cedar- where did all the leaves come from???
The husband is about 1/2 of the way through digging, dividing & storing the dahlias- 3,000 plants down & something over 3,000 to go!
Was the plant labeled dahlia. Dahlias grow in a sort of bush style and not a vine. If it is a dahlia, let it dry out, and there should be tubers in the soil. You can store the tubers in a cool place like a basement, just keep them from freezing. In spring, they can be taken out, watered and given light, and then fertilized and that is it.
Darlene
Ditto from this cut flower grower. At that time the tubers are just being started. THe soonest I ever have dahlias is maybe the last day of June for one started in a pot in March and an early bloomer. August is the time when they are most prevalent. MIght be easier to move the wedding date, LOL.
There you go, wedding saved! I would love to hear if that works out for you, Wareaglexs. I must be doing something wrong: I fret about the condition of delicate dahlia petals driving them loosely packed, upright in buckets for 10-25 miles. A quick online search doesn't turn up very many vendors who ship them. Swan Island does, and I'd be tempted to order some myself just to see how they arrive. Our florist drives to Canada to bring them by van upright in buckets, or gets them locally, fresh cut.
Please post and let us know how your dahlia search turns out.
Glad to hear that the Saran method worked for you Mingus Alex. It is a space saver for sure.
I read another interesting approach to blocking rain from rotting tuber clumps once the stalks are cut: squirt in some expandable foam that they use to fill gaps in housing construction around doors and window frames. Doesn't hurt the plants, fills the available space and prevents water from entering.
I am digging the clumps that survived our astronomical rainfall the past few days: they had no such protection, and only two have seemed bothered or slightly rotted. Those two were severe leaners who fell over several times during the growing season, and their stalks may have been weakened or cracked somehow. The clumps fell apart upon digging, which is odd here.
Lovely, pitimpinai. Did you dig the tubers and grow them again the next year? I left some in the ground and they didn't come back like my other dahlias, so they must be less hardy. I'm thinking of starting some from seed, but I don't know if they will bloom much the first year from seed.
Planting sites. lol.
Yes, I dug up the tubers. I did not save any seeds, because I planted them in a friend's yard and he deadheaded them all before I remembered to tell him not to.
This red one had a lot of blooms. I sowed the seeds this spring. Very easy to germinate. They came in different colors, though.
What a pretty shot. The bloom looks like candy.
Maureen