3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias

Those are just beautiful. I especially like the color on Matilda Houston and Aurora's KissYou have a pond or lake with ducks! How cool is that? Congratulations on what looks like a great dahlia season.

Thank you Poochella! I love all the dahlias and can't pick a favorite. But you are right Aurora's Kiss is very special.

We don't actually have a pond. It is the run off waterway from a dam and it is tidal. So sometimes it looks like a lake and other times it looks like a pond. We "love" it here on the river cliff and there are many baldheaded eagles, hawks, seagulls, canadian geese, ducks and many raccoons too. Once we had 4 beautiful white swans, but haven't seen them for years. We are about 60' up from the water.
Unfortunately the salmon will be spawning soon and the smell of dead fish can last about 3 weeks. We do not smell it when we are indoors, but when you are outside it is very gross. One year the dead fish were 6 feet wide all along the beach!

I haven't had much luck collecting viable seeds from my dahlias til very late in the season, & then not all of them seemed to produce anything. If they have viable seeds, you will recogize it I think. They are elongated sticks, wider at one end, plump. Sort of like miniature boat paddles :) Good luck, I collected from my plants last year & got lots of seedlings, but none bloomed. I really expected to see some bloom, but none of my dahlias really seemed to do well this year.

You can see pictures of seeds in our "Seedling" album at this site. They are towards the end of the album. If you click on the small picture it will come up big enough to see the seeds. Dahlia seeds look like a flattened earwig! They are fairly flat, longish & have a couple of prongs on the end like an earwig does!
You have to leave the pod- dried flower head - on the plant until the seeds ripen- they will form a cone shape & turn brown on the ends. Then the whole pod will turn brown. You have to make sure the pods don't get picked too early or the seeds won't ripen. Some people say you can cut the pod & ripen it in a vase of water in the house but we've never had any luck getting seeds from any that didn't ripen attached to the plant, out in the garden. You also have to protect the pods from rain as they will rot if they get too wet- we go out & "milk" the water out of the pods after a hard rain- what fun!!??
Be aware that dahlias don't come true to the parents when you collect seeds, so even if you're collecting all AA or A sized seeds you won't get all AA or A sized seedlings- esp. if you grow other types, smaller ones, etc. You will get a lot of bad seedlings & if you're pressed for space it's not worth messing with. We plant upwards of 300-600 seedlings a year & in the first year we cull all but 100-200 of them. Over the next 5 years those are culled down to about 20 that are worth introducing.
The only way to be sure to increase your collection of big dahlias & share them with others is to cut up the clumps because they are clones of the mother plant- imagine the disappointment of those you give seed to thinking they'll be a nice big fully double AA & they grow it all season & it's nothing like what you thought it was going to be.

Nice seedlings plantlady2...........#3 reminds me of Spartacus/Vassio Meggos in form and I've always been partial to the yellows.....been growing Edna C, Laredo
and Inland Dynasty for several seasons. Send some of those seedlings to us at the Eastern Trial Garden next season.
Dahlia Boy

Welcome. That's how it starts.... "I picked up a tuber at Home Depot." Sounds like you are quite taken by your bountiful blooms. Good for you!

Everything you need to learn about is right at the link below, and conveniently located in your state.
Yes, unless you live in a mild zone of CO, you really should plan to dig them up, or prepare to lose them. That would be tragic!

Digging, storing, and dahlia suppliers links are all contained in the link or on many previous threads here. But feel free to ask more questions, someone will answer eventually.

Seed grown plants will generally go on to produce tubers and the tubers should grow true to the plant they came from, but dahlias from seeds come from crossing two parents, so their offspring will be different. Sometimes good different, sometimes really badly different.

Check out any local dahlia associations which usually have spring sales of tubers as a fundraiser. You can get some stunning varieties at very reasonable prices.

Here's another link full of links that might be helpful. Looks like Colorado only has one dahlia society; might be worth a day trip!

http://www.dahlia.org/

Here is a link that might be useful: dahlias.net

That is very sweet - how lucky to catch a shot like that. Thanks for sharing.

Pretty resting place indeed! I love those little frogs in your dahlias and missed mine this year- no sign of him/her. They are good bug eaters and a welcome guest anytime.

We met Wayne & Eleanor at the ADS show when it was in Lane County, Or. quite a few years ago-- really nice people & do a GREAT job in putting together the ADS Classification book every year- a job guaranteed to drive anyone to distraction-- or worse!
Wyn's King Salmon won Best AA in one of the shows out there last year- can't remember which one though. I know Steve N grows it there in NY but he hasn't reported back yet this year. It's been on the head table in at least 2 shows here so far as I know- we've only been to 3 shows this year so will have to wait for the results to come out in the bulletin to see where else it won. We just won Best Triple AA with it last weekend at Fraser Valley & the Howards won Best AA & Best Triple in Show with it at Vancouver, BC two weeks before that.
Magic Touch is nice but not really a show flower - more for arranging & vases - & it's REALLY tall- it's a great color though.

I'll check with Steve N about Wyn's King Salmon to see
whether he grows it in his own yard or the display garden at Planting Fields and will go see it in person.
Thanks,
Dahlia Boy