3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias
Cannas , that one for me is easy. But first a short story. 2 summers ago I stopped to admire a canna garden while I was out of town. I thought the gardener needed to betold of the appreciation for such beauty.
Turned out to be a 60ish looking fellow (actually 90), and he then proceeded to "dig me up a few". My Father taught me well to respect and so I offered to do the labor.
Dad also taught me never to push the issue!
So, there I am with 3 big black garbage bags 1/3 filled with cannas, that had been cut off about 6 inches from the ground and the "easy" dirt shook off.
He said "take them, just like THAT, and put them into a cold spot (40'-50')(in my case our old coal cellar)and leave them alone. About March, he said, tear a small hole in each bag and peek in, if they are growing, make the hole a bit bigger, if not, leave them alone. He also said, if they are mushy leave the hole open for air.
I lost one or two each bag (little ones) and that was that.
I thought it was way to easy but, I'll be danged, it works!
As for my dahlias, I have beeen so busy with family duty (older parents in law) so I had no time to do much more than put the clumps in vermiculite layers, in my coolers.
As near as I could determine, American Meadows is the retail division of Netherland Bulb Company. This company has an excellent reputation. They supply healthy and huge bulbs and dahlia tubers. Having the honor of putting together a collection for the Biltmore Estate is quite a wonderful honor.
This company, of course, doesn't supply all the plants for the Biltmore Estate as stated. If you have an opportunity to visit the gardens at Biltmore, you will find it to be a truly beautiful place with the mountain in the background. It is truly inspiring.
I do not think you will be disappointed with your order.
Thanks flowerfarmer. I had never heard of this company, but I always trust the garden watchdog site's ratings. I would love to visit Biltmore. I have friends who visited a few years ago and they couldn't say enough good things about it. (and they're not even gardeners!)
CRDahlia thanks for the list. I'll check out the links.
I was really looking for Carribbean Fantasy because I LOVED mine this year and if it doesn't make it through the winter I definitely wanted a back-up! I thought the 50% off prices were really good.
I think the name was unusual, but the list did not trigger anything. But thank you so much for the address.
I can't be sure about "frringed star", - it seems to have finer fringed petals. Mine was, I think, more like Park Princess. It was the best performer that I have grown - tho that is only 50 or 60 over a long period.
I had no idea that they could be so sturdy. And I was sure they required deadheading to continue blooming. A similar red would be good - the faded blooms would also blend into dark foliage. I am not totally lazy, but in the summer heat, it is wonderful to find "self-cleaners" or those that continue to bloom without help.
Your tubers, as they are called, sound like they are way too dried out. Usually it just takes a few hours or overnight to get them dry to the touch and ready for storing. You could try to rehydrate them a bit in a soak of water, then let the skins dry and store in any number of ways above freezing and below 50 preferably.
It won't hurt to try to save them, but they sound pretty far gone. There is no way to rehydrate them to their former fleshy selves. But if you get them to sprout next Spring, you should see your plants once again.
Good luck!
Hmmm. I have not checked mine at all since I wrapped and placed them in a cardboard box and tucked them under the stairs away from the warmer part of the basement. I'd better check them tonight. Maybe I'll move them to the attic instead.
Happy Holidays and Happy Winter Solstice, everyone.
Just opened my cooler for the inspection. Made one discovery____ I wrapped in saran, then bagged all like tubers in cut down plastic grocery bags after I ran out of clear bags for the final packing. Rats, you have to untie and open the grocery bags while all you have to do is look through at those in clear bags. Next year I will be sure to have enough clear bags on hand for the job. Much quicker.
Pitched out one tuber which had a piece of old stem that was rotting and one with a soft spot on the side. Why leave it there when you have 5 or 6 others like it. I saved almost everything when I cut up!!!
I am going to use about 20 pots for the first time ever this next summer. They are from trees/shrubs from a very wonderful neighbor with a sharing type of attitude. In other words, "Please take this garbage off my hands." One man's trash is another's treasure! I would guess they measure 18 inches in diameter, 14 inches deep and I'm guessing they will house some 3 footers next spring.
I like the jungle look too!
In your zone, knowing it's been single digits there in IL, I'd get them in the fridge, protect from too much drying. Saran wrap would do it. Plastic wrap will not protect anything in freezing temps: it's the room temperature that counts.
I should take a photo of my snowy garage roof. The only thing that has melting snow showing on the roof is the 6-8 ft spread that covers the dahlia storage room, with space heater running when needed. It is a smooth 40 degrees in there right now despite 24 degrees this a.m., space heater was running when I got home from work. Not unlike a refrigerator with pretty constant temps.
Given your zone, I'd go for the fridge crisper for tubers, divided or clumped; but protect them from dehydrating by wrapping.
An audio tape would indeed be...interesting.
And I think it would be cute to see a photo gallery of how all of us looked in the process - especially those who dug in winter. I wore muddy ski-pants, various hats, my dad's plaid shirts, enormous sweatshirts, mis-matched gloves, big rubber boots, etc. A Fashion Massacre, to be sure. But I got 'em all dug in 3 sessions this week...
following our first killing frost.
I think people walked their dogs past my house while I was outside, just to see what the heck I was up to THIS time.
Sadly, many tubers got nicks and injuries, wrung necks, etc. I'm afraid to store those yet - and am unsure if they should dry fully, including cuts, before bleaching?
Am about half done with dividing. Am wondering what the odds of recovery are...for different kinds of Tuber anomalies? Anyone wanna share war/survival stories? (My old-social-worker nerves just can't take just tossing anything that may still be viable - so I need more info and weirdie-survival stories - to be convinced my theories are solid...)
There is no room for fashion in my garden- clothes must be beat up and willing to take on extraordinary amounts of dirt. Martha Stewart I'm not. One thing that I found really useful for all the cold, wet spraying when digging clumps is to wear rain pants! How simple and yet very effective for staying warmer and dryer. Sox and shoes are a different story. They get changed from 'pathetic garden tennies' to 'even more pathetic garden tennies but dry ones' regularly as I can't stand wet feet. Maybe Santa will bring me some nice lined waterproof boots....
Jules, depending on severity, my experience is that nicks and injuries will often callous over. The cuts can be dried to the touch in a couple hours, dusted (if desired) and stored. No problem. Wrung or broken necks get tossed here; too prone to rot. I just now went out and went through my 'garbage bag' of tubers that got tossed for one fault or another while wrapping. Many thin ones had shrivelled too much, some were beginning to mold on necks or tail ends (no sulphur dust yet) but about a dozen were good enough for me to try to salvage. So I dusted them and stuck them in a tub of vermiculite. It took me all of 5 minutes and perhaps I'll have 12 more tubers. Some of them I tossed just because I was sick of tubers!
As for war stories, I have none except for the spring rotters I've dug up and cut off to a mere stub of a tuber, but with green growth intact. Those have often gone on to survive, although slower to grow than healthy tubers.
My thinking is to just try to save them- if they don't eye up or rot, toss them and be done with it, but at least you gave them a chance.
One last thing, I do the bleach thing right away. So the sequence is dig,wash, divide and label, 5-30 minute bleach soak (that way the bleach gets into all cuts/gouges/nicks,) dry overnight, dust and re-label (darn me, that takes so long but I like to see easily what tuber I'm dealing with in Spring) then wrap or store. If I decide to trim long or fat tubers during the wrapping process, I let the cuts dry a couple hours before proceeding with dusting/wrapping.
It's 24 degrees here and I am so, so glad to be done with that whole sordid process. Hope you finish up soon.
Just curious -
but if that Tuber mass was replanted whole,
would those little Aliens develop necks & evolve into viable Tubers in later years?
Or are all back-side growths just wasted spuds - since they do not have access to the stem-knob where eyes usually appear?
I have several Tubers with well-formed lower-end bulbs with necks. They are not attached to the stem - they just grew from the mother tuber. Should they all be trimmed off, & tossed - or could some still develop eyes at some point? (Thanx for sharing your your experience)
Another set of spuds (yellow FD - from Poochella) are big, and show eyes, but a couple grew right into each other. Should I try to cut them apart, or re-plant as a double-tuber?
Hi Jules,
I think they're wasted spuds, as you say. They will not develop eyes as they have no connection to the collar area low on the stem where eye tissue forms. I tried to Google any article on this, but not much is written.
A couple times I've found a relatively normal tuber that sprouts many 'tuberlets' off of it, skinnier than the space ship above. Those get cut off and tossed, but I will save the normal one from whence they grew if it has an eye.
Don't know what to tell you about the ones that grew off the Mother tuber; but I think they need to have some connection to stem/collar material to develop eyes/sprouts. It wouldn't ever hurt to keep them and see what happens, though. Perhaps a pleasant surprise! If there's anything unusual I label that right on the tuber,like a stem tuber growing higher up above the clump. That way I know next Spring that 'xyz' tubers can work or didn't work, as the case may be.
Re Yellow FD, if you can't separate them easily, just store as a whole and plant that way next year. Sometimes you have one eye shared by two tubers that just can't be divided easily. Hard to wrap those buggers too, depending on the angles of their formation.
A stack of tires on the ground would probably keep them dry and warm enough if you didn't have a sustained freeze. But on thinking about it further, I see the straw and peat as a great place for mice and slugs to gather to nibble on the tubers, and I wouldn't do it. In the past when I've left clumps in ground covered with straw, there have been tons of slug eggs found there in late winter/early Spring. Just waiting to hatch and nibble on sprouts. Some say peat has a tendency to dry tubers out, as well.
Can you put them in a box in a building somewhere protected from frost? Preferably in vermiculite, or wood shavings in bags, or plastic wrapped.
I guess I do mine similar, but lazier. I check them in late March to make sure they aren't already growing since they are in my attic that will warm up by that time. In my zone5a I look at 5/20 or so being the day they can go in the ground outside, so if I start them 6-7 weeks early inside that's 4/1 roughly. I put them all in planters on my porch in a 50% potting soil and 50% peat mixture - for me is very loose and easier to pull the plants apart to plant outside. My porch is probably 10-20 degrees warmer than outside for that time of year, so they grow slow.
Gotta go shopping for lights. :o)