3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias
Here, the slugs are the bane of the young dahlia, although I have had some aerial artists climb to several feet up to feast on leaves, if I plant the dahlia too close to other things the slugs can hide under. If you bait early and regularly your dahlias should weather slug onslaughts fairly well.
Earwigs- well here they hide in petals or bud masses- dark and creepy seekers they are! I went after one with a scissors today- deep inside a tubular ball petal. There are no words printable here to describe how I loathe those little pincered creeps. And I guess this one feels the same way about me...
Nice colors Flowerfarmer!
Redd: Marlene Joy is B size- these blooms averaged about 6- maybe 7 inches across fully opened. Not huge.
Aunt Net- you got not such a good deal after all. Sorry. Too late in the season to plant I guess, and too wet with all that rain, until some roots develop to pull up some of that water. I'd try to avoid the 'shriveled' tubers- they are real heartbreakers when they rot or don't grow.
I put some pictures of the newest dahlia wedding arrangements in the Weddings with Dahlias album (changed the name of the albun now that it has more than just Nat's wedding in it!. As you can see. some take a bit more time than others but there's not much talent in making a dahlia topiary- just tape 'em together & stuff 'em in oasis in a pot! They were really cute & you can do a few groupings for a bigger display in a church- I've put 3 to 5 of them on alters before & 7 grouped around on the floor in front-- It's that "Florist's Uneven Number" thing that makes things look like you know what you're doing >:) In the other wedding the dahlias were used as pave & then you just bring some other stuff up to as high as you want it- you could use any tall flower & some medium ones & pretty soon they're looking professional as all get out. My theory is-- if anyone doesn't like them- they can volunteer to do the flowers next week! The new picts. start on p. 6 of the album.
Here is a link that might be useful: Wynne's Dahlia Albums
GROW YOUR OWN CUT FLOWERS, by Sarah Raven features a number of Dahlia arrangements. Her suggestions include Chinese Lanterns both green and orange: nice for fall; Amaranthus, Snap Dragons, Nicotiana, and Euphorbia. She also shows Dahlias in contrasting coloured glass containers, which look very simple and striking. The photography is very beautiful and her advice detailed and practical.
Sharon
Here is a link that might be useful: Grow Your Own cut flowers
amy... I just saw your post and had to laugh out loud!! Maybe there is something in the air? I was thinking "Oh! What a wonderful forum. I have so many questions and I've been focused on roses for so long now.... " ok, I'm going to read all your posts and other's responses, so thanks for asking questions, and thanks from another beginner to all you out there answering them.
Hi Juju, I just picked a White Perfection today and both of my plants, as of today, have 10 buds and each have 3 opened flowers. The plants are 5 1/2 feet tall and the flowers are 7 1/2 inches.
I also have Garden Wonder which doesn't have as many buds but is 5 ft tall and the flowers are 6 1/2 - 7" across. Garden Wonder isn't as prolific as WP but still is a fine bloomer in my garden.
I ,of course, have to dig up my tubers in zone 5. Digging these up last year I found that WP had produced an abundance of tubers all being big and fat. Garden Wonder had very few tubers per plant and the tubers were very long and very skinny.
How do yours compare to mine?
Willow
Thank you Willow :)
It bought last year and I didn't get to see the first full bloom (I got it in the ground too late and the bloom didn't get full til it was too late and Jack got ahold of it)
I'm very proud of my babes this year. I'm already looking ahead to next spring and what I'm going to get :D
Nikki, there are alot of dahlias out there, 50,000 or more, and more developed annually. Alot of them look alike and are almost impossible to tell apart from widely variable internet photos/colors, sometimes even in person.
I don't think any site would intentionally misinform you- but webmasters or contributors get tired and make mistakes lablelling or uploading photos, the same and all of us. I would go for majority rules, if you find two sites that say your flower looks like "X" call it X and don't worry further. Spend more time looking for "Y" and "Z"- that's my motto!
Yes, that's a problem at that page, sorry I forgot to mention that. You can always google "dahlia anemone" or "dahlia Formal Decorative" etc and probably get to a page that shows them. I bet other individual dahlia societies have a working photo link.
MITES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I didn't want it to be mites. I pulled my browning/papery leaves off and will give that plant a spritz tonight, just in case I have the same problem. Can't hurt anything. The leaf problem darn well better not move to any other plants.
Thanks for the info.
Hello again!
I finally got my tubers into large pots (I think it was mid-July!) and was rapidly rewarded with sprouts! I have lots of buds now, one of which is opening. Good grief--do dahlias always then decide to open one petal at a time?! Doesn't it know I really, really want to see its full flower?! LOL! What is open is so pretty (a blue-purple whose name I've forgotten--but tag has been saved!), especially since I happened to set the pots near a lovely pink rose.
Thanks, everybody!! :-)
Poochella--Knock on wood, no slug problems (they've already gorged themselves on everything else), but I had a snail on the fascia board above the second story! Nothing stops those guys, including common sense!
wow- second story slug travel just gives me the creeps! What was he after? I've endlessly wiped slime trails off a big sliding glass door- up to about 4 feet and a window at about the same height. Better to need Windex than to replace eaten plants, I guess.
Anna, sometimes you get a malformed bud. Last year I had a triple centered monstrosity that just didn't develop right. I might have hurt it early in the disbudding process, or it was just formed that way.
I have another that looks like it's smiling- much wider center and a bit of an oblong bloom- again, that's just Mother Nature having some fun.
Let's see, I have found earwigs in medium yellow, light pink and white, light yellow, medium purple and fairly intense pink. It could be that they are just easier to spot on the light colors for me. Haven't had hardly any aphids at all this year and only a stray caterpiller or two- all without insecticide too. And a frog who is welcome anytime, anywhere.
Here's something new to me for earwig control. Has anyone done this or something similar?
I'll give it a try- the problem being I will be stifling squeals of horror when I have to empty the flower pot. I think a big cauldron of boiling soapy water is in order.
Here is a link that might be useful: Scroll down to # 7- earwigs on dahlias