3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias
Good advice raul_in_mexico, and plantlady2. They need to be deadheaded, and watered. With this erratic weather we've been having, one cannot say just water once or twice a week. One really must determine daily whether they need watering or not. It does not sound like a disasterous situation, if the stems are upright and green. Also, with this odd weather we've experienced, is there a chance they were hit with an early light frost?
I think potting it up is a good idea; put it in sun on warm days, in the garage or near house/cover if needed on those nasty cool nights you might still have. I think you'll be just fine- warm weather right around the corner.
I've been lamenting even my late planting this year as it's been cool and wet since I got all my tubers in the ground. Lo and behold I have about a dozen up already- it's so exciting!
She's a great friend to have. She also has a huge perennial garden & lawn that she takes care of by herself. One of the great things that makes me smile is that all the time we're there helping her she's working right along side of us & humming- so every time I drive by & see her in her garden I imagine her humming away to herself- just contented as can be with her little house in the big garden!
You can get the Unwins seed dahlias from any seed rack where you buy annuals- they're a short border dahlia - also good for planters. We get our own seed from AA pods on parent plants in the fall, dry them , seperate them & do all the stuff necessary to harvest seeds.
Last count on the new seedling babies for 2005 is 647-- of that there will probably be around 200 worth keeping this year. It's like Christmas in August when all the babies start blooming & they're all brand new ones never been seen before! You can see some of our seedlings in our "Seedlings" album at this site.
Here is a link that might be useful: Wynne's Dahlia Albums
"The best I've ever done with little tuber left to plant was a couple rotters last season I had to dig up. They ended up with about an inch stub of viable tuber and they went on to grow well enough. I can't say they flourished, but they did grow and give me a couple tubers back."
Poochella, I hope this will work for me. The 'Monet' you gave me rotted half way, so I cut off the rotten part, dusted the remaining part with sulfur and replanted it in a pot. I am keeping my fingers crossed. I go up to the attaic almost everyday to check my babies. Next weekend I hope to be able to plant the ones that have a tall sprout in the garden.
I am also greedy. When I disbud the extra shoots, I potted them up. I'll see how I do with rooting Dahlias. Thanks, everyone for suggestions.
Hi Pitimpani, again!
I just had to cut off and dig out rot from two more tubers, but they have eyes so I am not giving up! Once the rot was cut off, I soaked them in 10% bleach, dried them and dusted well in sulfur. I did everything but a full service carwash on those tubers. They are potted up too, and hopefully will go on to grow.
Just finished planting Wednesday- the latest ever! And already some shoots from 10 days ago are popping up. Looks like a cool, wet week ahead. Ick. May always seems to disappoint this NW gardener after some really nice April days. But June is just around the corner and things should look up from there on out.
Good luck with your tubers. Let me know if Monet doesn't work for you.
Hi Pitimpani,
I wouldn't worry about the low 40's, we've that had here several mornings lately. Finished planting (at least for now) and of course it's been rainy and cool ever since. Bah humbug. Still I have sprouts shooting up above ground just a week or after planting. Yippee: the season is underway!
Oops. I thought I was in the brugmansia forum, as a similar discussion takes place there. That's what happens when one has two windows going at once. Sorry about that.
Okay, to answer your question about dahlias in a pot. I think that you could do this as well with dahlia. It may however stunt the growth somewhat, but probably not significantly ( unless you were planning to show ). The advantage of doing so would be that it would be easier to lift, and then separate the tubers later. Just be sure that you use as large a pot as possible ...2 gallons or more. I had one tuber that was over a foot long last year which was grown in soil in my front garden. I was surprised how big the tubers can actually get.
I haven't tried this with dahlias but perhaps an experiment is in order. I love to experiment. Last year, I grew tomatoes hanging upside down from the bottom of the pot as an experiment, but this year won't do that again, as the produce was down significantly. I had heard that it would work so thought why not, (for the cost of a few seeds).
I think it depends on how wet your summer is. If you have really dry summers this will probably work well as it will help hold in some moisture. If you have wet summers, you might want to leave them above ground so that you can monitor for rot and provide better drainage.
Well! That's what I like to hear! Thanks very much. Their pots are of ample size for now, but once outside, they'll either grow in the ground or larger pots. And yes, they are by a nice bright window - their greenery, after a long cold winter, is lovely in itself.
Anna
Last year I grew several in 3 gallon grow bags (just black plastic bags with a flat bottom and drainage holes.) Some of them flowered before I put them out. I left them in the grow bags sitting out in various places in the yard. Worked very well because I didn't have to dig them up again. Only drawback is that you have to keep an eye on watering them frequently. saw no difference in the number of flowers from the ones planted directly in the ground (dahlias have really shallow roots anyway.)
Beautiful, Poochella, I really like it. In response to your question, no I could only see the X.
I wonder what the picture looked like on the package that Sybilkrizinski purchased. Maybe he/she will respond and let us know if it was like yours Poochella or more like mine (similar to the posting I gave).
Funny- I didn't know my Chocolate Cosmos had tubers until I dug them up & threw them out one year because I didn't know what they were- some form of weird weed, thought I! Needless to say when my beautiful chocolate cosmos didn't appear in the summer I figured it out & had to replace them because I LOVE the smell of them- good enough to eat--- now if only dahlias smelled like that I'd be in heaven with the thousands of them we have around here!
I'm definitely looking forward to that chocolate fragrance. I hope they live up to their name. Don't dahlias have "some" fragrance? I have lots of seeds for different kinds of dwarf dahlias and I could've sworn it says they fragrant. Is it very light?