3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias

Thanks for the thoughts, looks like I better get to work soon!

Michigan has great Dahlia societies and Fabulolus growers

Mid Michigan Midland has huge dahlia gardens

Thanks both for the follow up!

The tubers were all purchased from Dan's Dahlias. I've never had an issue with growing from there before. The only difference this year is that I made a box to place in my yard- it gave them a couple add'l hours of sun each day. I had no slug troubles, and being in the city I don't have to deal with deer.

As for the repeat blooms, not one single plant had add'l blooms after the first 1-3 flowers died off. BUT, new buds formed and eventually blackened- just the buds, no surrounding leaves on the plant.

I'll see if I can get a decent pic, but my plants took heavy damage recently from the outrageous rains we received recently

Look something like this?

I've noticed a dozen or so blackened buds in the last week. Not sure why, but it is not a problem at all for me, as there are many MANY more buds that are just fine.

So sorry that is happening to you! Perhaps extreme weather shift? I have no words of wisdom for a solution to this problem.

Here's a really gorgeous large dahlia (Formby Kaitlyn) that opened up a few days ago. The picture doesn't fully do it justice. It has that iridescent purple sheen that is nearly impossible to capture in photos. (I'm holding it in my hand for scale.)

Nice seeing your formby Kaitlyn, Steve. That's one that I was hoping to see in my garden, but only obtained eighteen inches before disappearing under other more vigourous varieties. With luck, I'll have a couple tubers for next year's attempt.

Caribbean Fantasy seems a contradiction into itself, with the white, yellow and pink folding back into itself. Glad it did well for you, Mytime.

Here's one that recently opened for me, that I've been hearing about from dahlia friends for the last two years... Show & Tell. Well worth the wait, it is absolutely magnificent! Oh, and so is the Praying Mantis.

I have noticed over the years that you can give plants with too much of a good thing. Specifically, people put lots of soil amendments like compost, mushroom compost, manures of all kinds and lots of other sources of organic material, perhaps alfalfa pellets, bone meal, and a myriad of other items. Then they wonder why their plants do not do well. As a human being if I ate a 100 pounds of food at one sitting, I would not feel well either. Plants want nutrients but in regular small doses. When too much organic material is put on a garden all at once, the plants are competing with the bacteria in the soil that are digesting the compost. It seems that the micro organisms win and the plants look sickly. If you have added too much of the above onto your garden this year, it is good to know that your garden will do great next year when the soil organisms are done digesting. Another example is trying to plant a garden where the manure pile was during the winter. One would think the garden will do good there but it will not. But the next year that area will be the best in your garden.

Thanks so much. It is Sept now so it is now or never. What do you think of using Superthrive as the only addition next year?

I would want to save the nitrogen for next year instead washing it away. In most areas it disappears over the winter. What was your source of the nitrogen?

OK, I will do that. In the Sprig I will try and find a 0-10-10 fertilizer. They are growing leaves and laterals like mad but we don't have the time. Pat

>> I'd give it another year and if it still underproduces,
>> you can shovel prune it next year.

Well, too late for that. I dug it up yesterday and destroyed it. I didn't want to risk transferring disease to the rest of my collection. Back when I only had a handful of cultivars I might have tried to nurse it along but now I've got around 85 different cultivars and I'm becoming more ruthless with discarding under performers. I'm also starting to eliminate cultivars that can't take the heat here in Virginia. Some of these might perform just fine in a cooler moist climate but here they just blow out their centers and are useless.

For the record, I've been pleased with Swan Island and will not ask for a replacement for Ripples. They already sent me a replacement for a Mary Munns tuber that failed to sprout.

" I didn't want to risk transferring disease to the rest of my collection." Most dahlias have virus of one kind or another. And people are infected with very many viruses that exhibit no symptoms too. Yes, that virus makes Ripples not grow very well. That same virus is probably infecting several of your other varieties but they exhibit no symptoms.

What I'm looking for is a color similar to Coronation Gold yarrow.

Coronation Gold yarrow is just a dark yellow(not gold)in my humble opinion. In that case, there are some full saturated yellow dahlias that would match. Bloomquist Barbara, Tahoma Lael, SB's Sunny, Clearview Sundance, Melqua Joy, Chimacum Julia.

Many people equate dahlia virus with the Black Plague. They think that once it starts all your plants will be infected and die within a few days. In reality it spreads rather slowly and most of your plants already have one or more viruses and show few or no symptoms. Any plant that is seriously stunted or has an extreme case of blotchy foliage should be tossed as it susceptible to that virus. You can try the Magnesium or extra fertilizer but if it is really stunted it probably will not work.

Hello Ted, thanks for your answer, I am really reliefed that cutting flowers is not a vector. And fingers crossed I didn't have any black flies/ aphids this season. So I will get some epsom salt or something similar and just keep the nice flowering ones that keep going.
Well, thanks again, bye, Lin

Thanks for the info. That will teach me to purchase prepackaged tubers. The same thing happened when I bought tulips - the purple tulips were more red than purple, and the white ones were cream/yellow. I may have to try again, since I'm really fond of 'Osirium'.

I love the first one. What do you think it is as I would like to get it for next season. Pat

>> Your mutation looks a lot like Painted Lady

I looked up a picture of Painted Lady and yes my mutation looks exactly like it. Perhaps Painted Lady was one of the parents that was crossed to create Painted Girl. Is there anywhere to look up the ancestry of a dahlia?

There are two varieties of Painted Lady. The one that resembles your sport is Fern Ridge Painted Lady. Perhaps that tidbit will help if you do further research.

Cheers!
CC

Slugs and snails do NOT like coffee grounds. I place a healthy ring around my dahlia beds along with some crushed egg shell and slugs leave. An organic and safe pellets is Sluggo Plus also gets earwigs but is pricey. I use it only when earwigs attack.

Steve, I was thinking about setting up a coffee ground collection bin (5 gallon bucket) at a gas station and a local coffee shop, and using it on top of the mulch, working it in the soil with leaf compost after the tubers are dug.

What say you? Would the grounds next to the stems and applied heavily do any damage to the blooming dahlias?