3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias
34 degrees won't hurt your dahlias whether then are inside a cold frame of out in the open. However, forecasts can be a bit off target if you get a clear still night.
My own cold frame protection method is to throw old bed comforters over the cold frames on suspect nights. I have picked up a few comforters at fleamarkets and thrift stores for a couple of dollars and have found in side by side temperature observations that the covered cold frames stay 5-7 degrees warmer then uncovered frames.
However, on nights when the weatherman is actually predicting temperatures below 30 degrees I still tend to chicken out and get everything indoors for the night.
Wow - Willow what a great price for Vermiculite! And I've been buying the skimpy bags at the garden centers for the same price. Thanx for the tip! I love all my fresh compost too - Yesterday I turned 2 big piles and started a new one.
The last 2 I dug in and spread around was a marvelous experience! I bet a health study would show positive benefit form inhaling fresh compost aroma.
Preparing soil today - for planting my *first-ever*
FOUR Dahlia beds - with Tubers sent by Poochella!
This is so exciting. Quite a few are showing sprouts already - so I'm really eager to get 'em in the ground.
I'm mixing soft crumbly peat (NO gukky clumps)
into mixed sterile steer compost today - that looks and feels really good: dark with light texture,
so I couldn't resist mulching a bunch of transplants
with it - so i needed to make even more.
Then will dig that in this week - to new lasagna beds
that were turned under in last few weeks,
after having been covered with cardboard,
coffee-grounds & mounded leaves all winter.
The lasagna soil gets broken up to a crumbly state,
then a spade of fresh home-made compost goes in -
with the steer-peat mix for each wide planting hole - mixed well into the origional average dirt that formerly hosted grass. Then planting time - will be irresistable -
Should I wait for planting till I buy more Perlite - (or that vermiculite) or is the 1/3 peat, 1/3 dirt, with the 2 kinds of compost mix good enough to keep soil both light and free from baking/compacting in summer?
I'm leaning toward adding perlite or vermiculite first -
so tubers can form more easily for sharing.
(In Oregon it gets VERY wet sometimes, and also so HOT that the ground can bake into near concrete...)
Besides STAKES,
Can you think of anything else
that should be added for better bloom,
stronger stems, disease resistance, etc?
For Powdery Mildew prevention - I am considering using an early Comfrey foliar spray. And I've realized realize I've got borage in the garden - not comfrey - and I bet that would work *equally* well - but to my knowledge has not been thru the formal studies. Any opinion/experience?
I'm SO ready to go on this!
I sorted alot of tubers into groups today
and added the individual markers to each set
so none get lost once planted.
I plan to add groups if some mystery glads,
Lucifer Crocosmia,
and Canary Yellow Crocosmia (also from Poochella),
with Liatris (the spiky Purple GayFeather) to the beds
for foliage contrast, near existing Roses and Peonies that have nice bronzy leaves.
I expect to remove lower leaves from most Dahlias - and I don't really want their bare legs to show. So on borders I'll also plant some smaller flowers and add contrasting foliage plants.
Who needs grass in the Front yard anyway?!
Mine will be reduced nearly to just a wide path
for flower-bed access. I'm mulling how to best do the watering - I think by hand, slow with an aerating wand on the hose, so I can watch everything develop and spot weeds before they compete.
Another quick question - I have a free source for
Hemlock Bark Dust, that I'm thinking of using it in front just as an edge between grass and the Flowers. Is this OK?
I assume Hemlock is too acidic to use more widely as mulch. In back it's being used just for soft walking paths in full sun areas where grass does not do well and only weeds (and my cookng Amaranth) tend to flourish.
I look forward to finished planting,
& seeing pix of everyone's gardens!
Thanx so much for sharing info -
I've learned alot already.
Jules, If I were a plant, I'd want to end up in your yard! Your excitement and enthusiasm is clear and contagious.
I haven't had to add perlite or vermiculite per se, have done okay with just compost and (formerly) peat moss added to each dahlia hole. If you have heavy clay soil vermiculite might be a great additive. I throw my clay away into an usused part of the property, but others swear it can be turned into workable soil. (I am unconvinced having hand-chiselled through it with a poker hit with a rock and bending a pitchfork tine trying to get a cut into it- hideous stuff.)
If you have fairly decent soil, I'd just go with compost every year and mulch with more when the plants are up a foot or two. I have only the occasional weed directly around dahlias- whether that's from mulching or not, I don't know. The buttercups on the edge of the garden are a totally different story. Your tubers will form clumps easily enough in decent soil. Your yard will soon be the talk of Portland!
Watch your glads for signs of thrips- nearly invisible black streaks ~1/16 inch long. The first sign is foliage damage, then mis-shaped sad flower stalks. Potential disaster if they get into your dahlias. I still haven't planted my thrippy glads from last year and am thinking of burning them instead. Think I got one or two blooms out of 50 bulbs or corms, whatever they are. The pits.
I love watering by hand (please remind me of this in late July and August) It gives you a chance to see how the plants are doing, pluck a stray weed and disbud the dahlias as you go. I will sing a different tune if I ever have more than 150 plants, however. I think I sang that different tune last summer.
Good luck with your garden ventures PDX Jules.
Dutch Gardens at: http://www.dutchgardens.com/ is offering Claudette. Now at sale prices!
Here is a link that might be useful: Claudette by Verwer Dahlias
LOL! I've created a monster. It wasn't exactly advice Dapper- it was more of a silly thing I do because of lack of patience. But if it gave you some measure of satisfaction to yell at the tuber, then all's well.
I also do this to see if the slow tubers do indeed have eyes/sprouts or if they are rotting. It's not a lot, but a few get the 'dig-em-up' treatment each season. You don't have to yell at them, you can gently say "What's wrong? Are you shy?" "Having problems?" then yell "Get with the program! I don't have all year."
We have another glorious sunny day in store and my shovel's at the ready. All this talk about planting has my trigger finger itchy, but I know it's too early to plant here.... sigh
I have a solution! Send them to ME!!
(just kidding)
Your greenhouse makes such nice healthy starts -
my scraggly sunroom babies would sure look scrawny
next to those. But all starts are being transferred outside today for hardening off, and potting on, then transplanting in the next 4 weeks.
2 weeks of over 60 degree days have begun, so they'll really start to take off. Good thing I work home office so I can watch watering, and haul stuff back in if weather takes a turn. We've had heavy rains, that switch to hail about weekly, the past 5-6 weeks! That's supposed to be over, however, with just a few more nights in the 40's.
I joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture - buying group) so Organic Veggies and Eggs will be delivered weekly this year,
and I don't have to feel bad if I don't have time/space to get all the seed/starts in the ground this year that I'd planned. Already, I'm sure I'll be sharing lots of garden goodies - and hosting simple, but varied organic dinners.
For the first time, thanx to Poochella's generosity with Tubers - I can add lavish bouquets to the dinner party table. Life is good!
There is a lot of information on the web about Dahlias. What comes to mind immediately is, good soil, stake well, water correctly, does best in almost all day sun, deadhead often, pinch back when very young............and lots more. You do need to do a bit of reading I would suggest. Here is a link to get you started.
Ginny
Here is a link that might be useful: Colorado Dahlia Society
If you didn't separate in the fall, then you most likely have the old tuber which has rotted. This is normal. We plant only the new ones. Poochella has a good idea though about a bleach solution, although I would be tempted to dip and run. Also, if the new tubers are firm, plant them up and see what happens. Nothing ventured....nothing gained.
Did as suggested & planted yesterday. Frankly, these are probably my best looking tubers after I divided them up. I hope I didn't divid too much, I wanted to be sure to get all the bad tubers out. I had never divided before & I think this was on its 4th year, huge. I'm sure I will never miss the 3 or 4 bad ones.
I think it is going to depend on what kind of winter we have. I have also had dahlias overwinter outside, but like yours, they weren't happy. Covering with leaves would certainly help, but if you really don't want to lose them, I don't think I would risk it.
I don't know of one website that has all dahlia varieties- that's a tall order. Here is a good place to start.
But it is just a start. You can also go to dahlias.net and start going thru the list of suppliers.
Here is a link that might be useful: Dahlia photos- various links here
The roots will come from where the leaf node is, so yes, that must be put in the bedding mixture. I will put mine about 3/4 to an inch or so below the surface, thus preventing the drying out process. If I get a day off work soon, I will try to show some photos on stem cuttings.
Meanwhile add some rooting hormone, and stick it in. Keep it moist but not wet. I would also keep it out of the direct light at this point, preferring heavy a shaded area outdoors or a light system indoors. Don't let it get too hot either.
No, you probably did not kill them. This is an essential step. Plant them with the eye facing upward, and you will soon have more plants. If you can't see the eye, then plant it horizontally until the eye appears and you see a small shoot, then replant properly. Check out some of the other posts here in the forum for some good advice on planting and/or setting in trays to wait for the eyes to develop.
Be aware, that many tubers don't develop eyes, and thus won't grow plants. I have at least 4 trays full of tubers that I am waiting to have develop shoots. These tubers are mainly a storage house for food for the plant.
Good luck.
I was planing on selling them in cut flower shops with coolers and boquets or puting a sign along the road with something along the lines of cut flowers for sale or cut your own fresh flowers. There are a large number of tourists in my area and i figured that might be a rather large market. :o) i have 3 summers until i would be in college and that is plenty of time to see what works and
what people buy. My main plant is going to be dahlias but i have some zinnias and others too. This should be fun!
Carrie
You don't NEED to do the splitting if you don't want more plants. What you can do is pinch off the smaller shoots that come up, saving the strongest.
For example, I would keep the tallest here, and pinch off the smaller ones.
However, if you wanted MORE plants, then they could be split as indicated in the other posting.
I hope that helps.
I recently waslike you and bought some tubers froma seed store. I had them for about a week and they started to sprout in the warm weather so i split them up. I started with 7 plants(or bunches or whatever they are called) and came out with 16. If you want more split them up when you see sprouts...if you dont want more dont. :o)
Hi aspringer,
I imagine you'll have to wait a while in your zone before it's warm enough to plant outside safely. You can go the link below and read "pre-season" and "growing season" tips, or even submit your question giving your specific location and temps.
Lots of good info there for the NE USA.
Here is a link that might be useful: Mid Island Dahlia Society in Long Island NY
Jamlover, that is "Edinburgh" a nice medium sized formal decorative. It's very close to "Rothsay Reveler" pictured here. Edinburgh is a bit darker purple. Both nice blooms, and Edinburgh a good tuber producer.
Another lovely. Gee, I'm getting more and more anxious for summer. Your photos are really clear. A digital camera is on my birthday wish list for May!!