3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias

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?

Hi Folks,
Ms Kennedy is not a Pom but a Mini Ball. Size limit for Poms is 2". Picture shows a spent dahlia. Powdery mildew can quickly be eracated in a few hours with JMS Stylet Oil. It's organic.
Steve

Hi Folks,
Ms Kennedy is not a Pom but a Mini Ball. Size limit for Poms is 2". Picture shows a spent dahlia. Powdery mildew can quickly be eracated in a few hours with JMS Stylet Oil. It's organic.
Steve

I'm sorry, but those don't look anything like dahlia leaves to me. If you live in zone 6 or lower, chances are the cold killed it. I'm in zone 5/6, and I have to dig them up every winter. Even if you live in a warmer climate, lots of things could have done it in, like too much moisture. An overturned pot, extra mulch or digging them can help overwinter in the warmer areas.

Hi there,
going by the foliage, its shape and position on the stem,
it could be something from the Labiatae famili, like Coleus, Salvia or Perilla.
So, probably some weed, but my guess is not a very aggressive one. You could wait for flowers, that would make an ID much easier.

Liza - I don't doubt you for a minute but this makes absolutely no sense to me.

I 'assume' that plant DNA's are like human DNA and if a plant is a semi cactus, there is NO WAY it could be a Form Dec or an Inform Dec or some other 'variety' also. It has to be one or the other. Maybe plants (or dahlias) are different and can be both? Or either? I have never heard of any other dahlia being a different variety unless a grower was trying to turn one into another on purpose.

I actually sent an email to the vendor asking why the discrepancy but he responded they are basically going out of business, never answered my question and said he was politely telling me to order from other vendors this year. So I never got a straight answer.

And overall, the 'hedge' experiment was/is a failure. As mentioned before, they both bloomed but then I went on vacation and returned 3 days ago and Court Jester has turned pink, while jester turned darker pink. Neither have many blooms on them, neither had much white in them and overall I am very disappointed with my 'red/white' section.

Guess you live and learn though.

Dahlias are octaploid meaning that they have 8 sets of chromosomes. We humans have but 2. That means that dahlias can be extremely diverse as the genes can interact in strange ways. Many genes for large makes them really large. Extra genes for a color can mean more intense color. It also means that if gene is damaged another gene can take over. An orange dahlia can lose a gene and the flower can turn to pink. A red dahlia can lose a gene and turn purple. While not common, the loss of genes does occur and many dahlia varieties are the result of that process. Spartacus lost a gene and turned into Vassio Meggos. The loss of a gene can also change the form of a dahlia too. The most common loss causes a flower to be no longer fully double and the pollen center shows; it has gone open centered. It is very possible that the gene that causes the florets to roll up into a semi cactus can become damaged and the flower would be a type of formal decorative. I have seen a flower where the gene loss was only on half of the flower. Half of the flower was ball and the other half the petals were much longer and were much like an informal decorative formation. So dahlias can change in many ways. However, the most common "change" is the grower (and sellers)mislabeling his plant.