3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias
Thanks for the response,CC. I've planted some as you have described but wasn't sure how to plant this one since the leaves extended down to almost touch the sprout end of the tuber. I'll only have a half inch of soil covering that end until it gets taller. I've had to build "mini-dams" around the shallower planted ones since our recent inches-per-hour rains have created miniature swimming pools. A few tubers have rotted, naturally my favorite ones. I have had to dig up some and replant after the soil dried a little. I don't think the tubers like being disturbed. lol
Better disturbed then rotted and gone! I've reactivated my grow lights, and am resuscitating some... stubborn... tubers that have started to rot or just aren't doing anything. I am amazed to see Woodland Meranda recuperating from surgery up to the neck! Three sprouts, with two destined for cuttings in a week... This is why I like to plant in pairs, but sometimes you only get one...
I'm impatient... I've got reserves for those holes, if those silly tubers given the chance don't shape up! (At least that's what I whisper to them when hubby can't overhear me! My addiction has to show restraint around the 'but its just a flower' crowd!)
Yes, I thought this one was cute and visitors always noticed it in the garden but the leaves had horrid yellow speckles on them all season. I would like a couple of clean tubers!
Still out trying to find spots in the Red and White Rose garden for dahlia plants today! I have lovely plants of Barberpole and Comet waiting to go in, as well as a Kori Kobi and some others I dug up to divide.
I'm still trying to find spots for dahlias, too. I'm almost finished. Hissy Fitz is a problem for me...that color yellow is difficult for me to place. This year I'll try it amidst some hot colors and see if that works. Lizalily, email your address to me at vvinetteathotmaildotcom
I collected tubers last fall from great plants, but planted late (end of May). We've had a LOT of rain and so far I see no sprouts (except one that got left in the ground). Should I replant at this late date or plant in pots. I hate to have the tubers go to waste--I'd plant just to have them bloom next year if that would work. I'll never dig them again! Thanks.
Where are you at, bethesue? There are so many different climates where people are trying to grow dahlias! I would suggest you gently dig up a few of your tubers and inspect them. Are they rotting in the ground? Or are they making nice roots down there and just starting to grow upwards below the surface?
When you say you "collected tubers" last year, I wonder whether they were cut properly with growth eye still on the tuber? If not they will never grow. So many reasons why they may not be doing as expected...do you want to give more information?
I am actually NE of Seattle near Woodinville. Need to make it to Vashon soon.
Now that my back is better. I am back to a more normal watering schedule. Every 2-3 days depending on our sun around here.
They drain quite well. I put a layer of rocks and drilled about 5 holes per pot. The pots I have them in are probably about 25 gallon pots. They are quite heavy :) 18 inch wide square and about 20 inches tall. They should have plenty of room to not get root bound.
It is my first year with Dahlias. I was not sure if it had a virus or not. :( It is looking much better now that I watered it. The molted colors are still there though.
I would consider growing them in the ground, but don't have a good space in the yard. Also, lots of deer in the yard and I am sure they would love for me to give them more snacks. ;)
On a side note... I am a little bummed. I had a nice little small dahlia and I went to top the plant and accidentally cut off one of the side buds too... so it will not produce as many as I like.
Can I top the side bud and get two more from the side bud and fix my issue?
"Can I top the side bud and get two more from the side bud and fix my issue?"
Without seeing the plant, its hard to speak about what one would do, but it sounds like you have the fundamentals down already. This is early enough in the season that I wouldn't worry about 'getting it right,' and just go with your hunch. Dahlias are amazingly resilient and determined growers once they get out of the gate. Even if you 'do it wrong,' it won't take the plant long to recover and go to town doing what dahlias do best- bloom!
Cheers!
CC
I didn't mean to imply that I got a lot of flowers out of a single Kelvin Floodlight, maybe 15, I was only saying that it started blooming early because I gave it an early start in a pot and then transplanted it into the ground and it continued blooming until late in the season. Like David mentions, the dinner plate varieties don't produce a huge quantity of blooms. I think my top producer was Maarn (class M) which I orginally bought from Swan Island. I lost count of how many flowers I cut from it but it was quite a lot, maybe 30+ from the best plant. Note that it had many more buds and blossoms than that but for cut flowers you can't always use every flower due to misshapen flowers or stems that are too short. Sometimes I also strip buds off to make smoother stems.
I got a fairly long bloom season the year before last with Vassio Meggos bought from Swan Island. It's listed as producing 9" flowers, but I allowed it to grow 3 main lateral stems after topping at 3rd leaf level, and I didn't do any disbudding, so it didn't grow any 9" flowers, but they were usually averaged from 6 - 7.5". Oddly, once late October rolled around, Vassio Meggos actually started its most prolific bloom phase to date, with 8 flowers on it at once! Unfortunately we got our 1st hard frost on like Nov 2nd, which wiped most of them out before they had fully opened. I'd say I got a total of 20-25 flowers on it in the 2 months it bloomed. But on my one Freckle Face plant from Swan Island 2 years ago I got 80-100 flowers of 3 - 3.5" in nearly 3 months of blooming, and its listed as a 3" flower producer, so even with 6 laterals, almost no disbudding, it still always grew flowers of at least 3 , at least til the end of October when the suddenly got small due to the colder weather and serious lack of sunlight.
The classic area to store dahlia tubers is in the unheated garage but next to the wall of the heated house. Even in rather severe climates the tubers stay above freezing if enough insulation is used. Old blankets, painting tarps are some items that can cover them. Picnic coolers in that location work well too. A remote thermometer can be placed in the storage area and it will help you monitor temperatures. If it is approaching 32, one can move the tubers inside the house for the duration of the cold snap. Tubers will not sprout inside the house unless they are warm for several weeks and will return to dormancy easily when returned to the cooler area.
I've mostly stored my tubers in my unheated unfinished basement which stays around 55 through the winter. That works pretty good but is warmer than ideal. I got tired of hauling them downstairs so I left some in my unheated garage against the north wall of the house and that worked even better so I'll probably just do that in the future with the tubers I don't leave in the ground. Another idea would be to use a vegetable clamp like farmers use for potatoes and other root crops. To make a clamp you just make a big mound with all your potatoes (or dahlias) and then cover it with soil or other insulating material (leaves, woodchips, mulch, etc.) to whatever depth you need to prevent freezing. I would also cover it with clear plastic to keep dahlias extra dry.
***Steve
How did you over winter them in the ground without then being killed by snow and frost? Did you have a temporary greenhouse structure built over top of that garden or something? Christ, I planted my tubers over 6 weeks ago and the tallest plant is maybe 6 inches, and I just was finally able to snip the stems at the 3rd leaf level on just 3 of them so far, and that was just a week ago! Granted, it's been cool here for the most part, except for a heat spell a that ended about a week ago where it was in the high 80's to 90 degrees and humid for about 5 days, but just 1 day before that heat spell began here in northern De, it was high temps in the 60's.
Usually if I plant unsprouted tubers around May 25 they are up in around 12-14 days, and ready to be topped at their 3rd leaf level within 2 weeks of that time or so. But then again, the daily high temps are usually steady in the high 70's to 90's by late May into June, and the spring rains are usually over by then.
But it's been in the Mid 70's all week, and we've now had about 26 straight hours of moderate to heavy rain due to the current storm. I'd bet we've gotten another 2-3 inches of rain in the last 26 hours! I fully expect more of my already weakened dahlias to rot.
Next year I think I'm gonna pay a local greenhouse to let me place a few pots in their heated greenhouse in early April, and I'll start some of my tubers there. Maybe even early march.
Woohoo, I finally got some good rain! At least 1.5 inches of nice slow steady rain thanks to Andrea. We were on the edge and got just the right amount of rain with no wind. :) My dahlias are lovin' it! They are going to grow like crazy this coming week with the fully saturated soil and nice moderate temps in the mid 70s.
HighlanderNorth, here's what I did to overwinter one 4x16 foot bed of dahlias last winter. The bed is a raised bed constructed two concrete blocks high, 16 inches. (See the picture.) So the dahlia tubers are all above grade and will not sit in saturated ground over winter no matter how much it rains or snows. I mulched the bed in late November with about 8-10 inches of dry leaves. Lastly I covered the whole bed with a 4x16 foot sheet of clear 4mil sheet plastic and weighted it down with bricks all around the edges so it wouldn't blow away on a windy day. The plastic sheds water which keeps the soil from becoming saturated and keeps the leaves dry which maintains their insulating value. I used clear plastic because that allow some sun to penetrate and helps warm the leaves and soil on sunny winter days. Along about early April I simply removed the plastic and part of the leaves and let the dahlias do their thing. All of the dahlias survived and most of the plants are huge already but a few looked weak and one i replaced. I don't know what was different about those that weren't strong right out of the gate.
It worked so well that I'm going to do the same thing with the other 3 raised beds that I planted with dahlias this spring. I will leave the clumps I overwintered this past winter for a 2nd winter. I'm curious to see how much bigger the clumps get in their 3rd season (2014.) I'm hoping they don't get much bigger but instead stabalize at what would be their natural maximum size as a tropical perennial.
I think one could accomplish the same thing, keeping the tuber clump above grade, with mounded raised beds. The thing I don't like about mounded raised beds is that they tend to become rounded instead of flat on top and shed much needed water during summer thunderstorms. You could also use a simpler construction method and build simple raised bed walls using treated 2x12s filled with good well draining soil. HighlanderNorth, you should give this a try next winter i think it would work well for you too.
Yes, I definitely top them at the 3rd leaf level. I have noticed their stems thicken considerably within 2 weeks of being topped too. But that's usually with tubers that grew fairly thick stems to begin with. Many of last years tubers that I over wintered are growing thin, spindly stems. I hope topping them, and time will rectify the problem(if they even survive this latest deluge of rain!)
I would have, but we are actually removing what I think was insulating them. There is a wood platform that extra siding for the house was stored and and they were popping out from under there. But we are removing the platform soon because it's an eye sore. I dug up about 10 bulbs and I went back out there this morning and found more plants popping up. There are probably another 10-20 more bulbs under there! Crazy! My father in law is the one who told me that it's not possible to keep them alive in the ground here, but we did have a pretty hard snow pack this year.
Hmmmm - over wintering in the ground in zone 4 is really unexpected. I sure wouldnt count on it happening again.
There is certainly time for them to bloom for you this year. From what I have heard, those exceedingly long daylight hours make up for such a short growing season in Alaska.
I don't think that starting dahlias in zone 4 in April is late. Actually dahlias are native to Mexico, so they aren't cold weather plants and this season has been even cooler than average in the northeast if not everywhere, and dahlias don't grow very fast when it's cool outside. Plus in zone 4 you probably wouldn't want to plant them outside til late may anyway. I started mine in late April in Delaware, zone 7, and it was so cool here that they have still only grown to 5" tall so far! That and the crazy amount if rain has caused some tubers to rot and die. I tried growing mine in pots then transplanting them in the ground once they were over a foot tall and found that they don't seem to like being transplanted after establishing their roots in a pot, and the ones left in pots faired even worse. I Start my tubers either in the ground in mid to late May or let them sprout in pots them put them in the ground.
As far as whether your tubers will come back, I've had a few sprouting stems rot due to excessive rain this spring, but then I pulled the tubers from the ground and dried them off and replanted in drier soil and a few grew new stems.
Those who are exceedingly curious about the status of their tubers can use their trowel and carefully lift the soil around the planted tuber. As soon as you see any growth, stop lifting and pat down the soil. The process will not damage the sprouting tuber if you are careful. Of course, I assume that you placed the plant tag exactly on top of the planted tuber so that you know where the tuber sprout will occur. You will find that most will have sprouted but have not yet reached soil level. You may find a totally rotted tuber too and their is no hope for that one.
Thanks CC
I'll give it a try. I didn't know you could root frm the stem. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing :-)
Unfortunately, thicker stems are harder to root, from my experience, but its worth a try! Search this forum for 'cuttings,' and a whole new world will open up!
Cheers!
CC