3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias
Kenora Wow was definitely no wow here. Smallish flowers, stunted growth. Tried it two years. Red and yellowish here. Hard to believe the pictures of it from my experience, but that is just one experience. Maybe I just had bad tubers, but as I recall, the tuber never eyed up initially and then the grower sent another puny tuber (suggests that he too didn't get robust growth). The second year, I had larger tubers from the year before, but they never did anything.
Teddahlia or others, can you explain your last sentance...."growing dahlias in pots that are not buried in the garden is a whole different matter." I was thinking of leaving some of mine in pots above ground as well as sinking pots per Barbara. What are your thoughts about leaving the pot above the ground?
Pots in the ground is more like dahlias in the ground than dahlias in pots above the ground. Growing dahlias in pots above the ground is very difficult especially in warm climates. They get way too warm and need extreme amounts of water. If you use extremely large pots and make sure they do not get too hot in the sun, they do OK. It is easy to grow dahlias to full sized plants in the above ground pots and they look good for one flush of blooms. After that, they look worse and worse. Pots in the ground are much cooler and the plants have access to water and fertilizer through the weep holes in the pots. Having said all that, low growing dahlias with small flowers do pretty well in pots. Another huge advantage of growing submerged pots is maintenance: you can miss watering them for a day or two or three. Try that with an above ground pot!
Sixteen months since the original question. I planted in the ground this summer, 100+ temps, sever drought, and starving deer.Absolutely no blooms, lost 4 completely. I've potted for the winter, thinking of ordering pots that are 24" across tops, 19" tall, and leaving on my deck, where they can be protected, on my self watering system. Wish me luck for next year.
Amazing! That looks like it! what's amazing is that I started it too late and it didn't bloom in time before our first frost, so I'll have to wait until next year to see it. The picture I bought from (a local grower who actually uses pics of his own flowers) shows more red and yellow, way less white, so I didn't even begin to recognize it.
Here is a link that might be useful: local pic of C.F.
Nice one Mytime.
As I remember, you have a green house - do you plant some of your tubers in pots and move them back to the green house to extend your season?
We have been known to have hard frosts by now, but I am hoping for another month of Dahlia blooms here. I have a few new plants that went in late and are just now budding up, so I am hopeful that I will get to see blooms from them before the season ends.
No, I don't. They're too large, and there is too much other stuff to do this time of year. And I don't heat the greenhouse in the fall, so although some years that would give another month, for others it might only be a week. I do have 3 that never made it out of their pots that I put in the greenhouse though. They got such a late start that it wasn't worth putting them out. I'm hoping they just last long enough to make a new tuber!
Thanks PT
It MUST be an old dahlia because a Google search turns up nothing for an Island Dawn nor do ANY of the vendors on the Colo. Big List have one.
I'm currently leaning toward Peaches n Cream because it has the white, yellow and peach coloring that matches Chihuly. From the photos I've seen on Google, it looks super tall and it seems to morph from all yellow to mostly peach, which that whole section seems to do (Sept. Morn anchors the left side with Patty Cake in front of it).
I probably will also plant a few glads of the same color scheme because they tend to grow 5-6 feet or more for me.
Akita does have pretty flowers but I am kinda disappointed in the plant. The stems are weak and most of the time the flowers are hanging down. I have had a few nice blooms that are facing upwards though.
I was out in the yard trying to find something to add to the bouquet. Most of my other non-dahlia plants are done blooming. I saw the flower spikes on the basil and figured that might work along with grass seed heads. I like it!
Linda
Akita does need a lot of support, and stems are quite short. But it can throw some marvelous blooms.