3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias

Were they still all tied up???? (I hope.)

Properly grown in a mild climate like that in Western Washington State, Emory Paul can reach 14 inches in diameter with little care and will be as big as 17 inches(I have seen one this large in a show) in a good year. It may be the largest flower in diameter of all dahlias.

Those look good ! The Bodacious is a fun festive bloom even if its not huge. I never have that many open blooms on a large plant at one time, only on my smaller types. Try to drop the expectations and enjoy what you have!

Highlander,
This yr. 1/2 of the dahlias I planted,(a little weird)do have spider mites on them. They are planted in my garden that has a bridge in the middle of it going to the pool. So the dahlias are planted on both sides. On 1 side they have spider mites, growth is stunted but they are still blooming. The leaves are all mottled looking. Going out now to spray w/ Hot pepper wax insect repellent. The mites are spreading and I want to stop this. I used this repellent on my tomato's for white fly and it worked for about 2 wks.
It did not hurt the plants or change the taste. But we had a lot of rain and the fly;s are back! Spraying again/bought concentrate and more organic.

Last yr. my front yard were I plant orange dahlias were doing great then all of a sudden they looked like they were dying. I dug them up and they had wire worm. I treated them w/Triazicide-concentrate and they came and bloomed all summer in to fall when I dug them up/ treated them and put away for the winter in cellar. This yr they are doing fine, no wire worms. Don't know what the other bug is. Did you go on the bug finder on this site, it is helpful. That is what got me going on this site. Lots of pictures. Good luck

karen

Yeah, I ended up applying Triazide about 3 days after I posted this thread, and its worked well so far.

I got lucky in that I discovered the problem almost immediately after it had begun, so you really cant even tell that there was any damage.

As far as the brown bugs I mentioned, they have like a camels hump looking ridge on their high backs, with 2 humps.

I just brought a few of them that I had found on my one sunflower to the cooperative extension for identification because I cant seem to find them on any dahlia site. So now, considering how long it usually takes for the cooperative extension to get back to me, I should know something by the end of the millennium! They are suppose3d to contact you within 3-5 days, but it took 3 weeks one time last year! The messed up thing, is that whenever I go there, there arent hardly any other samples left by other people in the basket there, so they shouldnt be all that busy........

Hi PD. First off check and make sure you have mites. Hold a piece of white paper under some leaves. Strike the leaves quite sharply with something like a lead pencil. If you see movement on the paper more than likely you have mites. A magnifying glass might be helpful. Steve in Stevens County.

pdshop,
Can't see why not. I cut off dead head and the stem w/leaves to keep them clean and blooming. Try cutting off 1 or 2 first to see what happens. Last yr. I had wire worms eating tubers and I dug them up while they were in bloom to find out what was killing them. I treated them w/ Triazicide concentrate,cut all the plants down by 1/2 and they came back. Dug them up and over wintered them in my cellar, this yr. they are doing great. Lots of blooms.
Good luck
Karen

"I didnt immediately add any because Swan Island repeatedly stated not to add too much N,..."

There is big difference between no nitrogen and too much nitrogen. A little bit of fertilizer every few weeks makes a huge difference. Cow manure from the bags at the store have almost no fertilizer in them. It is getting late in the year to fertilize but in your case, you need to give the dahlias some fertilizer to grow and the fertilizer needs to be balanced; that is it must have some nitrogen.

This older thread should answer your question.

Here is a link that might be useful: cut dahlias

Sorry about your dead one. Some of the smaller ones you buy at Lowe's etc seem to die back early, but this is pretty early for that.

Is there good drainage in the container? Are the other two looking healthy? I don't really have any answer, sorry.

I bought a potted dahlia at lowes. It did great for about a month. We've not been having a very good summer. Not much warm weather. It gets watered regularly,as needed. After two sets of blooms,the leaves started turning yellow then dying. (It's not being over watered) The whole plant is mostly gone now but blooms are still trying to appear. They just never get there and there's hardly any leaves left now. It's not trying to get new leaves any more either. I don't the pot is too small. What's up with this?

Thanks for sharing pics. The yellow one is gorgeous. I am in zone 4 and got all my dahlias in later than usual so I have only had a couple of blooms so far this season. I have been checking this forum for other peoples pics, but no one is posting them yet this year.

My dahlias have always looked a little wilty during the heat of the day even at only 85 degrees and 6 hours of sun, but they do just fine, so dont worry about that if they are getting water regularly.

Warning - Dahlias can get addictive. I too started with one or two from a discount store, then added three or four more from SI the following year. Five years later I have over 30 different types. I gave away at least 50 tubers this spring. Look for tuber exchanges on this forum in the spring. Once you get good at dividing you can expand your collection for free.

Bishop's Children is a line of dahlias developed by one of the big seed producers. They were developed from an old time dahlia variety called "The Bishop of Llandolf" (spelling?) It was unusual in that the it had dark foliage and stems. The breeder found that the seeds from it and the succeeding generations were quite pretty in the garden. The flowers do not keep in bouquets any longer than other dahlias.

All dahlias are tubers. If you bought them in 4" pots, they were likely started from seed (I don't know about the 6" pots), but will have formed a tuber now. Have you kept them in the same pot all summer, potted them up, or planted them out? If you kept them in a pot, you might be surprised at how large they will get if planted out. I'm not sure if they will winter over in your zone, but what I read says they probably will.

Here is a link that might be useful: Info that may be helpful