3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias

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

What height are they supposed to be? Short container types or tall staking types? I'd leave the last two alone; you'll delay flowering further if you pinch now. Even if the ten don't flower, hopefully they'll produce tubers when the daylength of late summer/fall usually causes this to occur. I usually pinch my bedding/container 18" tall seed grown at four to six inches tall. Not sure if I'd recommend, since this delays flowering. But, pinching does cause branching, when they're not naturally prone to do so. Good luck to ya.

Yes, some do store better than others.

I wouldn't push the temperature limits. If you freeze them you'll lose them. If it's too warm they tend to rot.

yes, some do store better. I have been storeing them for about 5 yrs. I wait till first frost, if poss., I live zone 6. then I dig them up. cut off all green, I make a bucket of diluted insectcide last yr I used spectracide/triazicide concentrate.I wash them in this mixture to kill all poss. bugs ,lay them out to dry,layer them in old wine crates ,paper on bottom, mulch then put the tubers in box and cover w/ more mulch. tubers do not touch ea. other,label & put in basement. lightly water in jan. bring out to garage in may.lg. or dinner plate dahlias do best.also do this w/ calla lilly and four-o- clarks and canna.I have had good luck. this yr i'm going to try sulfur too. smaller ones i've tried did not rot or bloom. do not over water in winter,actually better not to water than over water. hope this helps.every yr. they get bigger and form babbies.mc1720161318099ec rosa abbystractkat@cox.net.