3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias
So sorry I could not find one for you - of Fire and Ice. I may have it, but sadly a bunch of tags fell off some tubers and...you know the rest. If indeed some of my unknowns bloom Fire and Ice in my garden this summer - I will make extra EXTRA sure that you will get a tuber next season.
In the meantime - but again, only for next year, Canada's Botanus is offering Santa Claus, and let me tell you it looks much like F&I.
Here is a link that might be useful: Botanus - Santa Claus Dahlia
This is my first year for potting up tubers. Many of them dried out, while others were left in the winter storage bin. I'm not sure that in a lot of cases, the tubers potted up in the garage would have fared better had they been left in the winter storage. Too many dried out because the ground was soaking wet and cold for longer than anticipated. The ones left in storage still look fine!
In the past, I've always planted tubers outside, without verifying eyes or anything. And they've done reasonably well. Granted, I was planting them first week of May, not the 1st week of June. But I had flowers! Some may not bloom until fall, but at least you'll have more tubers to store in vermiculite for the 2012 growing season.
If they are already blooming; they won't get much bigger than they are now. They might get a bit 'bushier'; but not much taller. As far as pinching; that is usually done before it blooms. Each time you remove a bloom that has finished; you are 'pinching' and it will have the same affect in that it will stimulate more laterals (branches) to form. Some bone meal in the ground would not hurt. Just keep them watered; but not too wet; and put some good compost in the soil.
They may need to be staked; but as I mentioned; they are probably at or near their full size now; so if they don't look like they need to be staked; they are probably a smaller variety.
Enjoy!!
Cadence,
You are in zone 8b.
I am in zone 8, so I will try to give you some pointers.
Dahlias are heavy feeders, which means they need composted manure in the soil while you plant them for additonal food.
Bone meal is also good.
In addition, I feed mine also with Miracle grow once every 10 days.
Is your climate humid?
I have humidity, and towards the end of summer they will develop a white fungus on them, you can try to avoid this by thinning them out some, cut the stems in the middle a bit so they aren't so dense.
ALso, water them more in August, it will be hot.
In the hot summer of the southeast, dahilas enjoy a little afternoon shade, so if at all possible, keep that in mind when you plant them.
Never water them at night, ever. If you do, they will rot and die. Always water in the morning. If you have to wait to water them, wait, til a morning that you can.
In the late fall, you will see the dahlias starting to loose leaves, just cut them down, leave about an inch stem, and mulch real good with at least 2-3 inches of mulch over the dahlia for winter sleep.
In the spring, when you see signs of life, just remove an inch of the mulch and start all over again, adding composted manure to the soil around the dahlia without disturbing roots. I just lay it on top of soil and put mulch back on.
I planted my dahlias about a foot apart.(reasonably small ones).
They will get bigger and fatter every year.
Good Luck to you, and by the way, dahlias are addictive!
I was given some dahlia tubers and some of them have mold on them. How should I take care of this? I would love to be able to plant them asap if possible. Or should I just chuck them? Please e-mail me your responses. marjorie.weikert@yahoo.com
The height of dahlias is affected by the latitude of the grower. The farther North you live, the taller the dahlias. At our latitude of 45 degrees, dahlias grow somewhat tall. The tallest in my garden in absolute full sun(shade makes a huge difference), the maximum height is about 8 feet for Kenora Clyde. It has reached 18 feet when grown in partial shade(not in my garden). If you use shadecloth, dahlias that grow normally 6 feet or so will reach 9 feet and sometimes even taller.
Ted, that was a relevation, but it makes a lot of sense. I wondered why that one plant grew so much taller than the other, but it was next to some overgrown Christmas trees and I guess it had to work a little harder to get to the sun. Thanks for the insight! I guess I just assumed that a plant wouldn't do as well if planted in less sun. Now I know it can work differently.
Powdery mildew is very infectious and kills dahlias. In the Fall we sometimes get very bad powdery mildew and without spraying, the plants can turn completely white and all leaves that turn white die in a week or so. If you spray after the leaf turns white, the leaf still usually dies but the new leaves will be normal green.
I once had an infection on some cuttings that were inside my house and sprayed them and thought I had cured them. I planted them outside and the powdery mildew infected those plants again and about 10 feet of row near them(in July no less!). I sprayed with a systemic fungicide and controlled it. I use Strike (Triadimefon).
Looking good!
I finally started potting up my tubers a few days ago. Everything that was nicely "eyed up" is potted, (about 75 of them), and another 20 or so are in baggies with peatmoss, I expect most of them to be viable. I started with 3 tubers 5 years ago, then bought a couple more the next two years, all of the rest are through dividing and trading (thanks Kerianne) they are worse than bunnies!
I've no idea what I am going to do with all of them. Last year I think I planted about 35 Dahlias. Maybe I can find room to expand it to 50, but I think I will be giving lots away.
I was cleaning up a garden bed today and found sprouts from the dahlias I had there last year. Now why did the winter kill my 10'tall climbing Graham Thomas roses that had been there and healthy for 10 years, but not kill the dahlias in the ground!? I had not even mulched them like I did the ones in my cutting garden where I grow most of them. Still haven't figured out why so many roses died this winter...maybe it was cold winds. Those sprouting dahlias renewed my faith in growing things!
The dahlia is named Prime Time, (two words).
B sized, a light blend of bronze and yellow. Swan Island Dahlias no longer sells it and according to the Dahlia Big List, no commercial source sells it. If you like this shape and color scheme, I bet you would like Woodland's Wildthing B SC Orange.
Dahlia buds in April in Alaska - I love it!!, you rock mytime! I'll start waking mine up next week.
About 1/2 of my dahlias are unnamed ones that I grew from seed. If I like them, I save the tubers in the fall. Theoretically, it should be easy to mark what color they are, but fall time is hectic and so usually they all get tossed in a bag (except for the named ones) and I plant them out not knowing what color any of them are. Advantage to potting them so early? Most have started blooming already, and I just started planting them out a couple of days ago. So if I so choose, some will actually be color coordinated with the plants they are near.