3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias

Flickr is owned by Yahoo and it has a dahlia picture group with several thousand pictures of dahlias in it. The pictures vary from superb contest winning types to more average ones. They have a comment section for the pictures and if the picture is especially nice, it can win an award from various people and groups. Lots of fun to look at the pictures during the cold winter.

Thank you for the replys, livsauntieshel & teddahlia have opened a picas folder & am not sure how to insert image code?
Only placed a link to the folder at bottom of this post.

The flowers in this folder were taken today & are not as good as unusual, as this is the last of a week of hot humid weather with day temps 22 oC min up to 35 oC max each day.

Will try Flickr next, if I find picas difficult to post images from?

cheers allan

Here is a link that might be useful: Dahlia Images taken today 7th February 2011

Formby Art my kind of dahlia. Steve in Baltimore "waiting for spring" County.

Much needed pics as we are snowed in and its veeeery cold! Thanks so much!

Thanks!!!

Growing dahlias from seed is lot like trying to grow potatoes from seed. I do not believe you would generally want to eat that potato because they do not breed true from seeds. Both the potato and the dahlia have tubers that give you superior plants every year. Breeders of dahlias grow about 1000 seeds to get one really nice one. About 800 are really ugly or just not healthy or vigorous. The 199 or so are inferior to named varieties and the one is very nice.

The dahlia seeds that seed companies sell are nothing like real dahlias. They have been bred them to grow only 2 feet tall and to have semi double flowers that are not much to look at. If you like short plants with randomly colored, partly open centered flowers then grow some from seeds. If you want real dahlias that grow 3 to 5 feet tall and look just like the picture, buy named tubers.

i'm with that. Steve in Baltimore County.

It is a green Fuji Spider Mum. The color hasn't been altered. They are actually that shade of green.

I think I found the right plants -Dahlia Cactus hybrids. They are the right height as well. Not sure how they will hold up to our windy days. Will certainly have to be stalked. I'll plant a few to seen how they like our weather!

I think I found the right plants -Dahlia Cactus hybrids. They are the right height as well. Not sure how they will hold up to our windy days. Will certainly have to be stalked. I'll plant a few to seen how they like our weather!

Right now I am just about finishing cleaning up my re-bar stakes. I use a power wire brush to remove rust and repaint with rustoleum. Last year I tried some of the tomato cage supports but did not particularly care for them. Seemed to get in the way for weeding etc. Steve in Baltimore County.

I second the advice on ordering early. I started my shopping in January and was surprised to see how much had sold out. Thanks for the suggestions ted. I had already decided on AC Rooster also. I was only able to find a couple photos of it online; but the ones that I have found are stunning. Lot's of good "AC" dahlias that have originated in the last couple year. I'm also adding 'golden nickels' , 'darkhorse' and 'ben' to my list for next year. I'm afraid I might need to dig up some of my last remaining grass to make room for it all!!

I believe that your dahlia plants are suffering from virus and will never grow properly.
(1) Throw all stock away and start over
(2) Order new stock from a reputable nursery or get stock from the San Francisco Dahlia Society.
(3) Grow them in the ground if possible
(4) In the pots use Miracle grow but each month give them some weak epsom salts, so that the plants can take up the iron. Miracle grow has too much phosphorus and the magnesium will displace the phosporus and in turn the iron will be made available for the plants.
(5) In the ground, make sure they get lots of sun and fertilize with a fertilizer that has plenty of nitrogen. There is myth out there that dahlias need less nitrogen. It has been proven wrong over and over by reputable growers.

Many thanks Ted(dahlia)

I agree - they may have gotten a virus (which is an answer I was looking for originally). So I have already accomplished 1 and 2.

3 is a problem - I have limited ground space available in my yard which is why I have twice as many container dahlias (and roses) as ground dwellers.

4 is a great point. I use Epson Salts for my roses (growers and old time gardeners say it makes the colors more vivid) so I will try it this year on the dahlias. Never heard that iron angle before so that is interesting.

5 is a BIG problem. Can't control how sunny it will be this or any year in SF so I can only do my best and hope for the best. (I realize that is NOT what you meant but believe me,I have a dahlia in every area of my yard). What gets me is a blooming dahlia in the sunniest spot can be next to another dahlia that MAY or MAY NOT bloom well. That is the maddening aspect that I suspect we all share.

I was one of those that heard nitrogen was bad for dahlias because of advice like this from a well known grower: "Dahlias require a low nitrogen fertilizer, such as used for vegetables". Somewhere else I read you shouldn't use (high? a lot?) of nitrogen either and I always thought it was the nitro that made Miracle Gro such a miracle! As I wrote elsewhere in the forum yesterday, I am going to go back to MG this year though, in part because of advice like yours.

The saddest part is I rent an in-law and in Sept. the owner moved back in (above) and informed me that he wants to build a deck from their unit (I have the only access to the yard) so he and his sons can plant vegetables! (Now that I made his weed patch into a Butchart Gardens.) Building a deck will put about 30% of my BEST sunniest growing space in shade and I will obviously lose more space to beans and peas apparently.

It only figures that by the time I get this growing thing down right, I'll lose half my dahlias/roses/yard. :>(

I agree with you. I did 10 potted last year and they grew to about one foot and stopped!!! Now I have a garden that has bout 75 tubers in it and everything was fine there. I can't blaime water or soil. They just didn't like the pot. I will try again with a different shape pot. The smaller azeala type. Getting ready for old age with just a patio for 2 plants!!!

Any veterans of this forum may recall my dilemma with a container dahlia from last year so you'll know I have about 10 dahlias in soil but twice that many in pots. I have grown them for 4 years now and while it is true the larger ones do much better in the ground, I have good 4-8" blooms on my container dahlias as a rule.

2010 was also an odd year here in SF. A couple pot growing dahlias came up but never bloomed - a couple gave me only 2-3 blooms. But that was equally true of a couple of the ground dahlias as well. What I have noticed though is most of my good container bloomers are first year dahlias and if I am honest about it, the potted dahlias from years 2,3,4 were not as robust as the first year they were in pots. Not sure if anyone else ever commented on this or noticed it on their dahlias.

But on this forum I learned that my thought processes in 2010 were probably wrong. I had read that excess or 'early' nitrogen was to be avoided so I took that to mean none and I never gave them miracle gro, though I did feed them 0-10-10. What I have since learned is the word excess didn't mean NO nitrogen and apparently that admonition applies to before they start growing anyway. Once they are a foot tall or so, it is apparently OK to use nitro on them so this year I am going BACK to my use of MG on them and hopefully they will all bloom this year.

I am anticipating a troubling crop though this year. We had 80 degree weather in November for a short spell followed by 40 degree weather for much of Dec and Jan. Now it is approaching 70 this weekend for 4-5 days and then we MAY go back to rain, so all this cold-hot-cold-hot-cold may wreak havoc on the tubers. Will have to wait and see.

Furthermore, I bet the cultivar is named after this gent. Sadly, an untimely demise for him. They delayed his funeral because of a big dahlia show going on at the same time- what an honor.

Did you have some connection with the person,Moschata, or just like the flower?

Here is a link that might be useful: David Howard, the person

I found 'David Howard' at Dan's Dahlias. They're $5 a tuber. Ships in the spring. I don't know if you ever found them last year...

Here in georgia the summer was super hot and I had very few blooms. The heat would just fry the flower bud and plants. I have found out that dahlias are tough plants because as soon cool weather and rains came the plants started producing flowers and growing again. Next year we can start again.

Here is a link that might be useful: Check out the Barry Gardens

Dahlias do not like days over 90 degrees, especially when it does not cool down at night. I have noticed that if you get them into the ground as soon as possible in the Spring and grow them very fast with lots of water, sun, and fertilizer they will be about 2 feet tall when the hot weather hits in July-August. During the hot weather they do not grow very fast but they need lots of water and some fertilizer. They will then be ready for their blooming season when the weather cools down in late August and September. If you do not get them to the two foot height or so, they will really stop growing in the hot weather and will start growing when it cools but will not bloom until very late in the year. So the key is to get them growing fast in the Spring so that they can handle the dog days of summer.

What do you suggest for N.? I didn't add the wood ash this year. The ground froze beforre I could do much of anything but get the tubers out. Lord they are big. Ccan you imagine if you got a big bush from just one tuber and yours puts out 20 and they all have eyes? We could cover the state. How many eyes has anyone found on a big clump of tubers before?

If you are organic there are expensive and less expensive sources of nitrogen. The more expensive are bat guano and blood meal and fish pellets. All are available here in the Portland Oregon area but I bet not very available where you live.

Probably the best and cheapest source of nitrogen is alfalfa pellets or hay. Pellets are a bit easier to handle as they come in bags and can be spread quite easily. Hay is cheaper but comes in big heavy bales.

Alfalfa not only has nitrogen but also some phosphorus and potassium. The best news is that it has a plant stimulant in it that makes dahlias and roses grow better. Rose people have been singing it's praises for several years now. If you spread some on the soil in the early Spring, it will decompose enough to give plants a real boost.

Thank you Ted. Your experience will be beneficial to me. I live in the Montreal area where dahlia cultivation is in great expansion.

Jacques

Hello Pumpkiwi,

I have had the same experience before. Do remember that cuttings may give you new tubers when all conditions are met. These are: good sunshine, enough water, good fertilizer and importantly short days (less than 12 hours of light). The short days should start at bloom time and extend to the end of the season.

Jacques from santiagodahlias.