3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias

Oh yes, by whatever means do post pictures. I wish I knew how. Steve S.

Lots of dahlia pictures being post to Flickr:

Here is link to see them:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/dahlias/

I have been using the site for 5 years. Is sthat too long? I don't know where I could go? How old for the horse manure? So you don't think I should replace the soil altogether?

I have horses so any manure used around here comes from them. Try asking at your local stable or doing a walk and nock at a farm and ask if they have any aged manure they would like to sell. Most people will probly just give it to you. I put my fresh manure in a pile all winter until about march when I start a new pile. I stop adding to the first pile in feb. and start using it in april. So about three months from being fresh manure to being usable. If you ammended your beds even with fresh in the fall it would be fine for spring planting. But again I was told by several dahlia farms to not use manure on dahlias aged or not. Of course I didn,t have that info. years ago when I grew dahlias and I don,t seem to remember any problems.

Hi Lizalily

Beautiful pics. Always a pleasure to see more dahlias when I'm at work versus in my garden.

I have a Q about Sunny. I planted Sunny this year and it is a very low growing plant (2 - 2 1/2') that gave me about 4 really large blooms. Then it went into hibernation and is about to bloom from a lateral but it has been weeks since the last bloom. Is yours like that or maybe (I suspect) it is because I just planted it (year one) and in a pot to boot and maybe it needs seasoning?

I have had Sunny for a number of years. It grows tall for me usually, but this year it was the survivor of a freeze that killed 2/3 of my tubers. I moved it and it was a bit shaded by other large growers and decided to crawl along the ground and bloom where it poked out,,,Not good form but not its fault. I presume that if I give it its proper location it will be back up there where it should be at 4-5'.

Thanks for the nice comments. I've got a couple new photos to add; and I thought I'd just keep them all together.

Keith H (nice full plant with tons of buds)

'Snow Country' (one of the 'box store' cheapies)

Mine did kinda poorly this year :( Here a a couple that did ok.

[IMG]http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l278/bluelytes/IMG_2627.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l278/bluelytes/IMG_2574.jpg[/IMG]

this is a little bitty one:

[IMG]http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l278/bluelytes/IMG_2561.jpg[/IMG]

Best;
Bluey

PS Anyone with dahlia seeds or know where I can get some?, please email me directly with info. Thanx

I live in Western WA.I have talked to two very experienced dahlia people and they have suggested leaving the dahlias in the ground. After you cut them down, put black plastic material down with 5-10 inches of hay or evergreen fronds on top of the black plastic. Other years I have dug them up, wrapped them in Saran Wrap or put them in vermiculate. Neither has guaranteed eyes or survival. I belong to a Dahlia Society and everyone has tried every way possible to get them through the winter. Leaving them in the ground seems a lot easier.

It very much depends on where the dahlias are growing. In our cold and wet little micro climate, I'd never get away with leaving them in the ground regardless of how much plastic or mulch I used. Gardeners in the warmer, dryer Seattle area or the 'banana belt' on the peninsula can do that, but the dahlia that survives a typical winter in our ground is rare.
It IS much easier to leave them in the ground, but if you want some tubers next spring, rather than piles of mush below ground, you have to dig in cooler zones.

The ones that I grew from seeds came on very slow but are blooming a little now. I started them in my greenhouse in about February, they did not get very big in the greenhouse. I planted them after I knew it would not frost, maybe mid March. Only about 5% of the plants matured and I have had some blooms. They only got about 18" tall. I guess that they will live thru the winter and be bigger next year.

I did not have a lot of flowers on the seeded ones or the tubers. However we were away from home from July 15th to August 10th so I don't know how they bloomed during that time. I had someone watering during that time so they probably did not get as much water as if I would have been home.

Next year top your tuber dahlias and what I mean by this is to pinch out the main growing stalk just above the last set of leaves when the plant is about 12" high and has 3-4 sets of leaves. This will cause the plant to put out laterals and will make it a bushy plant and somewhat shorter than if it is not topped.

Corralitos Gardens in California has a number of bedding dahlias that will stay short and not need staking. A couple I have grown and would recommend are Jazz, and Princess Paige. These both grow well in our Southern heat.

A dahlia growing guide for Southern Gardens is available on the Dahlia Society of Georgia website. Click on the DAHLIAS THAT GROW WELL IN THE SOUTH PAGE.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dahlia Society of Georgia

I was wondering if anyone has this one blooming yet?

For those of you who grew this did the blooms look like the photo?

PrettyPetals--I know what you mean about the dahlias surviving the heat. We had a day last week where the temp hit 114.6 and the relative humidity was at 13%. Even though the dirt the dahlias were growing in was visibly moist, the dahlias were still wilting. I got my hose out and overhead watered but I was getting overheated. The watering helped the dahlias a little but they didn't recover until nightfall. No surprise there.

The Big List is put together by the Colorado Dahlia Society but everyone in the country uses it (as evidenced here on this forum). They list North American dahlia varieties by name and match them to vendors who sell them. That's it. The list doesn't go into other details such as color, size, type, etc. You just scroll down the alphabetical list until you find the variety you are interested in and then go to the vendors. They have all the vendors websites linked at the top. I find the list to be so long that when you get far enough down it is easier to open a new tab in your browser and start a second tab of the Big List in that leaving the vendors' links up top. When you find your variety, say Vanquisher, you click in the second tab and go to the link of the vendor in that tab. It is much faster than scrolling all the way from V back thru A to get to the vendor list. By that time I usually forget what vendor I wanted to look at.

Good Luck with your hunt. I wanted CAL really bad and found that most of the vendors were from Canada and some wouldn't even ship to the US. Therefore, I was quite happy when I saw it at Costco this spring. If you don't find it next spring, maybe we can arrange a tuber trade. I usually divide mine in April but I could probably do it sooner than that, if necessary.

Annabeth

Here is a link that might be useful: The Big List

Thanks Annabeth. Sorry for getting back to this post so late. I keep forgetting about starting this one. You are very sweet for giving me all that info. I will try to go check it out now and see if I can find it. I appreciate you offering a tuber trade but I couldn't tell you the names of the ones I have. I don't usually keep up with the names and this year I haven't had hardly any of them bloom. Not sure if its the heat & lack of rain or what. So disappointing though. I was hoping when it cooled off a bit I might get some blooms but it just won't cool off any. I'm usually not ready for winter but I have to say I am this year. lol! Thanks again and take care, Judy