3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias
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
Here in zone 8 I keep picking until the first frost. For me,that is usually around Halloween. As the days get shorter the plants will produce fewer flowers and they will be paler in color. Storms may break the plant, or break off flowers, but every late bloom is precious, bringing color into the drab damp weather! During this time your plant is getting ready to sleep, a natural process but not harmed by continuing to enjoy the blooms. The other thing that I notice with my dahlias is a lot more open centers on them. Still bright and rewarding but not as pretty a form. I would say that your should get a number of flowers still as we have some beautiful weather still to come.
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
Can you store the divided tubers in a refrigerator? We store a lot of bulbs in an extra frig in our garage. If we can store the tubers in the frig it will be much nicer than taking up room in containers in our small garage. This is my first year with Dahlia's so I am anxious to learn and not damage my beautiful flowers.
The survival rate is much better if you dig, clean, store as prescribed depending upon what you desire to do wit the pot. If I left mine in the ground here, they would definitely not survive. If I left mine in the garage, they would still freeze if I or my wife accidently left the garage door open. I find that the plants to A LOT better if the roots are not excessively crowded. For sure, I would be digging and storing them.
It should survive for next year. There are some areas of the country that have already had their first frost. I would go ahead and dig it and prep it for storage for the winter. With no greenery, leaving it in the ground could cause rot if you have a wet Fall. ( If it was 7 feet tall you might try a sunnier location next year - if you have one)
Jerem,
A little over a week ago we got hit by Hurricane Earl here in Nova Scotia. The same things happened to some of my Dahlias and here is the link of my post inquiring about broken stems. Poochella was very helpful!!
Here is a link that might be useful: Hurricane hit - what to do?
Dahlia Imperialis, and they are fun to watch grow if nothing else. In zone 5 you will have a challenge to get them to bloom, but it's sure fun trying.
Here are sources from the Big List
* TREE DAHLIA Alpen Gardens
* TREE DAHLIA 3 VARIETIES Corralitos Gardens
* TREE DAHLIA 3 VARIETIES Plant Delights Nursery
* TREE DAHLIA IMPERIALIS Alpen Gardens
* TREE DAHLIA IMPERIALIS Dahlia Dandies
* TREE DAHLIA IMPERIALIS Eagle Dahlia Farm
* TREE DAHLIA IMPERIALIS Love House Dahlias
Here is a link that might be useful: Find them all at the Big List
It appears like I'm not even going to get a bud. Still nothing, just nice lush foliage up top. I guess I'll try to overwinter it one more time and fertilize the heck out of it next year...thanks for the help. I might have some fish emulsion; I'll give it a dose and see what happens.
This will make you feel better Annabeth: it's been the worst year for dahlias in memory. Soggy, cold miserable May and June right up through 4th of July. There isn't a month yet we haven't had our furnace on at least once or twice while the rest of the country deep fried in 90's and 100's. At best, 30% of my plants have bloomed and the others slowly, slowly coming around to show color. Blooms that are usually 6" are 4", 3" are barely 2" etc. Weird year.
I keep hearing 'summer is over' and just shake my head hoping that isn't true. It hasn't started, as far as I can tell LOL! September is usually my best month for blooms- too many sometimes- but the spiders are already weaving their webs that typically don't show up til October, and there's that annoying chill in the air :(
The only thing to do is start planning for 2011, continue to fight your bugs and diseases and dream of better dahlias. Lyn's April has yet to bloom but to date is 4 ft tall, thanks for telling me the height though.
Poochella, I always, always look forward to reading your responses on every post. Thanks for the encouragement!
I know it has been a weird year but I also berate myself for getting a later start than I should have on planting and uncovering the dahlias that overwintered. I also know that I need to feed them more often than I do. I was jump-started back into action after see the Swan Island dahlias. I don't know if the insecticidal soap and the traps will help much but I at least feel like I'm doing something positive to help the dahlias.
By the way, do you know if some tiny green spots on petals might be White Fly eggs? I brought a Wyn's Farmer John into the house and I noticed the spots on about 1/8th of the petals. It was hard to do but I threw it away outside thinking it might be some little baby White Flys that I don't want on my houseplants. It was difficult to throw away the bloom though. Talk about Bee-Yu-Tee-Full. I put it in a silver mint julep cup that has that pretty patina on it that silver gets just before it really tarnishes. So it looked sort of gold-ish as well as silver. It made the bloom look very ritzy. Most of the time I think of dahlias as a beautiful but not necessarily elegant flower. This could have set on the table at a fine restaurant, except for those tiny green spots.
Anyway, thanks again for the encouragement Poochella. I am trying to get to our local Farmer's Market with my dahlias but I don't feel confident enough in the quality of my blooms or even their quantity right now. Even if I could only get there once this year, it would at least be a learning experience for next year. I wouldn't even need to make a profit this year--I just want to get over the hump of starting.
Good Luck to you and your dahlias!
Annabeth
You asked if it would be too much of a hassle to grow them when i could grow so many other flowers that are hardier? Absolutely not! I think dahlias are the greatest flowers there are, because there are so many types, colors, sizes, etc. They are not that hard to grow and I have found every year that the tubers sold at the less expensive big box stores are actually more productive than a lot of the tubers you order from the specialty businesses.
Can someone kindly help me too? Does anyone from this forum know anything about dahlia diseases? I just posted "Dahlias diseased with what?" Please, will someone read this and feel free to respond. By the way these dahlias I mention in that posting are in their third year with me. I overwinter them in peat moss in tubs in my basement. They're sick, but huge, and I forgot to mention that they've continued to flower profusly with out fail all summer. One of them is 'Boogie Woogie' and it's beautiful....HELP!!!!
Good. Glad you can save some! One other thing I forgot: if you have any open/hollow stalks on the broken off ones, cover them somehow to prevent rain from getting in and ruining the tubers. Foil caps, perhaps, or some kind of covering. Mine broke below ground so it was safe enough to mulch well and dig later.
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.