3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias
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.
Jroot--Since your wife is of Ukranian descent, I wonder if you grow the dahlia Ukraine Free?
I got it this year, but I can't say much about it except that it hasn't bloomed yet. I don't believe it is the dahlia's fault though since it got a late start in my garden. I got it from Accent based solely on their description that it is super heat-tolerant. I don't think I'll have a chance to test that this year since it doesn't even have a bud yet and by the time it blooms it will be cooler (I hope).
Somehow I knew that you built that little bird church. Maybe if you offered Coffee and Donuts, they'd come back. :)
Annabeth
No, Annabeth, I do not have Ukraine Free. I will have to "check it out" though. Thanks for the tip. It certainly has a nice colour. Do you know if it is a tall variety?
I just got home from a trip to Newfoundland, and have not yet had a chance to get out to see how the dahlias are doing. It is still dark out here, as my internal clock is an hour and a half a head of us still, which explains my being up so early.
Here is a link that might be useful: Ukraine Free Dahlia photo
I bought dahlias that in my own experience have the characteristics of good cut flower dahlias. Our flower stands are outdoors and get way too hot in the summer so choosing flowers that will stand up to that is of utmost importance. I prefer waterlily and ball types that have a heavy substance to their petals. I also prefer mostly smaller sizes, with a few spectacular big flowers for special events. Also, in our experience, some colors sell better then others, i.e. it is hard to sell pink bouquets of any kind! Part of that may be the shade on my main stand as it is back under overhanging eaves of a large old country store. This is better for the flowers but makes difficult lighting conditions, so the brighter my bouquets the better they sell! Anyhow, those are the criteria I used. I would have probably not boughten a dahlia that was not listed as a good cut flower at Swan Island.
I bought nearly all different dahlias. I have space for 130 and that is that. Any others have to go into my personal garden among the lilies and roses. That is also where I put the ones that failed as cut flowers but are pretty to look at, as well as the anemones and orchid types. I leave my dahlias in place for 3 years, and then divide all of them. I did have about 30 that survived last winter.
Oe the new introductions, I especially am liking Sheer Heaven, Diva, Bluetiful, Mango Madness, Andrew Charles. Other favorites are Bahama Mama, Dazzle Me, Fatima,Jordon Nicole, Loverboy, Moonstruck,Nicholas,Polyvention Supreme, White Polyvention, Rip City, Ripples, Sandia Shomei, September Morn, Sun Kissed, Vessio Meggos,Voodoo, Wildwood MArie, Joel Lousisa, Ahoy Matey, Bracken Lorelie and can't remember the names of the others.
I have other favorites among the Cowlitz River Dahlias, Clack's, Dan's Dahlias, particularly Sunshine Paul who just oped its first flower this week. Most of CRD flowers have not started blooming yet in this strangely cool summer, but are perking along.Ask me next month and I will probably have a whole new list :-) .
Thanks for the answers, Lizalily! As a matter of fact, I just got back from visiting Swan Island Dahlias at their Dahlia Festival. I really liked Diva and Honeymoon especially. Nick Sr. was awesome as well. My biggest surprise was how beautiful Innocence was. It is a pale pink and white one but was absolutley fabulous. I believe it is an older variety. Plum Pretty was another that really caught my eye. Also, the anemone Platinum Blonde was very interesting and I wonder why it is not considered a cutter by them, except that maybe it doesn't have a long vase life. It sure was plentiful and long-stemmed. Loverboy was a standout as well. And as weird as they are, I was quite interested in Junkyard Dog and Mars.
I realized that I didn't take many pictures of the individual varieties since I was taking written notes and I was too caught up in the flowers to want to bother with my camera while in the indoor displays. I did take some general pics of the fields that I'll have to post soon. I hope others will take pics too and post them here.
Thanks for the answers!
What you dont say is how mature the plants are now. If you planted them in decent sized containers and have been taking care of them then I would expect them to have started to flower by now or at least have buds.
If you are zone 4 like me, then you only have another month and a half of growing season (if we are lucky). I still have a couple of plants that haven't flowered, but they are over 4 ft tall, and I have been bringing in big bouquets every other day or so since mid-July from most of my plants.
I would go ahead and put them in the ground. Even if you dont get many flowers this year, the leaves will feed the tubers and they should be fine for next year.
Due to being out of the country one year, I only had mine in the ground from mid-July to mid-September. Most of them came back fine the following year.
I use the macro setting when taking photos of flowers. It's a little flower icon on my camera. I agree with the no direct sunlight suggestion. I also crop a lot. As long as the focus is clear I can later crop out what I don't want to get a nice up close shot.
When you cut, cut above a leaf node and that should send out two more branches with more flowers each. Each growth tip will produce buds: remove the inferior buds for a single fuller bloom per branch or leave all buds to develop for a more crowded bunch of blooms on shorter stems.
How long it takes for branches to develop into blooms varies by variety. By mid-September you ought to have plenty of flowers on at least some of the 100 plants.
Congratulations on your pending marriage.
That particular (and odd) bloom is just about on it's last legs. Maybe the next one will look much different? I'll have my husband snap another picture a little closer up when the next one comes. This one looked like it belonged in the novelty category. It's sure not the gorgeous bloom that I saw at in Everett WA last year! But I do have some great beauties to console me . . ..
How can I be sure it is a virus? I had used a mulching product this year called Mainely Mulch. It is straw and hay chopped up, sanitized and than compressed into a bale that covers alot but is not heavy. Have any of you heard of it? Could that be my problem? I will indeed discard the tubers this year and also cover my soil with a tarp to try and sanitize it. Any ideas on how to sanitize the soil other than what I mentioned? It doesn't seem to bother the flowers but I hate looking at it after sooo much work!
Fish emulsion is a great organic fertilizer - every 2 weeks. I do it the night before my sprinkler system goes off as it is somewhat stinky. But works great (tuberous begonias love it too)
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.