What 5' of rain did to my Dahalies:(

11 years ago

Over the last four days we have received over 5" of heavy rain. My plants have been waterlogged for the past four days with Friday evening being the nail in the coffin with a good one hour heavy downpour. Two weeks ago we were 100 + plus for a week straight and now this. I see no way they will recover. Maybe a few but over half gone. Should I just let them die down and dig the up in the fall. What to expect? Weather has been really weird lately. Took this picture this morning, they looked way worse come late afternoon.

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Friday rain. They were completely flooded.

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Comments (7)

Linda's Garden z6 Utah
11 years ago
Oh that is sooo sad! :( I don't have any advice for you because I have never had that happen. It doesn't rain much here in the summer. I hope they survive!

Good Luck

Linda
mandolls
11 years ago
Yikes! 5" of rain is more than we have had in the last 2 months. I have had major fall thunderstorms take down my dahlias before. I know its heart-breaking. It is still early enough in the season that you should get most to recover if it doesnt keep happening. Take a deep breath, and get in there and cut off all of the broken branches and re-stake them, and I bet you will get most of them to rebloom.
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steve22802
11 years ago
I had several dahlias break off during extremely high winds about a week and a half ago. They are quickly regrowing from the established root system. There is still plenty of growing season left. Prune them hard and they should bounce back again this season.
pdshop
11 years ago
I think I read somewhere that Swan cuts all their dahlias down for them to rebloom? Where are you?
hnycrk
Original Author
11 years ago
I live in Georgia south of Atlanta. Most of them are pretty dead maybe four or five will survive. I should wait to dig hem up in the fall right? I think my heavy clay soil just holds to much water for Dahalies. I did amend with lots of compost and peat moss but not enough I guess. Oh well there's Allways next year. Zinnias are looking great so are sunflowers.

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joe0752
11 years ago
i put mine in big tubs so i can move them anytime i live in the UK so we know about rain lol
ladybugsmom192
11 years ago
oh how heart breaking! and i know that pain. that had happened to me when i lived in the Briarcliff area of Atlanta many years ago. actually it happened several times. yes, the clay soil didn't help, so the following year, i ammended like crazy, which helped tremendously! so when it happened again, i did what 'mandoll' said and it worked.

yes, i did loose a few, but it really worked. you're garden so beautiful, and you have so many that i think it's worth a try!!

your zinnia's are beautiful too! mine are struggling this year. our weather is so unpredictable here in the SF bay area.

good luck!