Color Spectacle
Peggy Jean
Mingus Leroy
Bliss

For me, these all had a high percentage of misshapen flowers. I hope that other growers will add their underwhelming varieties too so we can all avoid them.

- Steve

Thats a tricky one. I tend to assume when I have problem plants that is either my fault (I tend to plant to closely together) or due to weather/ sun factors. I know that I have had dahlias do badly for me that do splendidly for people in different climates. I have also had such different results from the same plant in different years. Last year my Sonic Boom had only 3-4 blooms and all of them were open centered, while this year it has done quite well.

Also this year the weather was so much hotter than usual, I wouldn't want to cull anything because of poor performance. My Juul's Alstar has always been one of my earliest and most prolific bloomers, but this year I have had two blooms off of three plants! They are now covered with buds, but our weather is predicted to drop down to the mid 20's this weekend, so I dont expect to see any of them make it. I suppose if I hadnt gotten any blooms from a plant two years in a row I would give up on it.

If I threw out every underperforming dahlia I've ever grown I would hardly have any left.

I have had dahlias not bloom at all or give me 4-5 anemic blooms. Often I move them to another location or switch them from pots to soil and they overwhelm me with blooms.

Happened this year on several plants. My Loverboy never gave me more than 5 buds each for 2 years so I moved it to soil and it was the most productive dahlia I have ever had. I must have had well over 100 blooms this summer and it actually still has blooms on it now. I had assumed that there was something wrong with the soil, pot or location it was originally in but I planted another red one (Barbarrosa) in the same pot and it is October and still blooming also! So apparently it was NOT the soil or location. Go figure.

But this has happened to me on at least a dozen occasions and the only thing most people say is you simply never know how or why a dahlia responds or doesn't. I've had dahlias underperform for 1-2 years and then spring to life AND the reverse - they bloom big and large for a couple of years and then suddenly start petering out. Smaller blooms, less vibrant coloring, fewer buds overall until they start circling the drain.

I should add I hardly ever deviate from my pattern of feeding and watering so it is NOT a case of changing the growing parameters. The only thing that changes is whether it is a sunnier or foggier year in SF and my belief is after 1 or 2 years, dahlias adapt to their environment very easily and still can bloom profusely even if it is a cold, wet and wintry summer.

David

I Am looking for new and healthier poms for next year. I have several picked out from catalogs. I did get a nice yellow one From Les and Viv Connell...can't remember the name of it at the moment but I am liking it a lot. It was much newer then the Old Swan ISland varieties.

I removed bout 1/4 of my patch due to viruses this year...ones I have been growing for years. I am on a quest for really healthy dahlias for next year! Some of them were blatant with big yellow circles on the leaves...some just were not so viforous with some viral streaks, spots and lines on the lower foliage, a few never grew taller then a foot with crinkled foliage.

Another variety that I'm considering composting is Mystique which I got from Swan Island. I get a below average percentage of double blossoms and the coloration often seems somehow off color and faded. I never find myself reaching for this one when putting together cut arrangements. It produced lots of tubers and have quite a few clones of this plant but they all behave in the same unimpressive way.