As Poochella has mentioned, "...nearly poke my eyes out every year with them" (meaning stakes), I neglected to cut the branches off before removing the main stem, and then digging the clump and this is the result.
So, while you do want to look for eyes on your tubers do be careful when cutting dahlias back - your eyesight is critical.
Ouch!!! You poor thing. I hope your eye gets better soon.
Tami
Owie! I hope the eye-poke victim still has sight and gets no residual infection. That is an awesome photo though, and a good caution to all of us who stake.
Actually, it feels fine. I have no inflammation/bleeding/fever, etc. and no problem seeing.
From now on I will only use stakes taller than I am even if I don't like the look of them. The thought of actually getting rebar in the eye is now twice as frightening.
I have a couple things I use as metal stakes with really rough/broken ends and I save old, worn gloves just to put over the tops of those for protection.
Take care of that eye Pirl! What kind of stake was it that poked you?
Hope it gets better soon! What I find is to watch out for the plant next to the one I'm working on, the branches can get you.
That looks awful! I think that image has been burned into my brain for whenever I'm leaning into a crowd of stakes or branches. Great photo, though!
It happened just as Tod described. I was leaning toward one dahlia, to cut it back, when the branch from another dahlia stuck straight into my eye. The good news is that I saw the eye doctor today and he said it's healing nicely: no medications or drops are needed.
At the doctor's office the first one to examine my eye asked what happened and I told her. She wrote down, "Walked into a shrub", which had the doctor asking me how that could happen.
Bebop - that's what I was hoping for! While we do seem to learn best from our own mistakes I was hoping it would be an image that would remind all of us to be more careful.
Finally I have a use for those old gloves: thanks, Poochella.
"Walked into a shrub!" I hope you stood up, waggled your finger, and yelled, "Not just any shrub, Bubba, but a beautiful tuberous perennial in a beautiful ____________(color) in the eye-catching ___________ form (insert form here) that will kick out flowers from summer to frost."
Not thinking, I stabbed my itchy ear canal with a sharp, dirty Fruit Secateur dividing tubers two years ago which ended up in sinus surgery after a myriad of ear infections. Those medical professionals all give you that same unknowing look: How'd that happen again? They just don't understand the power of the dahlia.
So glad your eye is unharmed, but the result is awesome for holiday coloration, Pirl!
OWIE!!!!! So glad there was no permanent damage Pirl! I'm thinking of glueing sponge to the tops of the stakes. LOL Pooch re: 'holiday colouration' ^_^ PS I have found and claimed the most DIVINE and TOTALLY FABBY dahlia knife from a knife store here in Santa Fe. Pics when I get home. It may just be too prettiful to use it is SO DIVINE!
Well, send photos DN!
There's just no point in trying to explain a thing to someone who doesn't know a dahlia from a shrub, Annie, and my eye does match the festive season.
Annie - glad you survived the ear/sinus/surgery incident in good shape.
I've been taken to the hospital from digging Japanese irises and hurting my left thigh muscle, then there was more weeks of PT for my left arm from digging daylilies too vigorously, then the sciatica this past August from trying to lift a deep and wide flexible plastic saucer filled with water. True gardeners will not be stopped!
I do laugh when people tell me I do too much or I should give up gardening - never, never, never until the day I die.
Your wish is my command dear Pirl (now that I figured out how to roadify the laptop). Ladies and Gentlemen I give you the new fabby dahlia knife
Neat! Love the jazzy handle! Do I dare say, "Be careful"?
If you look on the shaft Pirl there is a button release to close the blade. Good thing for me !!! I need a little strong knife to sneak in around the tubers and get a piece of stalk and all my little knifes have self-destructed so far. I'm too clutsy to use snips like Pooch and I pale at the thought of a cleaver like you and Tod use. I told the knifeguy that he should mention to future buyers that this might just be the PERFECT dahlia knife ^_^ Blade is about 1 1/2" and shaft about 3" for a good safe grip. I specially luved this one cuz the shaft is made from wood from the NE where I grew up. There were others with silver shafts with inlaid stones from the SW but I liked the NE wood handle.
The handle was the first thing I noticed. Nothing can match the right tool for the job to be done.
Been lurking, but time to re-surface...
I came close several times to doing exactly what Pirl did. Three years ago I purchased a pack of about 100 plastic Mini Jaw Hair clips on ebay. My pack was an assortment of butterflies, bees and dragonflies. They are also called spring hair clips and are about an inch long in multicolors. You just pinch them together and clip where you want...I put at least one about a half inch from the top of every single stake that is 5' or under that crosses my hands as soon as I stick the stake in the soil or pot. (Anything over that is taller than me...LOL) They are brightly colored enough that you can't miss them and they complement the flowers. I carry a baggie of them with me in my garden bucket and have found they are handy also for those teeny tiny stems that are too small to tie, but that need a little help. Once the stems get bigger, I remove the clip but the clips stay on the stakes until I pull everything for the fall.
Glad that damage to that eye wasn't as bad as it looks...
Barbara
Chocolatemoose good to see you ^_^ I've missed you! Great idea about the hair clips!
Chocolatemoose - nice to have you here! That's a terrific idea though I really only want stakes taller than I am to avoid the possibility of hurting myself but I know it won't always be possible. I can use your idea on the dreaded lower stakes required for the 3' plants.
Thanks!
Yikes! Protecting both ends seems like good advice. This is a dangerous hobby. Read on.
http://www.elkhorngarden.com/mission.html
Wow! It's amazing that she almost died due to a stake! Thank God she's fine now but what a horrible six years she had to endure.
In December I had grown weary of the annual trek of the rose trees and bringing them into the garage for the winter and then back outside in spring so I planted all three of them in the official rose garden (let's hope Zuzu never sees my rose garden). In order to protect the graft union I followed the advice of Jasper Dale (yet another great rose grower with such a gorgeous courtyard) so I wrapped each union, then added insulation, then bubble wrap, then tied them all with telephone cord. So now they all sport "rose diapers".
Seems as thought I should do something similar for any low dahlia stakes.
How dedicated you are, Pirl. (Also, with age, comes wisdom.)
Remember the used/abused garden glove. Not very pretty, but a worn out finger/thumb cut off and secured to cover the end of each sharp stake end (rebar, anyway) could prevent serious harm. I emailed a rubber tip company once inquiring about pricing for many 1/2-3/4" round thick rubber stoppers/caps they produced as in those that could fit over sharp rebar ends like cane tips. Never heard back. Bet I went straight into their spam or whack job file, but I'd rather be there than in ICU or out of the garden for 6 years.
Maybe I could do some color harmony with the tips of the gloves matching the color of the dahlia. It would be a gardening related hobby for winter. Thanks for the good idea, Annie.
No kiddin Pooch. I wonder if the rubber thingys you put on the bottom of the legs for cardtable chairs would work? Methinks you can get those at the hardware store.
I scoured both the local big hardware stores for those one year, Dnut, but really found nothing similar or useful. Ebay to the rescue...but spendy on a large scale. A couple of Pirl's bubble pack tree diapers and a good pair of safety goggles might be money better spent! Wouldn't the neighbors have something to talk about then!
http://compare.ebay.com/like/330378603878?ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes
One of our neighbors already talks about our scarecrow and her remarks are not flattering. I couldn't possibly care less how she feels about it since her home is not within sight of ours. We all need a little whimsy in our gardens.
Your neighbour sounds very mundane not to LUV that totally fabby scarecrow!
Gorgeous! The umbrella hat would be perfect for gardening here :) How could a neighbor possibly complain about anything looking at any part of that haven?
She'd find fault with anything and everything I do.
I especially love the scarecrow in winter!
Great scarecrow! Is that a glass head?
Yes, it is. My husband was sure it would break during the winter but it's two years now and the head is still fine.
That is so cool!
I bought the head many years ago at Pier One, always thinking I'd find a use for it.
She is fully clothed, wearing her bra along with a teddy under her outfit, which has been torn to shreds with the sun/wind/rain/snow.
For a scarecrow she does a poor job at deterring crows!
If that was my scarecrow, I would put one of those digital recorders on it at night when I knew my neighbor would be nearby, and it would say something like "Join us... Join us!!" I bet they'd jump four feet.
Hahahaaa! I imagine that would definitely startle them todgor. :)
I would have her just in her teddy and then have a male in a g-string with dollars stuff in various areas. That would shake them up! Teeheeee!
It's more than 150' from the street and she doesn't walk down the street anymore (just passes in the car). The guy in the G-string just might send her into shock (but how would she know about dollar bills and G-strings at 90 years old?).
true. lol.
