Thanks to all

I just wanted to publicly say thanks to all my DG friends here who sent or traded dahlias over the last 3 years. My starting with them was due to jamlover "forcing" some on me and my parents remembrance of the dinner-plate dahlias my grandmother grew many years ago in Kentucky.

I asked here on this forum regarding a big, yellow, heirloom dahlia that she used to grow but had been lost. I received several recommendations for Kelvin Floodlight. I tried this one this year, and my parents say it is the same as my grandmother grew. I realize that you cannot make a positive ID like that, but they are convinced and enjoying it immensely. jamlover sent me a similarly sized one that is white, probably named Iceberg. While it didn't do very well last year, this year it is keeping pace with Kelvin Floodlight. They are side by side and apparently in competition to see which one can produce the most and best flowers.

I received a lot of new ones from several people last year, being some of the smaller sized border types. These are all doing OK in their first year, but a few did not make it through winter storage. I expect they will be even more beautiful next year as they mature in tubers. Thanks to everybody, much to my embarrassment, I lost the names of who sent them but really appreciate the sharing.

This year I could not resist purchasing market packs of Fuego and Fiesta dahlias at the local nursery. As most of you probably know, they force them into flowering so that they get good sales, then it seems they don't do well after that. About half of them are growing without flowering, but the others are flowering now. I hope that next year will see these doing better than this year, assuming they produce sufficient tubers. I also will be more selective in what I get at the nursery.

I seem to like the dinnerplate and cactus forms of dahlias. I'm open to recommendations regarding larger dinnerplate types in colors other than white or yellow. A huge orange one would be a great addition. I was hugely tempted this year to get Peaches N Cream, which was being sold at Lowes and Walmart. I resisted that temptation, but see one in flower a few miles away. I'm sorry I passed that one by.

Thanks again to everybody! I mostly lurk here because I am new to dahlias.

This message was edited Sep 4, 2010 5:34 PM

Usually I try to lurk too, but I have too big of a mouth (or fingers)

I received a beautiful flower this year from a friend that I would consider a dinnerplate. It is Mom's Special. I see in the plant files that it is classified "decorative" but so is Kevin Floodlight.

Also my Drummer Boy is a large, red dahlia. Plant files says it is 6"-8" but mine has always been as large as Kevin Floodlight. Does anyone else have an opinion as it whether it would be called a dinnerplate?

Sometimes sellers quote conservative sizes for dahlias, usually the size if no disbudding is done. Drummer Boy is classified as an A, which is 8-10", not quite as big as Kelvin, which is an AA, 10"+.