Finally, a few blooms !!

Oh Mary - what a gorgeous color. It's so rich.

Yeah. I really like the dark colors against the almost black leaves and stems. Bishop of York is a simple yellow with the same dark leaves. Same height. I guess I need to post him too. Then I have a dwarf with a bazillion flowers of the pom pom type, yellow and dark foliage. Sometimes I get caught in a loop. lol

Is that Bishop of Auckland unstaked? And man I love that dark foliage.

I like the dark foliage as well....

Yes it is unstaked. It, and Bishop of York, are both very sturdy. They are supposed to get to 48". I believe this is due to the very long stems on the flowers, so the bush is fairly short, and the flowers are very simple. Al Alamand is about 48-50" tall with huge orange flowers and is also unstaked. The bush itself is about that height with very short flower stems and is about 40" around. Ayers' White Knight is opening as of yesterday and should be gorgeous white with lavender tips.

mstella, There is a lot of beautiful color in that photo. I wish I had planted more reds and pinks together. With all the rotting tubers I had this year I guess I was fortunate just to be able to move and fill in any color I had .

My dahlias are really taking their time blooming. I get a couple new ones each week. A lot are planted in an area that gets a bit too much shade and they are getting taller than I'd like, even with the pruning I did earlier. Several of these are not even showing buds yet. Maybe they'll have something by Fall. Anyway, this is Goshen Calico.

This is another photo of Gloriosa. It makes a nice neighbor for the Goshen Calico although I don't know if I like two plants so similar that close together.

This one is called Match. It's not completely filled out yet.

Dan, If you would like some tubers, even ones undivided, I will have extras this year. I propagated from tubers when I didn't know which was which and ended up with bunches of two colors. Hockley Maroon and Kaiser Wilhelm (both heirloom dahlias), as well as one called Procyon that I bought three of thinking it was something else. If you are interested, just dmail me

I can't tell you how much I appreciate your generous offer but I have run out of room. LOL As you know, dahlias are addictive and I over-bought this year. Even with all that rotted, I still gave many away and even had to plant a few in my vegetable garden. Some of the neighbor's trees seem to be on steroids and several areas I used to plant are now too shady. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm usually not around at digging time. But if I am this year, I will list any extras to share. Thanks again. Dan

that's right. I forgot you have 125 types of dahlias. silly me. I will look forward to seeing what you have to trade or share.

125 ! Not quite . Maybe half that many. But I did get a little carried away. If I keep looking at different ones in the catalogs I may need counseling. A friend ribs me about buying so many. I told him if he didn't smoke 2-3 packs of cigarettes a day and go through a case of beer every few days that he could do it too and improve his health at the same time. I really enjoy seeing photos of the plants I have given away. My only "complaint " is they look much better than when I grew them. LOL Keep me in mind next Spring and we'll do some swapping. I'm always open to different kinds.

Man, large collections here. At least I know what my future looks like. Just one year and three dahlias under my belt and I'm already planning on adding at least 7 more for next year.

Droid - your 7 will increase as soon as you start looking at the catalogues....

This is Extasy

I located Sweetness. I swear there is only one plant, huge, but just one and that is Al Alamand. But low and behold some of the buds opened and they are Sweetness. Similar color but different form. As soon as one opens completely I will take a picture. I keep kneeling down and investigating the stems, but I can't figure it out. Well, when they are dug up the tubers will tell.

Sweetness, not quite fully open

Clearview Orca, not quite fully open

Carolyn, looks like your Extasy suffers the same munching that mine do from slugs??

This message was edited Sep 2, 2011 11:45 AM

Gorgeous color, Mary.

This is Friquolet.

Beautiful. I really like the foliage differences too. The really dark almost black foliage, light green. etc. Heavy sigh. Show me a dahlia or lily I don't just love. Can't be done.

I took this one of Clearview Orca after cutting a bloom and putting it in a vase in my family room. I was surprised at how interesting it looked as I didn't expect the background to be black. You can see Sweetness just at the top as it is in the vase on the other side. The ruler obviously was to show how big the blooms are.

This message was edited Sep 6, 2011 5:02 PM

I bought three tubers called procyon. Two bloomed and didn't really look like what I thought I was getting and finally the last one bloomed and it is just what I wanted. The first two were sort of messy?

MS - gorgeous. Is the last one Procyon? How big is the flower and how tall is the stalk? I have one that is a NOID that looks similar. I received the tuber in a trade this past spring.

Carolyn

Yes this is procyon. As it matured the next day it became more orange around the edges which is what I was looking for. I have it in a pot and this is its first year but the flour is about 5" and the plant is around 36" tall.

If it ever stops raining, I'll get a picture of mine and we can compare notes...

ditto. i am sooooo sick of overcast and off and on rain. I will be planting in mud this fall. Leaves are barely turning yet. Pond was 55 and ambient was 51 @ 8:30

I've been busy lately getting ready for hunting season and taking care of a few issues that came up. The Dahlias are all budding and blooming except for some in the too shady areas. This one is Bonaventure. It's about 8" but I had hoped it would be a little bigger. I don't dis-bud so I seldom get the advertised size.

This Bonaventure is on the same plant as the first one but appears to be more of a bronze color. It may just be the light.

This is Chilson's Pride.

This is a short gallery type dahlia called Pablo. I posted a picture earlier but the color is much prettier now.

I'm a little disappointed with this one. It's a Ferncliff Inspiration and is supposed to be an "A" size bloom. This one is less than 6". I'll post more when I have time.

Dan, all of our dahlias are just the ones that I love. I do disbud but the biggest I have gotten thus far is about 6" and that was Sweetness. All of mine have bloomed. I believe that I ordered Chilson's Pride (among others) for next spring from Swan Island. Hopefully by then I will have the new beds in and have room for them. The ones in the ground did so much better than the ones in the pots, although they are fiercely attached by slugs. The big guys (36-60" tall don't much care, but the smaller dwarfs or 24" get pretty beaten up, including the flowers. Your yard must be just gorgeous.

I received Chilson's Pride from my MIL, but unfortunately I lost the tuber during the winter.... :(

Oh. You lost it is storage? I assume you don't mean, misplaced it. lol. It rotted?

You are funny - yes the tuber died.....

Poo. that is disappointing. I have pulled one or two of my smaller propagated dahlias and neither has a tuber. I hope that doesn't hold true for all of them. Some I did and some I got from Corralitos Garden. Would hate to have to reorder them as tubers from Swan River. I am going to let them frost over, then wait a week. I have also spread some stuff that is supposed to encourage tuber and root growth. As long as I have some of the parent plants, I can always grow more, but as you found, each winter I always lose some. Last winter was really bad, but my own fault.

I have had that happen as well....

I've anxiously waited to see the blooms on this Hollyhill 6 in 1 yellow. I spotted it late last Spring and one seller wanted $25 for a tuber. No thanks ! I finally found it for $4 or $5 at Cowlitz River Dahlias. Hollyhill has a very nice picture on their website of this plant in about half a dozen variations of yellow, white and red. They say they no longer sell the 6 in 1 red because it has gone back to all red.

Same plant but mostly yellow.

Trelyn Rhianon.