My earliest blooms ever

Yes, and I can only blame myself.

The dahlias I most recently staked, again, are all looking very good!

Well finally here is Iceberg

This message was edited Sep 10, 2013 1:06 PM

I am about 100% sure this is Neon Splendor

Nick Sr is really mutated. I don't know why it is so strangely shaped but all the blossoms were.

Ops. Here is the pic

I cut Dr. John Kaiser and brought him inside; this picture is when he was fully open. Gorgeous fade from yellow to orange

Those are all beautiful flowers, Mary. How big is Iceberg? I like any white dahlia with a slight tinge of another color. I have a Shiloh Noelle that's similar to Iceberg that is slow to open. Nick Sr. looks almost like two blooms opening together. I once had a Duet that had three blooms growing together. My Nick Sr. has just started to bud. I like Dr. JK. What are the flowers in the vase beside the Dr.? I hope to have some new blooms soon. I didn't look today. According to a weather site I was just on we hit a high of 102 at 4:45 this afternoon. It's supposed to drop to "only" 91 tomorrow. I'll be getting out the watering hose early. The forecast for Friday and Saturday is calling for highs of 60 degrees. That's more my style.

I would have to pull them up but I suspect Falcon's Future and probably Phoenix. I bought Keith H and it surely doesn't look like it. Is still opening. It is supposed to have that blush of another color. I also like that. Iceberg is fairly big, umm maybe 6". It is still opening. I am on my laptop and the database where I keep notes is on my desktop way way way.... lol.. across the house. Ivory Palaces is really blowing me away. It is supposed to be pale ivory but sure looks yellow to me. I cut it as it was being drenched outside and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Din ner plate for sure like 10". Il Monstro!!

I have a few new blooms. I have quite a few more that have buds but are being downright stubborn about blooming, partly because some were planted later. 1) Vera's Elma. 2) Peach Delight. 3) Mystery Day. First bloom and the earwigs or beetles got to it before I could get a photo. 4) Mingus Wesley. 5) Mick's Peppermint.

All beautiful. I think I like Peach Delight the best. I have one like Mystery Day but it is more red red than maroon red and is also lacineated. Seems like the slugs don't mind crawling up the long stems to nibble on the petals. I have a Mingus Toni that is supposed to be varigated but looks plain red to me. Have you ever ordered from Dan's Dahlias. I like his set up and an individual small seller but I am a little reserved yet on the colors and types he sent. Will know when a few more open up and develop their final color and shape. Did I mention that Ivory Palaces makes LaLuna look like a piker in size. I will post a few pics to show comparison size in a bit.

Oberon - LOVE the Iceberg, and I had Neon once (before it croaked) and I remember it just glowing.

psudan - So many gorgeous blooms. My fave is the Peach....such lovely colors. Also love the Peppermint.

Thank God for Dahlias......so love them. :-)

Thanks Morgan and Mary. This Peach Delight has had an amazing will to live. When I bought the tuber it seemed a little mushy. I started it in a flat tray and shortly afterwords it had a rotten area I had to cut off. A week or so later I preformed surgery on another rotten spot. By the time I planted it, the tuber wasn't much bigger than a large acorn. After it grew to about a foot tall, a deer stepped on it and broke the tip off. I tied it to a stake and as you can see, it finally has a bloom. I guess this is a testament to the strength of a dahlia. No, I've never ordered from Dan's. I have probably ordered from over a dozen different places and I sometimes cringe at the thought of how much I've spent in just shipping charges. The guy who came to look at my dahlias said he will call me when the dahlia society has their Spring sale next year. It is held about 15 minutes from here. He said the good thing is you can look the tubers over and pick the best ones. He says they are cheaper and there's no shipping charges. lol

Wish I lived a bit (like 3000 miles) closer to such happenings. Here are a few pictures of blooms in the house to give an idea about Ivory Palaces (if indeed it IS IP -- the pictures online are really more ivory not yellow. I have a white one out front (NOID) that is humongous with tree trunk stems and leaves a good 10-12" long.

Here is Keith H #2 although it doesn't look like the online pic. Also the huge one that might be Earl. #1 & 3. the last is Fire Magic. Looks a lot like Falcon's Future.

Mary, I hate to tell you,but that's not a dahlia. That's an elephant ear plant! Wow, I've never seen leaves of that size on a dahlia. Earl bloomed so late in the year for me (or not at all) that I gave up on him. I sent a bunch of the tubers to Virginia. I'll have to ask my uncle if it fared any better down there. Falcon's future is a beauty. A little off topic, but this photo shows my crabapple tree. I've never seen anywhere near this many apples before this year. The limbs are bending under the weight. I've been dreading having to rake them up when they fall off along with all the acorns from the neighbor's oak trees. Then tonight these "volunteers" showed up to help with the clean-up. And here I thought the only purpose of these long-legged rats was to hold down the spot on the plate beside the mashed potatoes.

Hey. I would have raked up all the apples to make jelly and jam. In fact I did just that. Used a rake to rake crabapples from the neighbors tree hanging over into my yard. lol. And I would kill for one of those long-legged rats all done up nicely in shrink wrap. We fish for salmon and trade some for venison and caribou. My husband doesn't hunt. Dip netting salmon is all he has time for.

I wonder if my dahlia is really Earl. I am so confused with colors. I have some noids that I am desparately trying to identify. I know what I ordered, what I THOUGHT I saved. I have one freebie from Dan's Dahlias that I couldn't find online so don't know what to expect. If just two more open up I might be able to identify them. I am planning better for next year, e.g. what to plant where. Assuming what was short this year will be short next year. Sweet Dreams is always tall. No guessing there. Oh for a few hunks of venison.... dream on.

Oberon - the last pic is Firepot.....the one I fell in love with last year and built my raised Dahlia garden for. Most gorgeous flower.....of course, they are all gorgeous. LOL

Here is my Firepot from earlier this year.

I had Firepot for two years but lost it this past winter. I may have to reorder it now that I see it again. The blend of colors, especially the purple / lavender, is really wonderful. So unexpected.

On Friday, 9/7, I cut many dahlias (photos attached) to bring with us to the cottage we rent on Cape Cod. Four earwigs hitched a ride!

We returned today with the last few dahlias at the end of their bloom.

Go ahead and guess which one lasted the longest. You don't have to know the name but can guess by the photo and the color.

My guess would be Jamaica

Sorry!

I'll wait until Dan checks in to announce a winner but my favorite one wasn't even close.

Went to the garden to see the dahlias and they look superb. Peaches 'n Cream is taller than I am, 5'5". Hard to plan for things like that when the label said 18".

My money is on Vancouver since the ones I have cut seem to have a pretty good shelf life. You mentioned earwigs so the winner probably wasn't a light colored one. lol That Peaches 'n Cream must be on steroids.

It was the no ID orange/yellow, much to my shock.

1. All looking good on arrival despite the dog knocking over the container and drenching himself.

2. Firepot stealing the show for a few days.

3. None looked great by this morning but Chimacum Luke came in second with Peaches 'n Cream close behind.

Steroids? You bet!

Hah. All gorgeous and especially Firepot. I will post three pics that are similar plus Keith H finally is shaping up to the color I expected. It needs to fad out a bit to achieve what I was looking for. Still one NOID a dark purple, a yellow that I believe is Encore to go. And that is about all that is left unidentified. Oh, no one more that looks really interesting. Two days of sun now and if it were to hold til Tuesday when more rain is coming it might open enough to identify. I had one bag of tubers that I lost the tag on from last year so I get some surprises. I thought Earl was gone but I seem to have two of them. As soon as I get motivated to get out of my recliner and get dressed (come on, it's earlier here by 4 hours - well at least from Arlene, not sure about you Dad - Ohio maybe three hours?)

Was pretty quiet here for the last few days. Dan was a perfect gentleman. LOL

I'm so glad Dan was on his usual best behavior - exactly as I would have expected.

So you'll get the newest blooms just before the snow flies?

Those missing tags or faded out or smudged do make dahlia tubers a mystery. I feel like a detective trying to guess at the name from the few letters, and the length of the name, on those blasted tags.

Still in my PJ's here, Mary. Why not? It won't be cocktail time until 6 PM! I still have 5 hours to go!

Arlene, you are aloud to have coktail in your PJ's, I won't tell anybody. Greetings from Ga. Etelka

Hi Etelka. I finally got out of my PJ's an hour ago and went and cleaned the pond. Was out capturing a few dahlia shots and yard shots. It is bright and sun shiny and 49F. Shirt sleeve weather around here. So it's 1 O'Clock there (or was when you wrote you note). An hour later it is 10:30 here. Long ways to go to cocktail hour. Or wine for me. May talk Damien into breakfast out when he finishes working out. He promised to grind up stuff for mulch today. I hauled it into the garage several days a go in an attempt to dry the stuff out. It is still pretty moist but I am hoping if he does one bunch of the damp stuff followed by nice dry straw it will keep the poor grinder from clogging up. I want to start mulching the beds now before winter. I have stuff in my compost bins that isn't quite compost but needs to come out. Then I will layer hay, grass, ground up brush and hope that come next year I will have more real compost not just a soggy mess. The bins are great but I need to cover them. When we have gully washers it drenches the contents way over what they should be.

Did I tell you that all (or almost all) of the JI and astilbes are doing great. I am so looking forward to next year to see them bloom. And I have several pots of regular iris ( tall and dwarf) from another friend which are coming inside for the winter. I have wonderful hopes that they will live through the winter and I will have gorgeous blooms next spring. Ahhhh, hope springs (no pun intended) eternal.. the theme song of gardeners. There is always next year.

Thanks, Etelka, but now I'm all dressed, hair curled and make-up on so I'll be patient until 6 PM.

I'll take 49 over 79 anyday! That's ideal working weather.

Our chipper doesn't like the wet stuff either. We don't get the gully washers you write about so we have to water our compost piles but it's certain I'll have more than enough for next year...and maybe even for 2015. Jack used to use so much with the vegetable garden but now, not growing many vegetables, I seldom use much of it.

Hurray! I'm so glad they are doing well for you. I lost two astilbes when I dug them and didn't replant them soon enough but since I have way too many it's no loss. I often wish someone would come at night and take half of them home in a U Haul It.

Spring is meant for optimistic gardeners so I hope you get the blooms you want on irises. Some of mine are splendid performers while others just struggle to survive. I moved a lot of them in 2010 and 2011 so by next year I am hoping they'll do well and bloom profusely. We're allowed to dream.

Hi Mary, you sound like a pionere woman from few hundred years ago, have to do everything the hard way, fast before the snow comes back. Everytime I see your city's name I remember that one of my husbands served in Ancorage as a military police. I asked him what was his job, he said that he was in charge of geting the GIs out of the whore houses at 9PM. This was in the 50's, hope things got better by now. Sorry for being honest. Etelka

Here is: Keith H, Earl (maybe), Noil 1 and Noid 2

LOL. That cracks me up. He was being very accurate, along with digging them out of the bars. I live in the Spenard area of Anchorage which somewhat east and south of us was known for its 'houses of ill-repute.' Some still are. The 50's were pretty wide open both here and in Fairbanks. More so here because Elmendorf was and is closer to 'downtown'.

I can't believe that Sweet Dreams hasn't been posted. I have five of the silly bushes all covered in 9-14" very sturdy stems; same with trunk.

Well, it must be about cocktail hour over there for Arlene.
I couldn't resist ordering from an outfit (despite the fact that they must think we are a foreign country 'cuz they charge a flat rate of $19.95 to us but only $5 or 6 to others. They had Cafe Au Lait which is pretty hard to find. Ordered two more just to make it worth the postage - almost.

I just picked 3 1/2# of crabapplies from my backyard tree. Still waiting on the REAL apple tree with it's 15-20 apples. Not too many. Wind keeps knocking them off. I found a good recipe for crabapple jelly with a little added cinnamon. Got my last batch of rhubarb yesterday (at least I think so) and two packages of strawberries the store put on sale. Damien like jam so I made up four pints of jam out of that. I figured the price of a jar of jam or jelly, the cost of sugar and if needed the cost of the strawberries and it is still far cheaper. Assuming you have your own jars and collars. Still need to buy pectin and lids. Hmmmm. But a fun thing to do in the fall. Whilst awaiting the last few dahlias to bloom. Arlene, you must be into your third or fourth martuni by now. lol

Etelka - I got a chuckle out of your story about the GI's.

Mary - your dahlias are great. That no ID #1 looks so good. Sweet Dreams is beautiful and so is your garden photo.

Oh, yes! I'm still on my original drink, from 6 PM, and I've only taken two sips. Cheers!

You didn't inform the company that you live in the USA?

In some ways I'm glad they charge the postage (not in your case!) they do or I'd probably order more and then be even more confused than I am...if that's possible.

Edited due to our cross-posting, Mary.
Hats off to you for making the jam. It's something I don't do.

NO martinis for me. I would be on the floor trying to hold on for dear life.

This message was edited Sep 15, 2013 8:28 PM

I agree on the martinis. I don't drink hard liquor (any more). Wine gives me enough trouble. We go through bottles like mad. Dinner then a movie...or just reading. All goes better with a nice bottle of pinot, merlot, cabernet sauvignon, chianti classico .... ohhh, so much from which to choose.

Yeah, you have to tell people Alaska has been a part of the US since 1959. My daughter heard some mother on a plane telling her daughter that Alaska was Not part of the US. And we wonder about our educational system.

Thanks Arlene. I try to pick pictures that really show off the blooms to their best. It's a long winter to only have pictures to live with.

I enjoyed wine until I had surgery for Trigeminal Neuralgia in 2001. After that I couldn't take the smell of it but Chenin Blanc was my absolute favorite with Pinot Grigio Santa Margherita coming in second. I still haven't taken a third sip and all the ice has melted, rats!

On radio someone mentioned schools no longer teach penmanship, history or geography. Why should we be surprised at what people think? In a spoof survey people were asked if residents of New Mexico should have the privileges of the United States and most folks said "NO".

If it weren't for my photos I'd go nuts during the winter!

Mary, this is a photo of my Earl from two years ago, which didn't completely open until the first part of November. Last year it didn't open at all. This Spring, I sent it packing. I loved the form and size (over 10") but I couldn't see wasting a good sunny area on a flower with so short a blooming time. We have hit a temporary (I hope) lull in new blooms. One day last week we had a high of 100 degrees. Three days later the high was 61 with a low in the forties. I'm guessing the plants are as confused as we are. Last week I had a Wyn's Sinsation that was almost open. Friday morning two deer were bedded down beside the flower bed just before daylight. When I went out later I found they had walked between the plants and broken off a stem. Of course, it was the stem with the bloom. Grrrrrrr!!! I hate those critters and plan to take out my spite in three weeks when archery season opens.

Well, it looks similar although the rain here makes some of the bigger ones look a little floppy (the petals.) Your weather is crazy. 100 degrees this time of year. Although we have had sun for three days now (glory be) which is great for the dahlias and cool. Really pleasant fall weather as long as it stays clear. I think I have two Earls. Like you I am loath to allocate precious SF to something that produces one bloom very late in the season and takes up a lot of room to boot. We'll see. I am curious to see how letting the plants freeze dead and waiting a week to dig them up affects the form and surface of the tubers. Mine are too darn rough to write on and it is frustrating. I have to keep them all separate so I can identify them. I wonder why no one else (to speak of ) contributes to a dahlia thread. Maybe it is too long for people with dial up?? Can't imagine using a dial up.

Good luck with the deer. Makes my mouth water....

This message was edited Sep 16, 2013 6:52 AM