Dahlias 2014 Part 4

Lol...yeah for sure. It's just hard to imagine a hoof being a good swimming tool.

Yeah Mary, that's fine with me. I wouldn't ask Alan to replace a $2 tuber, especially since this flower looks as good or better than Embrace anyway. I just wish we knew what it really was. I think I'll name mine "whatchamacallit."

I am not so creative. I just name them NOID1, NOID 2, etc for each type of flower. I have the same problem with some lilies, especially ones that hide out for a year or so. I can sometimes look back at pictures from online in my database and identify them from prior orders but not always. Like good old Embrace. I will substitute my picture for the one one line and change the name in my DB also. I agree. I like it much better than the one I ordered.

A few years ago I had Embrace along with some of the others that nurseries get (in full bloom) in June. It wasn't a good performer in the garden so I think you both got a good deal since you are both happy with it. Why not name it "Hug" instead of Embrace.

I'm in love. Giraffe has bloomed and it's gorgeous! Photos later.

Can't wait!!

Jeff, I can't remember how long ago this happened but some fishermen on Lake Erie found a deer swimming several miles from shore. It's a looooong way to Canada! lol They pulled their boat north of the deer and stayed behind it as it turned and swam back toward shore. Can't remember if the deer survived but it had to be really fatigued. They are easily confused when scared. I've seen several dead along the beach and wondered what happened. There are some videos on Youtube showing deer swimming.

Here is Fubuki. Still more to open but just had to show it.

Joyce - it's coming soon!

Dan - Now if you could shoot them while they were swimming it might make it easier but you'd have to drag them back to shore and there's probably a law against it.

What a beauty, Mary! Now I'm really glad I ordered it. I have buds but no blooms on mine yet.

I even went out a second time again to get better photos but this is the best I could get of my new love, Giraffe. It is NOTHING at all like the stock photo (infuriating) but I love the vibrancy of the color, which doesn't come across in photos. I'll take more photos on Thursday after our rains supposedly end (they haven't yet begun).

1. No relationship to the stock photo.
2. I love it anyhow. It absolutely glows in the garden. Photo taken at 2:30.
3. Same cultivar, planted outside the garden, maybe 30' from the first one but look how dark the foliage looks at 6:20.

there is no way that is the same flower. Are you sure? It is Giraffe?

You ordered Fubuki? I thought you had tubers. Shoot. You sent me one? Didn't yours survive?

The pot tubers were labeled Giraffe. We'll see how autumn changes the colors on it.

I also got three pot tubers of Fubuki Red and White, one of which I sent you. Mine did survive, have buds but no blooms yet. I sent you the healthiest looking of the three! Look how dried up the other two looked when I planted them in mid June!

Arlene, I much prefer what you got to what you ordered! It is stunning. What's so infuriating is that yes you might end up with something beautiful, but it's not replicable! Grrrrr...

'Yes, I'd like to order a Giraffe that's not a Giraffe please.'

I love watching hippos swim

Thanks, Turtles! I love the glowing aspect of it.

Here's a quick video of hippo's swimming.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDJ3LNDdygY

Mary and Arlene! Both stunning.

Arlene, do you think it could age to look like that? What do I know! LOL!

Mary, that has to go on my "Must Have" list! Really beautiful!

Very nice, Mary! I love the red/white combinations. Unfortunately, so do the earwigs. I've grown Duet, Mystery Day and Jamaica but haven't grown Fubuki. It's a beauty.

Arlene, at first glance I thought that was Firepot. Very bright colors. It certainly does look different than Giraffe. It would be a drastic change but is there any chance it will change as it grows? I've had a few that didn't resemble the ones that first opened. Believe it or not, these two photos are of the same flower. I posted it on this forum years ago. I incorrectly called it Dana. After looking through my invoices I found I had overlooked it because it was a freebie and I had failed to chart it. Turns out it was one named Clifton Lela. No one who has seen the photos will believe it's the same dahlia. These photos were made in mid-September and mid- October.

It could change, Joyce. Time will tell. The difference between the times Dan mentions, mid-September and mid-October makes a huge change in looks.

Amazing change, Dan. You are right - most people would not think it could be the same bloom. Your bloom (the first one) is glorious!

One area of Long Island was getting 3 to 5 inches of rain (an hour) last night and ended up with 13" of rain. See that, Dan! God does love you!

Here's Blown Dry and the collage shows the dramatic color changes from 9/6 to 10/30. It's the one the storm (years ago) ripped off at the base. There was no saving it but the memory is still so strong that I did go out yesterday and checked every dahlia and tied up Bodacious for the third time! It did survive.

We've had rain on and off the past two days. Mostly brief showers, not the "localized flooding" type we were warned about. The ground beneath some of the dahlias with heavy foliage is barely damp. I was hoping for enough rain to wash the fertilizer down to the roots. It's very dark, overcast and windy today but sunshine is forecast for this afternoon.

The good news is that buds are popping open everywhere. The bad news is the size of the blooms. Some of the "B" size flowers (6"-8") are between 3"-4" so far. It's the first blooms so maybe it's too early to be concerned. This is our second summer in a row with below normal temps. Great for me but maybe not so much for the dahlias. I hope this hasn't caused them to go haywire. As usual, I'm being impatient. lol

Normally we get 11.75" of rain over June, July and August. Last night much of Long Island got that and more. We escaped! I did not go out to check the dahlias but can see many from here and I am happy they are standing up and not trying to do the backstroke.

It is very windy out now. I am thrilled that this was the year I kept up with keeping the dahlias tied!

Men and size! What is it with you men? LOL

Many of mine are small but it's what I bought so I don't have issues. Bodacious is a normal size. I do think they will get larger if the heat returns: a double edged sword.

1. Bad photo of Bodacious
2. Mingus Toni, not fully opened
3. Poppet, a really small one. Generally the very small ones give hundreds of blooms.
4. Preference (from Alan Lowe) much nicer than his own photo.
5. Photo of Preference by Alan Lowe.

Red Hat is one that I think they took a photo of when it was first open. Very interesting looking but that is not really what it looks like when fully open. Rather ho hum then.

Arlene, I agree that yours is much more striking (Preference) than Alan's pic. He should borrow yours. lol

I can't complain about rain then as ours is just day after day of overcast with intermittent light showers. No 'gully washers.' And like Dan says, it is deceptive. You think that you are getting a nice rain for the plants only to find that it only soaks down maybe an inch. So all my top dressing just pretty much sits there no where near the roots. Lotta' good that does. Well, the weeds love it.

Iceberg and Helen's Alvin are struggling to open along with two more whites. Not sure why I ended up with so many that color. Will go see what pics from the internet I put on the database that lured me to purchase them.

I have a shipment of daylilies coming from two DG'ers (well ATP'ers) so will be out in the drizzle displacing other plants and getting them in the ground. Totally different fertilizing regime so will probably make a trip to Mill and Feed as they have the largest selection of different fertilizers and amendments (including bat guano). In boxes and dredfully expensive. I mean 'bat poop' for pete's sake. But I guess someone has to crawl into those scary caves and scoop it up.

I'd hate to be the one going into caves to shovel the bat poop. Too bad they can't be trained to use a litter box. When I bought mine on Amazon I was surprised it came from so many locales. They sold it from Indonesia, Peru, Mexico and Jamaica. The were so many formulas of N-P-K numbers that it's a little confusing. They run from .5-12-.2 up to 10-3-1 and everything in between. I wanted low nitrogen so I bought 0-8-1. It was $22.89 for a 5 lb. bag with free shipping. I've always feared over-fertilizing so I used 1/2 a tablespoon for each plant. I just read where someone recommended a heaping tablespoon in addition to the regular fertilizer. I may end up adding more to at least a few plants.

I need some expertise. I just received an order of re-blooming iris. I was a little surprised they were shipped in early August. I assume that shipping them now means they should be planted now. Is that right? I've never planted anything this early/late. Uncharted waters for me.

I haven't done it in years but I recall that Schreiners sent mine in July according to my DB. Instructions say to soak them a day in water to rehydrate them then dig a hole, put a little pile of dirt in the middle to spread the roots then pile on the dirt.

Arlene is the iris expert here though

I heard about that crazy rain Pirl, 13" in a day! I really like your Mingus Tony.

Dan, I checked out some video of deer swimming and find it amazing! That Clifton Lela is very beautiful, definitely one of my favorites.

I received my order of iris from Schreiner's a couple of weeks ago and planted them. I believe now is the time to plant them.Thanks for the welcome everyone. 13Turtles what is a gallery type dahlias? We had 4-5 inches of rain in just a few hours from that storm system. The dahlias loved it. It did not flood here but some neighborhoods and basements did. We didn't have rain for 6 weeks then made up for it in a couple hours. Karen

I've only seen a deer swimming one time. I was trout fishing a small stream and saw something floating a little ways upstream. As it got closer I saw it was a deer with just the head above water. It climbed out onto the creek bank and shook water off and trotted away. It had been behind a screen of grapevines no more than 25' from me and didn't see me. I had heard dogs barking earlier and I'm sure the deer got into the water so the dogs would lose it's scent trail. Smart animals.

Thanks, Karen. Now I have to decide if I want to uproot the rest of my lilies to make room for the iris or open an area beside the house. I was watching The Weather Channel and saw the storms you were getting. The radar showed big blotches of green, yellow and red. As they moved east they starting breaking up a bit before reaching Lake County. We got a little rain but nowhere near what you got. We've had some nice timely rains the past month or more. I can't exactly remember the last time I had to drag out the watering hose.

Wow Dan, nature does have a way of taking care of its self.

Dan - litter pans for bats? Too funny! How do you determine which company's numbers to trust?

Yes, plant the irises now. If you have any to move, now is the time to dig/divide/clean/plant. Fertilize with Bone Meal and mix it in the planting hole. I do not soak them before planting. They are dormant now.

We just had a nice soaking rain, about 1" to 1.5", which is fine with us.

That was 13" of rain in 3 to 4 hours. So glad we missed it (not much).

We've seen the deer as they emerged from a swim - too lazy to walk around!

Karen, the Gallery dahlias àre a small plant with smaller flowers. If I remember correctly they are the second smallest type. My plants are around 10" high with 3" blooms. It might be this thread, further up, that psudan defined the categories for us. He knows a hell of a lot more than I do!

Thanks Turtles. But the truth is that all I know is what I read. lol I think the galleries are the most dependable dahlia there is. I've grown them for years and they are normally the first dahlia blooms of the year. And as you said they are 10"-12" tall with many 3" blooms. You gotta love 'em!

Arlene, I'm not sure you can depend on any companies fertilizer numbers whether it's Scott's or a company you've never heard of. No way we can check. The numbers on the bat fertilizer are all over the place. Assuming bats eat the same things (bugs) no matter what country they live in and assuming bat poop is bat poop (my deep thought of the day), the difference has to be the chemicals or organics added during processing. And if the difference is the chemicals then how is bat guano better than any other manure? And WHY did I buy it?? lol I guess the bottom line is if something makes you feel better, then go ahead and use it.

Glad to hear you got a good soaking rain and didn't get washed away by the big one. Thirteen inches! That was one heck of a storm.

Tonight I did watch the news and most of that 13" came down between 5 AM and 7 AM. Good way to louse up the morning commute for those heading to the city!

Wow, just amazing. I guess they could have taken their jet skis to work that day :)

No new dahlias, but my 6 1/2 feet tall Philipino lilly is in full bloom.

Am I seeing that right, no stakes?

Beautiful, Etelka!

Many of the tall lilies are so strong they don't need staking, Jeff.

Wow, I thought you had to stake them no matter what.

Here's a sample of some Conca d'Or stems:

No stakes, I am amazed too. most of my lillies are about 4 feet tall. Etelka

Over an inch thick is pretty nice but I had a sunflower blow down and it probably had a 1.5-2" stalk at the base.

Some stalks, like dahlias, are hollow. Others are not.

A few dahlias have opened and several more are partially open. I'll wait a few days to post photos of those.
1) Ferncliff Inspiration
2) Babylon Bronze
3) Hollyhill Starburst
4) Embrace ??? I think not.
5) Mystery Day

The JB's are fewer in number and continue to attack the same three or four plants. Hopefully, they are about done for the year.

A couple more new ones. Photos of the last three were posted earlier.
1) Red Emperor. I think.
2) Zorro. I lost all four tubers during storage and was glad to find more this spring.
3) Kelvin Floodlight. Finally! A bloom without beetle damage! This is the second of 5 or 6 KFL. Bloom is 10".
4) Art Deco
5) Group shot of Lady Darlene. These big blooms are "stem benders."

The buds are really popping open and I hope to have new ones open soon. A lot of these are ones I've had for years. I love the excitement of seeing one open that you haven't grown before.