Dahlias 2014 Part 4

All lovely, Dan! Zorro is really so nice.

Is Mystery Day one that the JB's find delectable?

I just took photos and will post tonight.

I think Art Deco is my favorite of these. You have such a wonderful variety in form and color. Course with over 100 plants (realizing some are dups) that would happen. I seem to end up with the same ones or types. I have to expand my vision I guess. I think I am ordering new types but then they bloom and 'Ho-Hum

Well, Mary, Fubuki Red and White certainly made my day!

Thanks for the compliments.

Arlene, I'm loving Fubuki! I'm not familiar with that one at all. Is it known for having those different color patterns?

I received a freebie tuber from Alan Lowe with my order. I couldn't quite make out the number printed on it. It seemed it was either Firepot or Polly Kaye. It has opened a little and I was happy to see it is Firepot. I hope this one will produce some good tubers. I started to order some from American Meadows this past spring but thought the price was out of line, even though it was a "sale" price. Some sale!

Yes, Mystery Day is loved by the JB's.

Thanks, Dan. Fubuki Red and White (there are others named Fubuki, like Canary Fubuki) is one of those where each flower is different from the next one. In a way it reminds me of your Rebecca's World. It's in the ideal spot for varying colors, luckily.

Firepot is a good one, as we know. Glad you didn't fall prey to the "sale".

Those miserable JB's must be related to the equally miserable earwigs. I did apply the Ortho Bug Geta Plus (to kill earwigs and slugs) and haven't found any of either of them around the dahlias. In fact, very few anywhere in the gardens!

Bodacious is always sparse with its flowers but this bloom grows larger day by day and I get that balloon feeling. Someday I'll be taking yet another photo of it and it will shatter before my eyes!

Uh oh! Seems like Preference from Alan Lowe isn't Preference at all. Here's what a search showed:
http://www.rosecottageplants.co.uk/dahlia-preference/p387

It's shown, everywhere I've seen, as a semi cactus. That wouldn't apply to the Preference he sent me:

You're right Arlene. No way what you have is preference. Wonder what is going on. Yours is a lovely flower as is our questionable Embrace, but you want what you order not another NOID.

Perhaps he isn't researching his flowers well enough. Orders something, and when it blooms assumes it is what he ordered rather than checking the bloom against reputable online photos. Plus you would think he would know what he ordered and realize, as we do, that what bloomed is not it.

Hmm. I looked at his inventory and what he shows as preference is neither what you ordered nor what the URL you listed shows. It is a simple little border dahlia. Color is about right is the only resemblance. Did you see the one you wanted in his inventory that you ordered it from him?

My Fubuki is opening further and is so lovely. I really hope I can keep the tuber over winter. It is such a challenge and for all the frustration and losses, I just can't help trying each year.

I agree with all you've written, Mary. I haven't checked mine and compared it to his site. I can't imagine I'd order from him again since I rely heavily on accurate descriptions and colors.

Yes, our annual challenge to keep our tubers will be here soon enough.

Yeah. Afraid so. The price is great but I don't want a bunch of noids no matter how lovely. Guess it would be polite to let him know??

I will refer him to this thread and hope he can see it.

Here is Todd H from Alan Lowe

Kaame Martin Swan also a Lowe's dahlia. Not sure why I bought so many white but they are all different. Todd H is obviously a cactus form,
Kaame I guess would be a informal decorative (couldn't find it in the ADS
Snow Country is also informal decorative
White Fawn is formal decorative

Whoops. I didn't mean to get that lily in here. I thought I had sent the dahlia info. this is a weird noid lily that showed up in my garden. it has black seeds at each juncture between lily stem and main stem. Have taken some and will pot the seeds for next year. Sure is distinctive. Was (and am) going to post it on the lily forum for possible ID.

I thought this was a really good shot of Forrestal showing both the full face (so to speak) as well as the 'profile'

Mary, how did you set up your database?

I built in Excel first, then imported the fields in to Access, the just kept adding tables and fields, reports and queries. Grew like Topsy.

Forrestal is beautiful!

Yes it is. Thanks Dan.

So, is the dahlia with the lily Kaame Martin Swan? It's really lovely. I really like Forrestal, too.

Dan and Mary - what is your best guess as to the true name of Alan's Embrace?

NOID, Arlene. No idea. There are so many similar I wouldn't even attempt a guess. If he doesn't have it in his inventory under another name??? He might have some idea but I doubt it. Well, he said he didn't so I guess that answers that.

Is that NO ID #99 or #108?

This morning I went online trying to help Alan find the correct name for Preference. I did not find it but, of course, found several to order for 2015. Aren't I the one who was cutting back on the numbers of dahlias I grow? With luck they'll be sold out of the ones I like today. There's always tomorrow.

99 or 108?? I don't have that many noids. And I manged to identify two that I thought were tagless but they turned up in front not back. LaLuna. Pretty wimpy though and no blooms. Still missing 3 Karma Gold.

You are welcome, Mary. I'm glad Forrestal has done well for you. Last year one of mine had a few blooms. You may remember from my photos that the other had one bud which barely opened enough to see color. It stayed that way until the freeze in November. Very underachieving, to say the least.

I couldn't even guess as to the true identity of "Embrace." Is it possibly a sport of Embrace? The size and color are about right. I keep thinking back to some oddballs I've grown in the past. The weirdest one was an Aloha. It had three separate stems. The blooms on one stem were orange and yellow. The second stem had solid yellow blooms. These two were laciniated. The third had white blooms and they were cactus in form. Much different form than the other blooms. I've posted the photos on here before. I sent the tubers to an aunt and the next year the blooms were all white cactuses (cacti ?). It seems anything is possible.

Arlene, Your "cutting back" sounds like me. It must be the new math. For example, 50 MINUS 25 equals 75. I'm well versed in this new math. LOL

I've been gone most of the weekend. Got home tonight in time to see some new blooms. I'll try to post some photos tomorrow.

Why does my spell check show this spelling for "laciniated" and then tries to correct me when I use that spelling? Time for the ruler across the knuckles.

I have the same problem with that word. I know it is correct but it keeps underlining it.

Iceberg is a huge mutant. I will measure it but I think it is bigger than Snow Country. Picture and measurement tomorrow.

A few more blooms in the past couple days. I have more that are partially open but I'll wait a while to post those.
1) Bodacious. This plant is very short this year. Less than three feet.
2) Pineland Princess. This one came from my aunt.
3) Ivory Palaces
4) Clair Obscur
5) Firepot

Alpen Parfait opened a few days ago and I was going to snap a photo this morning. What I saw was the worst beetle attack I've seen all year. I didn't want to do it but out came the spray. I thought those darn things were about done for the year. Today was the worst so far.

Wow Dan, those Clair Obscur and Firepot are breathtaking!!! Just beautiful. Where did you get them?

A couple new ones and a repeat.
1) Fleurel
2) Peach Delight. I should have waited until this one was more filled out before posting.
3) Zorro. This one continues to grow. Hope it doesn't outgrow the stake. Very heavy blooms.

I bought Fleurel in case Snow Country bit the dust during storage. The blooms are similar. Fleurel is already over 8 inches. SC hasn't showed up yet but the plants look good.

Thanks Jeff. I bought CO from Van Bourgondien. I think I paid $14.88 for five clumps. Later in the year they were $10.88 for five. VB is one of many cheapo on-line companies who are all tied together and don't have very stellar reviews on the DG Garden Watchdog. I took a chance this year and bought quite a few from there. I've been very pleased so far but don't know if I would highly recommend them or not. I'll admit their prices are very attractive. My Bodacious, Babylon Bronze, Art Deco, Kelvin FL and a few others also came from there.

Firepot was a freebie I received with my order from Alan Lowe.

As per usual your blooms are gorgeous and so varied. But I repeat myself. After a bit you just run out of adjectives for your pictures.

Nice Dan, maybe I'll look there. I bought a ton of spring blooming bulbs from KVB Wholesale last year and was pleased with my results.

Thanks Mary. Here are a few more I didn't post this morning.
1) Bradley Aaron. I love the frosted edges.
2) Hollyhill Six-in-One Yellow. Hard to get a good photo with the blooms down in the foliage.
3) Alpen Parfait. The JB's have really had their way with this poor plant.
4) Group shot of Hollyhill Starburst.
5) Nick Sr. I posted this one earlier as Akita. I did a little checking after seeing the bloom on the
left had grown to 11" and knew it wasn't Akita. Turns out I was right in the first place and it is
Nick Sr.

I'm not sure the JB's liked the spray I gave them this morning. They're just lying there motionless. LOL

What kind of spray did you use?

Clair Obscur was at Longfield gardens last year

Jeff, the spray was Bayer Advanced 3-in-1. I don't mix it quite full strength. I rarely use any kind of spray and when I do I try to spray just before dark so it will dry before morning. I haven't seen a honey bee around here in years and don't want to add to their further demise in case one should travel through the area. I only sprayed a half dozen plants this morning after being freaked out by the number of JB's I saw on them. The six or eight blooms on Embrace are totally destroyed.

Yikes! Our JB problems are decreasing and pretty soon I think they'll be done altogether. Do you see any bees around or just no honey bees? I have plenty of bumble bees but I don't think I see many honey bees.

All I've seen here have been bumble bees. A friend who lives a mile away has a few honey bees around. As an area becomes more developed the bees lose their natural homes as the trees are cut out. Beekeeping seems to be a lost art. I've known several people who have dabbled in beekeeping but most quit after a short time. I wish there were some locally. Beekeepers around here are registered with the local police departments in the event someone finds a swarm. A co-worker was called by the police one day to see if his bees were missing. Turns out they were his and he left work to retrieve them.

Oh wow, that's crazy! A friend of mine had a bunch of honey bees and yellow jackets living together underground at his house. He said he was going to put a bee box right outside the hole and capture the bees and then kill the yellow jackets. I didn't know you could do that.

I've never heard of honey bees living underground but I guess anything is possible. I have heard of them living inside the walls of a house. From what I've heard the only way to capture the honey bees is to somehow catch the queen and the rest will follow. My grandfather was a beekeeper. He told me about retrieving a swarm that was in a tree. He cut off the branch the swarm was on and put it in a garbage can to carry it home. Once he got the queen back in the hive it was all back to normal. I never thought to ask why the queen bees occasionally leave the hive. He made me laugh when he talked about harvesting the honey. He called it "robbing the bees."

Lol...robbing the bees...

My friend may have been mistaken, I'm not sure. Perhaps there were bees that appeared to be 'honey bees'.

Not much to show today. Just a couple new ones.

1) Haley Jane. In it's early stages.
2&3) Otto's Thrill. The beetles have barely nibbled on this one .... so far.

We had a good downpour late Saturday night and have a good chance of rain the next several days. I've been blessed in that the rains have come at perfect intervals and I haven't had to water in weeks. Enough water for the plants but not enough to drown the darn JB's. lol