Dahlias: Looking forward to spring - Part II

I bought two Celvin Floodlights in Ocala, they had very good selection in Wal-Mart, it already has 2 inches of sprout, should I just leave them in the bag with peat moss, or pot them. I needed something yellow, I hope it survives till March planting. Etelka

I'd pot it up. Make sure the soil is at room temperature and don't water it until the sprouts grow more. You can pinch the growing tips if it gets too big indoors.

Thank you Arlene, I will do that. Is it too late for winter sowing seeds, or you don't winter sow?

I have to get started in setting up my pots and flats for WSing. Both flowers and vegetables. Motivation is seriously lacking though. Some of my new seeds take up to 12 weeks to germinate though so I am running out of time. They require warm-cold-warm-cold - or at least one does. The others get by with cold-warm. Just an experiment.

Etelka - I don't do winter sowing and very few things regarding seeds. Jack was always the one who grew from seed. I can't say I miss planting 3,000 seedlings at the end of May!

I just might unpot the dahlias I grew from cuttings to see if I got any tubers.

Arlene, where do you store the pots with dahlias over winter. I have never gotten tubers in one year from a propagated dahlia plant so I quit doing it. On the other hand, if it gives me a nice plant with flowers then I am still ahead of the game. It would just require at least one tuber to grow a plant to snip from. I am seriously running out of room for storing stuff over winter. Damien moves his snowblower into the garage each fall and it takes up the equivalent of one rolling lighted rack. Plus it seems like the garage always accumulates 'stuff'. I try to stay ahead of it by having a place for everything but it never seems quite adequate.

Garages are problematic because we don't entertain guests there. If we did, they'd be spotless and in perfect order.

My pots with the (hopeful) baby tubers are on the porch, which is probably too warm but the only source of heat out there is the sun so nights are cool, somewhere in the 50's.

I did get flowers on a Nenekazi pot of cuttings so I have high hopes for that one.

gorgeous flower. I love the laciniated petals and that color combination.

Thanks. It was all just an experiment so I can do more come spring. Right now we have the fluffy white stuff on the ground and no sunshine so it looks quite dismal.

I wonder if Dan has been using his golden shovel.

Well, you have inspired me to give it a try again only this time put the new plant in a pot rather than in the ground and try to hold it over winter.

My husband had foot surgery, fairly minor, on Monday and he was outside shoveling then using the snow blower on our driveway. Men! Hmph. I hope he didn't damage his foot. Now that both feet are done, he has to have a shoulder redone the end of February. I did my bone marrow and PET last week also so hopefully 2015 will not be a reprise of 2014. Hard to imagine it could. I am ready for a full summer of gardening. I may even put in a new bed out front. :)

Just a few of them flowered but I was only out for tubers, not blooms, so they were very welcome. It's cold on the porch or I'd have checked for tubers yesterday or today.

I hope his foot is okay. My daughter hurt a bone in her foot and is in a cast for a month just as her art show gets underway at the library and she faces a full set of steps coming and going.

Let's hope we all have healthy days ahead. I just made our reservation for Cape Cod in September. We're skipping June this year since I want to see all the clematises, and Louisiana irises blooming.

I keep wanting to go somewhere. Condor is offering great flights to Copenhagen. then there is good old Hawaii. Or an early spring peony convention in Washington. Wish I had the umph to do it. Just the thought of it makes me tired. lol

The thought of packing, airports, etc. just isn't exciting.

Hi Arlene, hold on to your britches, the storm is coming, I will send you this Hammer plow to dig you out. Got this picture in one of news. Good luck. Etelka

Thanks for the help, Etelka. At least out here they can plow the snow onto properties since we have such huge setbacks. They can't do that in NYC and have to load it all into trucks that dump the snow into the river. It will be a major mess in NYC.

Good thing will be , you will be snowed in with the right person. Enjoy.

Yes, he's good company. So is Smitty but the poor soul isn't fond of snow, ice or cold. Poor baby!

I checked on my dahlias for the first time in a month or so yesterday. They were fairing quite well. I only sprayed a few with a very mild bleach solution since there was some mold from the rotting stem. I also cut those stems down further. All the tubers were in good condition though, just the normal dessication of storage, no biggie. I'm thrilled because I was a little worried about them since they've been neglected. I am keeping them on the garage floor this year in an effort to give them a cooler temp. Last year they were up on a counter about 3-4 feet off the ground so they stayed a little warmer.

My crawl space finally got down to 50 with the colder weather and I don't have to worry about any light getting to them there. The stuff in the garage gets a bit of light and insists on growing. Course, some of the dahlias in the CS have been trying to grow all winter also. :( I gave up on the lilies and just potted them up, watered and brought them in the house. If they want to grow now what can I do. Can't snap off the stems like I do with dahlias. I don't think they would send up a second stem.

Mostly I just want to get on with it and lay tubers on damp soil to see who will sprout eyes (those that haven't yet). It should cut down on the tuber count getting rid of duds.

Our garage is usually around 50. On the colder nights it gets down to low 40s. The trouble is in the spring when I park my car in the garage it is warm. It keeps the garage temp up a bit. It's all good though, I didn't have any issues last year though.

Hope you all in the Northeast stay safe and warm with this storm bearing down on you. 3 feet of snow would probably bring this area to a standstill. I am already tired of this stuff and ready for Spring. We have had more cold weather than snowfall, I wouldn't mind the snow if it weren't so frigid. Something tells me I could have a long wait. lol

The city (NYC) will be closed tonight by 11 PM. No Broadway, no traffic, not many people.

We're due to get hit hard but on the TV weather it shows the city getting up to 3' while we get less than 2' so it appears the city will be the place to get the brunt of the storm.

The cold isn't pleasant and makes even a quick trip seem too long. If spring were to arrive next week I think we'd all welcome it.

I have been watching the news and I feel for you all. Not bad enough that you'll get all that snow, but the high winds with it, will make it so much worse. Take care.

Jeez Arlene. I am so glad you are well out of the city. They will be paralyzed with 3'. Heck, they would be paralyzed with 6". Take care.
Mary

I think NYC got shafted on the snow. I heard this morning Central Park only got 6 inches.

They didn't get blasted. We did get 2' or so (not about to go out to measure) and there are still blizzard warnings out here. No loss of power, thank God.

The message from my cable company was amusing. They gave a site to check if we lose power. They didn't say how to do it without power.

Kind of like the aerial bombings in WWII. Half the time they missed the target and hit some poor unsuspecting civilian site. Your cable company sounds a sharp as ours.

We weren't looked upon as too swift when our gov't bombed an aspirin factory in the 1990's either!

Arlene, I hope you're safe and warm. I know it's hard to cope with storms like that. We've had our share over the years. A big pot of chili or homemade soup and some hot chocolate helps a little. I went for a walk this morning but a couple of miles was all I could take. Temp of 20 degrees with 15 mph winds are not exactly ideal conditions to be outdoors. I saw a guy on The Weather Channel last night reporting from somewhere in New York. The winds were at 53 mph and were expected to go higher. The snow plows were pretty much useless. I wish I could help but I'm afraid my trusty snow shovel would be outmatched. Stay warm, eat well and look at some garden catalogs. I always hear how "we will forget all about the bad weather once spring comes." Yeah, right!! Our temps will fall all through next weekend. I just hope we don't get "Cantoried." lol Have you seen Jim?

We're fine! A few years ago we hired our irrigation system guys to plow us out as needed and they showed up and did their usual great job. Then two neighborhood teenage girls rang the bell and said they'd like to shovel a path through the courtyard for free! They did a great job and finally they each accepted money.

We have more than enough food, heat, and didn't lose power at all. The roads were all plowed long before we were awake.

My guess is that we ended up with 2' of snow.

We weren't watching Jim and he didn't appear with a shovel...yet.

It's finally up to 12F here with a little wind. More than cold enough for me. I will just work on my database and get ready for seed planting. I was looking through pictures from last summer and it always amazes me as I look out the window now how lovely it all looks in a few short months. Like "That is MY garden....!?"

Well I did it again. I received a post card from a fellow out in the valley (www.shoppersistantfarmer.com) who has been raising dahlias. His website is much better and he now has Paypal. His selection is much larger. I should have remembered him. I believe in patronizing local entrepreneurs. So I ordered $30 more dollars of tubers. And no freight!! yeah. His prices are certainly higher than Alan Lowe's but inline with other vendors. In fact, VERY in line. Which is good. He will make money and hopefully be successful. I will put his post card in my book for new orders to remind me to look at his stock first next year.

I had planned to order tubers from only two vendors this year, Alpen's and Pleasant Valley. I had picked out eight from Alpen's and when I looked tonight six had sold out in the past week. I've never seen so many "sold outs" and "n/a" this early in the year. I think a few sellers had bad crops last year. Or maybe some have just reduced their inventory. One said he got lazy and spent too much time fishing and playing golf. If anyone has their heart set on a particular variety, I would suggest ordering as soon as possible.

I was going to wait until March to order so I could see which ones (if any, lol) of mine survive storage. Now, I think I'll check them tomorrow and try to make wild guess as to what and how many I'll need and get at least one order in the mail. I don't want to wait until more are sold out.

Arlene, I hope you are spared the wrath of this latest storm they're talking about. Of course, considering the accuracy of some of the forecasts, you may end up having sun and 70 degrees.

I just ordered my dahlias this morning. All of them are from Swan Island. There was one I liked at Alpha Dahlias (Badger Twinkle) but I decided to just get them all at one place to save on shipping. Below are the new additions I got for this year.

Boogie Nites
Tahiti Sunrise
Heather Marie
Rebecca Lynn
Patricia Ann'S Sunset

Not quite 70 but very sunny here, Dan.

I've spent the last 8 weeks working on photos since my program got so messed up and it's taking too much time...but it is winter.

There's only one I really want so maybe later, after my periodontal visit, I will get to ordering it.

I ordered Badger Twinkle so if it produces some decent tubers this fall I would be glad to send one on. I found a really pretty dark lavender anemone Blue Bayou at my local grower and then when I was researching for data to put it in my database I saw it was already sold out at Swan Island. I agree as I look at other nurseries for information that the number of 'sold out's' seems really high. I don't imagine it is a scare tactic as what would they gain. Just reducing what they have to sell (at least appearing to not have) then they would have to plant a ton of tubers to save them for next year. Maybe just a cycle with buyers that they got in a frenzy for some reason early on. I ordered some of mine last December. I think some advertise what they HOPE to have and then make substitution when it doesn't pan out in reality. I should just put NO SUB so as not to get something I don't want. Sure don't need any extras. The Persistent Farmer has some nice picks.

www.shoppersistentfarmer.com

This message was edited Jan 29, 2015 8:16 AM

Cool, thanks Mary.

I started to say that I grew Badger Twinkle a few years ago but checked and mine was actually Glenbank Twinkle. I wonder if they are somehow related, as far as parentage. This one was a poor tuber producer and I haven't grown it since. I think I like BT more than this one.

You picked out some beauties, Jeff. I especially like Tahiti Sunrise.

In 2012 it won 145 ADS awards. Says a lot about the bloom. Hope that means it will be healthy. I am really tempted to pot it rather than putting it in the ground so I can make sure it gets lots of sun and warmth.

Thanks Dan. I've always like the TS but never wanted a bloom that large. This year, I have decided to venture into the 4-6" range so it opened me up to the TS. I'm sure it will look like a knockout. I tried to focus on pinks and purples this time. It was really tough to resist buying more. I had to narrow down from a list of 15 or so. Had I not had to dig them out this past fall I would have gotten more but it's so much work to dig them because our soil is hard clay. I still have a lot to learn obviously but I've got some ideas for how I'm going to grow them this year.