Dahlias: Spring 2015

Mary that is a lot of pots. lol I have several, but not nearly that many...yet. I still have several Dahlias to be potted/planted. And Cannas, I have several different ones if anyone is interested in acquiring some. Just Yell!

Arlene, last year was my first with FI. So I really can't say whether the coloring on mine was "normal." Except for the third photo, all the blooms had just a bit of lavender tint and the petals were outlined. After a while they all went open-centered with that big ugly yellow eye. I didn't know if the tubers would carry this characteristic to the following year, so I threw them away and bought new ones. The on-line photos show a wide range of coloring.

Gary, I just might go back to that garden center and show them they can't make me buy Stripped Vulcan, Emory Paul and Sir Alf Ramsey.

Mary, I hope you get some great weather this spring to get all those plants set out. Around here you never know what to expect. After the heavy frost in June a couple years ago, I no longer take even late May planting for granted.

We have to bring cannas in for the winter so I content myself with just one pot of them. Thanks for the kind offer, Annette.

We cross posted, Dan.

Your photos are nice but I did have my heart set on the coloring of the one I posted. So I get to turn down one dahlia this year...yippee! I still think sun, soil, and temperatures have a lot to do with the color of a bloom.

Yes! You go back and show them they can't force you to buy anything!

We always waited to plant tomatoes, peppers, etc. until Jack's 5/27 birthday - it's what he wanted. It did make it easy to remember the planting date! Here the last frost is supposed to be 4/15 but the soil isn't warm enough (55) for impatiens, vegetables or dahlias then. I'd rather wait and have fewer losses or none.

One year, in mid May, we brought out hundreds of potted coleuses only to get the frost warning so we put down tarps on the living room floor and brought all the coleuses in again. They stayed there for three days. What a royal pain that was!

Our last frost date is usually after the KY derby, the first weekend in May. But my grandpa always said we have a frost on May 20th, so we wait until then.

Our last frost date is May 15th but I don't plant until the end of the month. The early June frost I mentioned earlier didn't do a lot of damage around here. Being so close to Lake Erie keeps us a little warmer than areas inland a few miles. But some fruit farms east of here were devastated. There's a farm a few miles across the Pennsylvania border where I buy apples every fall. This farm is so huge I couldn't begin to guess how many apple trees there are. I asked the owner how they were affected by the frost. She said it was a total loss. Not a single apple in the entire orchard. They brought apples from out of state to keep the business open. As much as I'd hate to lose a few plants, I can't imagine being in a situation where my livelihood would be affected by weather like these people.

Happy Easter to all the dahliaholics on the forum! I hope everyone has a safe and joyous holiday weekend. Be safe if you travel. It's about time to stuff the 'ol turkey. And tomorrow the turkey will stuff me.

It's a shame that they lost the whole crop and it drives up the price of fruit, besides. I don't set tender out plants until late May usually. But I do move them out of the greenhouse on warm days and frost free nights to harden off. My Magnolia and Lilac trees usually get bit or the rain beats the blooms off and shortens the bloom time. They are beginning to bloom now and we have a frost warning tonight (sigh)
No fruit trees to worry about, but there are lots of things beginning to peek out from the ground.
We will be having ham as is our usual Easter custom. And eggs...lots of eggs. lol Hard boiled,deviled,egg salad, just about anything that has boiled eggs in it. Chef salad,lol. I hope you all have a wonderful Easter, I will be spending min with my DD and her family and my Mom. I hear I am in charge of the Egg Hunt. Oh Boy!

I bought Sir Alf Ramsey this year. Also received a bunch of dahlias from Swan Island. All potted up. Tomorrow I will plant my gladiolas, those I stored over winter. Pulled a few more from flats to put into pots.

At 7am Laura and I were out helping my neighbor and her husband 'hide' 900 plastic eggs for the roughly 25 children, ages from 11 mos to 13 years. This is the fourth or fifth year She has done this. Largest turnout ever From over a block away. One lady put out a table with juice, fruit, cupcakes; Amy brought store bought cookies and I brought coffee. Was really great from our cul de sac down the street, about seven house long, both sides, was covered with children and parents chatting and eating. It was great fun. And no snow this year. Usually we have snow banks to hide the eggs in. And we would end the hunt with a snow ball fight. lol

The egg hiding sounds like great fun. Not so much fun for Annette (or any of us) waiting until the last frost is gone.

Those who have to depend on one crop are at the mercy of the weather. One year the frost came early out here. A field of rotting cabbage stinks!

Happy Easter to all the gardeners, we should all thank God for our beautiful gardens. Etelka

Hi y'all! My tuber-saving was a complete bust. I got out half or less of my smallest dahlia, and left the rest, in despair. I didn't find a way to store those 16 tubers, so they're gone. The ones left might come up again, that's pretty normal around here, but I am afraid the plants are increasing themselves to death. I still like them though, so I guess I'll just wait til they exhaust themselves and then buy again.

I'm looking forward to everybody else's photos this year!

Happy Easter to all my friends here at DG!
Turtles, sorry you have Dahlia woes. I store my tubers in a garage that is only heated when temps threaten to go below freezing inside the garage. which means it has to go below 20* or less outside. Most of the winter it will stay above 40* with no heat as long as the daytime temps aren't crazy cold. I am sure that some of us Dahlia-holics would be happy to send you some replacement tubers. Any specific kind or color that you like?
Mary that sounds like great fun and a huge success. It's nice that you all have a community egg hunt.
I am going to try to get the rest of my tubers planted today if time allows.

Happy Easter!

Etelka - Saw your clematis, Daniel Deronda, greeting you for Easter. It's lovely as usual.

Turtles - It's sad when tuber saving doesn't work out. Have you checked the big stores like Walmart and Home Depot? They have excellent stock around here.

Annette - You're ambitious. Here I won't plant for many weeks to come. We're told to put the tubers in the good earth at the same time as we'd plant tomatoes, the end of May.

pirl, I have a lot of tubers that I bought, and I think they need to be planted now because they have already started growing in the store packaging. so I have to do something with them. It's too early to plant outside so I will have to plant them in flats or pots, until May.

Gotcha! I thought you meant you were planting them outside!

Happy Easter! We did our Easter duty for our neighbor. She has about 9 huge plastic eggs, three times the size of a football. All colors. Each year we go over and hide, such as we can, the big eggs while they and their children are at church. When the kids come home they always run around to find the big eggs. Of course they have told them that a huge rabbit leaves them. Kyle who is 13 knows better, Nora who is 10 is getting a little suspicious, and Kyle about 8 is "clueless" as Amy says. lol

I will check in the garage to see if anything needs water then ignore them. I am pooped. Maybe work on our books (accounting) and try to catch up. Am baking Mediterranean Kale bread now (delicious); just a mix the ingredients (frozen pulverized kale, yogurt, olive oil, feta, eggs, garlic powder and the usual other stuff and dump into a pan.

I should have cooked a nice Easter dinner but never even occurred to me. Too long with my children gone from here.

I went to my daughter's house for a nice ham dinner and Easter egg hunt with the Grandkids. I am exhausted! But we had a lovely time. And I didn't have to cook. ;)

My tuber storage this year has been nothing short of disastrous. I took them out of the attic last weekend and I might have a 75% loss due to shriveling. The troubling thing is that up until two years ago, I only lost a very small percentage each year. I have no idea what has changed. This year the problem may have been the long periods of very cold, dry air. I seldom lose any to rot. Luckily, I have ordered quite a few replacements.

Last November I dug several clumps I had no intention of saving. I just wanted to experiment with different storage media. I even wrapped about 20 in saran wrap. The results were inconclusive as the shriveling was about even across-the-board as to vermiculite vs. peat moss vs. a combination of the two. A little while ago, I unwrapped some of the ones that were in the saran. This is the first time I have checked them since November and they look the same now as they did back then. I have tried the saran wrap method before with so-so results. Apparently, they have to be " just right" as far as dryness when wrapped. I may have to try this method again.

Those look pretty darn good Dan.

I agree. They look great.

I'm impressed!

Saran wrapping it shall be! Out of about 20 in the saran, two feel spongy and one is a little shriveled. I'm sure that was because of their condition when they were wrapped. The rest look good. There's still no guarantee that they will develop eyes. With my luck, I'll store all the tubers that way next fall and this method will blow up in my face. lol

I dampened some potting mix and peat and went through half the boxes and bags. I put a couple handfuls of the mixture in each bag after dumping out the vermiculite. I threw away another two or three dozen shrivelers. I performed tuberectomies on a few with soft spots. I kept cutting until the area left was showing a nice white color and then dipped the ends in garden sulphur. A couple ended up being about 1/4 their original length. It's worked before. So I have my fingers crossed.

I haven't a clue as to what I'll end up with. The shriveling really looks bad. So far, very few are showing eyes. I hate to have to buy so many new ones. But I'll do that every year before I'll put up with four months of this nonsense again. I think I counted 93 new ones that I have bought locally or ordered. Can I claim any of that as a loss on my income tax? How about a deduction for ulcer treatment? lol

Woe is Dan! So try the Saran Wrap for next winter and take a look in March so you'll know what you have to buy or not!

I've seen that procedure done and it ended up successful so I wish you luck.

Go ahead and claim it as a deduction. A cousin once claimed her dog's hysterectomy and got away with it!

I feel bad for Dan, I think I would give up with dahlias if I had to go trough what you guys do just to Winter the bulbs over. I just planted my dahlias that did spout, hope they survive. Some more bulbs are coming, they will be for the back garden, will get them to sprout first. Etelka

Dan is so good and follows the rules but still got stung this time around.

Dahlias do usually winter over in the ground here, even last year when we went below zero. My trouble is that the tubers proliferate so much. I'm guessing that I'll just have to wait until they exhaust themselves, then get new ones? Does that sound right?

I'm just now making new beds so that I actually have room for more without having to wait for a plant to die out. I'll never make it as a 'buy a hundred new ones each year' gardener though! 😄

I am amazed at your zone Turtles. I would never think of Oregon as a zone 8 or that dahlias would survive in the ground.

Mine are very slowly waking up. Slower than last year. A few more peaked above ground in the pots but I think everything in the flats is a dud. I am thinking I need to water at least a little on the ones in pots as they have been there for two weeks, some of which are not showing above ground growth though the criteria for going into pots was seeing an eye. What do you think? Or should I just let them do their thing and not start that death spiral of watering and watering then having them rot.

Turtles = why not dig, separate, replant? Otherwise they might have so few flowers that they aren't worth the space.

Eventually I'll get downstairs to check the progress but Jack reported they're doing well. However, he would only see green growth while I want to check for eyes that are growing.

Mary - take a chance with giving some warm water to a few, but not much water.

Since I just brought my tubers out of the dark attic, I didn't expect to see a lot of growth for a while. I checked quite a few last night using a jeweler's loupe. (Is that why I got a headache?) On a few, I could see the tiny pink eye breaking it's way through the dried out area of the collar. I'm wondering if this collar area was a little bit softer maybe the eyes would have an easier time popping out. I considered dampening the area a little. Then I decided there would be no more experiments this late in the game and the eyes could pop through in their own good time. Bottom line is it just takes time and patience.

Arlene, I didn't get stung, it was a major bite! lol

Turtles, Arlene has some great advice. The plants will start going downhill if they're not divided every couple years and the flower production will suffer.

My uncle in zone 6 has a dahlia he bought as a potted plant several years ago. Even though they have some freezing weather every winter, it continues to come back. I don't understand how.

Neither do I Dan. I have used my rosetip watering can to moisten the tubers in flats as they just look so dried out. I think I will put maybe two tablespoons of warm water on the potted ones that look dry. I will also use my moisture meter to assure they aren't dry on top and moist further down.

It is snowing lightly. ARGHHH! 34F in the raised bed houses. Hope those iris are tough out there. The one in pots. I banished a few more of my lily seedlings yesterday due to aphids. I have plenty of lilies without them infecting the rest of my garage like last year. Die you bugs!!

I forgot to say, I tried digging them last fall. They are in a 2 ft high raised bed that I filled with lovely loose fluffy soil. And all I managed to do was break my fork! I think I'll have to try the archaeologist method when I try it again: removing a cupful of soul at a time, then getting out the toothbrush... I was astonished at how huge and deep the two year old plant had gotten, and that was my smallest one.

But that doesn't mean I won't keep trying. You all are an inspiration.

A jeweler's loupe is an improvement over a microscope, Dan! I agree about time and patience.

Of course, major bite, Dan!

When I didn't know better I grew the exact same (never divided) clump of the Bishop of Llandaff, thinking I must be a superlative dahlia mother since that clump was SO big and SO heavy, I watched as it sent up stems, then hardly provided a dozen blooms. Lesson learned. Many people are sure some critters underground are to blame for the demise of their dahlias but if they tried division annually they might be surprised to see how well the plants grow.

The one I potted up years ago, Starr's Favorite, gave me all of two blooms and it was a brand new tuber. The following year I didn't get a thing! No more pots for me. Your uncle has a lucky charm that came with his dahlia, Dan.

What did your moisture reader tell you, Mary?

I pray we're done with snow but until the end of April I wouldn't bet on it.

Today I did go down to check the dahlias. Kasasagi is such a show-off! Most of the others do have growing eyes anywhere from 1/4" to 1". None have been watered and none have soil except for the soil that didn't fall off in storage.

#2 is Fubuki Red and White with a few points of growth. Note the soil that remained.
#3 Amorous is eager to grow. Guess I'll be separating them tomorrow.
#4 So happy to see Sea Oro sprouting!
#5 Not sure just what's happening with Alpen Pauline/AC Paint but I'll investigate tomorrow.

Wow. That makes a believer out of me. I may try to save clumps this fall. Haven't tried the moisture reader yet. Took Laura downtown to shop then worked on a knitting project. Now have to catchup on at least a little housework.

Here is my spring day.

Wow, look at Kasasagi go! Those clumps look really good Arlene. I will try dividing again this fall. If I have some help, as I didn't last year, maybe I'll make more progress.

I am so looking forward to seeing everbody's pictures this year.

I got an e-mail from Alan Lowe this afternoon. He said he shipped out all the orders on Monday. I'm anxious to see what they look like.

Nice sprouts, Arlene! All those are really popping. They should do very well. I still have the four unwashed clumps in plastic bags. I see sprouts on all of them. They don't look as good as yours but I think I can get a couple tubers off each one. Not a lot of shriveling.

Here is a photo of a couple of Ice Cube "clumps" (?) I received from K Van Bourgondien. The other two (I only got 4, not the 5 I ordered) looked like they were beat with an ugly stick. Almost every tuber was broken and just dangling. I wouldn't send someone junk like this for free. The one on the right is nothing but a piece of rotted stem and a collar with no tubers. I have sent three e-mails to them since 3/21 and still haven't heard a word from them. I have had good luck with them in the past. I heard they were recently bought out by Garden's Alive. If this is the result, you have been warned! And they claim their customer care service is "world class." lol

Those are horrible. I just tested a couple of the larger pots with tubers in them that had eyes. They test out at 2.5 which is more than enough I think for their point of growth. I seem to have a plethora of Ice Berg. I put four little tubers, about the size of your middle finger in one pot and all four sent up growth above ground. I put them each in their own pot. Wish I had the ground to just plant swaths of the same dahlia together. I know the flowers are large and the plant can get fairly big. I also will be interested to see Alan's tubers. They were okay last year. Have to be better than what the local guy provided.

So few were lost that IF I dig this fall, I'd do the same exact thing. I just might experiment on any duplicates to get the dreaded eye thing down pat but I'd still store them the same way.

KVB was bought out a few years ago. It's nothing recent. Gardens Alive also bought the KVB name.

Now if those sad looking tubers sprout and grow, it will be amazing and yet the tubers of Fubuki Red and White were horrid looking last year but they all grew.

Too true. And the clump which I didn't subdivide is doing well with two or three shoots already.

It's nice to hear that good things happen to good people, Mary!