Dahlias Summer 2015

Frost?!?!? Yikes. I think we have another few weeks left for that. It's hard to believe it's the beginning of October though.

We aren't expecting frost anytime soon,that I know of, but we have have nearly a week of rain and continual clouds, and the Dahlias could use some sun and some time to dry out a little. I think Tuesday is the next day we are expecting much sun at all.
We have a festival called "October Court Days" in Mt. Sterling, on the 3rd Monday in Oct.(and the preceding weekend). It dates back over 200 years to when the Circuit Judge came to hold court, which was once a year, and everyone came to trade guns,dogs, horses, livestock,crops, whatever could be bartered for. Nowadays it is more like a giant flea market, with everything you can imagine.
We have had snow on more than a few Court Day weekends. (I used to spend all weekend in town when I was a kid, now I try to avoid it, lol.) They shut down the downtown area to motor traffic, foot traffic only. We will have over 200,000 people in this town, at the largest outdoor event in KY. Traffic is a disaster! School is closed because the buses couldn't get through and nobody would show up for school anyway. lol That's just October in my town.

Still cold and wet here. My Purplelicious has died back to the ground, not sure why. Do you all go ahead and dig one like that, this time of year or just leave it til you dig the rest?

Nanny, I'm sure most (all?) of the big growers dig their tubers before a frost just because of the sheer numbers they grow and the need to get them dug before the really bad weather. I think the biggest problem with digging it now would be, where do you store it until colder weather? If it were me I'd leave it in the ground until iI dug the others. I have a few that are not looking good. But I'll wait.

I once read that the owner of Hollyhill Dahlias advised someone who was moving to another state to go ahead and dig early. It was mid-September and he said the tubers would be cured by then. I'm sure he knows what he's talking about, but I'll wait for a frost. Or a 10" snow like last year. lol

We had five days of strong winds last week and a nice all-day shower on Saturday. The blooms really took a beating. There are petals everywhere and I've deadheaded dozens of blooms and cut off a lot of broken stems. There are still a lot of buds. I was hoping to have blooms for my mother's birthday later this month. It's looking grim. The fat lady hasn't sung yet but she's clearing her throat.

These blooms have survived the winds so far.

1) Lady Darlene
2) Wyn's Sundazzler
3) Alpen Pauline
4) Otto's Thrill. First blooms on this late planted one.

A few more.

1) Shiloh Noelle
2) Potluck. Gone wild.
3) Ben Huston. First bloom on another late planted one. Never seen red mixed in before.
4) Emory Paul

Great blooms Dan. It is still too wet to dig anyway. So I will just wait.

That Potluck is very pretty, Lady Darlene as well. The wind and rain was indeed tough on the dahlias but all survived. There are a few underperforming bunches that will be tossed this fall to make room for new varieties in the spring.

Dan, do you think that is typical for Potluck or "gone wild"?? The description I had was that every blossom was different. Only thing you could count on is the colors white and burgundy. I've seen those kind of blossoms on my versions of Potluck. The only way I can tell the difference from Marble Ball (consistent color pattern) and Potluck (variable color pattern).

Thomas Edison truly is a must for every dahlia patch, IMHO. Great stems, deep purple color etc. I cut every one I can find and use in arrangements alot.

Alan, I'm not sure what is typical with Potluck since this is the first year I've had it. I also read that every bloom would be different, but mine were all the same except for the "wild" one. Still, it's a beautiful little flower and Marble Ball is what I thought of when it first bloomed.

I usually have a few varieties that go "wild" at times during the season. The blooms in this photo are from an AC Paint dahlia. I posted photos a couple weeks ago showing what the plant looked like last year and how much it has changed this year. I only had one bloom with the red streaks this year. All the rest have been mostly solid lavender or white. It looks really strange with different colored blooms on the same plant. Strange but nice!

I like that one that has different colors. It's unique.

I just placed my dahlia order for 2016. All were bought from Swan Island again. Several of my tubers will be pitched this fall so I'll have room for some newbies.

Jeff, you could pitch some of those Dahlias my way. ;)

Yeah I can if you want. I'm getting rid of them due to poor performance though. I don't think there's anything wrong with them, just that the tuber clump is crowded on some and the others were stunted from my lack of liquid attention this summer. It's also an excuse for me to buy new ones ;-) DM me your info and I'll happily send them out to you.

Hi Jeff , can you pitch some of those my way too.Will really appreciate it.

Most things are looking pretty tired. Kelvin Floodlight and Thomas Edison still looking good. Had a nice rain two days ago.

The winds have continued their assault on my dahlias. We finally have a sunny, cool and calm day today. I'll do some deadheading after I get my "fix" of football this afternoon. Still a lot of buds but it's getting late.

These opened in the past week and are still standing straight despite the winds. I've posted these varieties before.

1) Vassio Meggos
2) Kidd's Climax
3) Juanita
4) Painted Madam
5) A late planted/blooming Kelvin Floodlight

The first photo is a variety named Surprise from last year. The tuber looked terrible but I planted it anyway and hoped for the best. A couple months later, I was rewarded with nice 6"- 8" blooms. The tubers I dug last fall and planted this spring were big, plump and healthy. But the results were this scrawny late bloomer in the second photo. It's barely 4". Just as you can't judge a book by it's cover, never judge a tuber by it's appearance.

This 'Tahoma Moonshot' is the prettiest dahlia I've ever seen. Does anyone grow it?

I found it on a blog of someone who found it in London.

Dan, I really like Painted Madam. How big is the flower?

The blooms are probably close to 5". The blooms in this photo are Gloriosa from a couple years ago. Pretty much the same colors, shape and size as Painted Madam. If I didn't know better, I'd swear it was the same dahlia. No wonder some varieties are so hard to identify.

Lol sure does look the same, but by either name I like it.

I have a few new blooms. 'Hawaii' which looks a lot like 'Seattle' at first glance. Thomas Edison and Kogane Fubuki are still at it. Icebergs blooms are 9 inches across.

Looking good Nanny and Dan!! That Painted Madam is a killer.


Dan, you remember that volunteer dahlia I told you about a couple months ago? I never actually posted a pic of it. Here is a pic from today. It's beautiful bright white but I don't have any white dahlias. I really like it though, it's a keeper for next year.

Great blooms, Nanny! Beautiful colors on Hawaii and TE. And you gotta love those big white blooms. They really stand out in the garden along with KFL. They're at the top of my list as far as staples. I bought packaged Hawaii clumps once and they weren't even close to being the real thing.

Jeff, is that volunteer from seed or is it a tuber you didn't dig last fall? That's a nice bloom. I've never tried growing from seeds and any tubers left in the ground in my zone would be mush by springtime. I have a friend who lives a few miles from here who has dahlias every year and claims they've never been dug. He thinks that having them planted close to his brick house and concrete sidewalk, with a dryer vent close by, draws enough solar heat to keep the ground from freezing too deep. That's still hard to believe with the winter getting as cold as it does.

I deadheaded more old blooms this morning. A lot of the plants are going south in a hurry, lots of brown foliage. I almost wish it was time to dig rather than seeing them go downhill. But, that's nature's way. Some plants that I thought were done for the year seem to be having a resurgence but with mis-shaped blooms and odd colors. Wyn's Sundazzler is 10"+. I wish it had bloomed a little earlier in the year. The top blooms on Ben Huston are between eight and nine feet in the air. I don't understand why, since it's planted in full sun. This Emory Paul just bloomed for the first time but is mis-shaped and not very attractive. Hopefully, next year will be a little kinder weather-wise.

1) Ben Huston
2) Wyn's Sundazzler
3) Pinelands Princess. Just started blooming again with some odd color patterns.
4) Emory Paul
5) Potluck. This little guy went from a "wild" patterned bloom to a solid color bloom.

Dan you have some beautiful blooms there. Jeff I like that "volunteer" bloom. Isn't it a bit like Christmas when you grow Dahlias, lol. You never know what you will get... never boring when you grow Dahlias!

Perhaps if it's a southern exposure, but still it's a stretch, I agree. That white dahlia is a volunteer from seed this year. I'm surprised how fast it grew because it only gets a couple hours of direct sun a day. Christmas indeed Nanny! There are a few volunteers that haven't bloomed though and they will be left in the ground to die but I'm going to pull the white one and put it in the regular lineup. The good thing about volunteer dahlias is that they are just below the soil surface and they are really easy to dig.

I like that yellow one you've got there. Very bright.

We didn't get any of the forecasted rain the past few days. The forecast today was for a 20% chance of rain before 10 AM. We had a few brief periods of sunshine. I waited till 9:30 and went out and gave the dahlias a good watering. Right at noon, it started pouring. Go figure! We got a good soaking rain and it's showering again now.

Unless we get an early frost, my plants normally continue to bloom until at least the first of November. I'm not sure if the tubers still need the rain this late in the year for a final growth spurt, but I guess it can't hurt. Any bets on rainfall (or snow) when it's time to dig the tubers? Almost a guarantee. lol

The photo shows my one and only pitiful bloom on Tahiti Sunrise this year. This was back in August. As you can see, the leaves were turning yellow/brown and I suspected a virus. I cut it way back and removed almost every leaf. About all I was left with was a leafless 10" stalk. The darn thing started to grow back and is now a lush green 30" plant but without any buds. If I had cut it back earlier in the year it may have even bloomed this year. Hopefully, it has made some viable tubers. I'm not sure what the problem may have been.

We have had several light frosts which has not done any harm to the dahlias. But it sounds like Saturday could lead to the end of their season. Ground is nice and moist but it has been cool and very windy the last few days.

Saturday and Sunday our lows are supposed to be below freezing so that might be the end of our dahlias too. If so, I will commence digging and storing. Anybody know what moon sign is best for digging tubers? Probably the same as digging root crops for extended storage, ya' think?

Edited because I double posted. Oops!

This message was edited Oct 14, 2015 4:29 PM

Yeah I'm going away this weekend and won't be able to tend to the dahlias. Depending on which weather outlet you follow, the overnight low Saturday will be 32-33 but Sunday is looking to be 29-32, which worries me. We'll have to see where it is closer to the actual date. I'm hoping for a light breeze or clouds those nights. I really hope the dahlias can make it because after this weekend we have another 10 days or so with no chance of a freeze.

Good luck to all of us on that weather forecast! I would love to see the bloom season extended even if it's only a week or so. Most of my Dahlias are really blooming like crazy. I hate to see them go. And I wouldn't mind putting off digging for a little while either, lol.

Yeah, well I wouldn't dig mine right away anyway. I'm a little nervous at the temps in my garage since we got the new garage door this summer. This morning it was 71 in my garage, 46 outside, and 64 in the upper level of the house. The new door is 3 layer but it's the lowest R rating of a 3 layer door I could get. Apparently it's really doing its job. I think I'll have to start parking my car outside to let it cool off before pulling it in the garage as long as the dahlias are being stored there.

Dan, you were talking about how dahlias can change bloom colors as the season progresses. Here is a pic of Sandia Shomei on July 14th. The second pic is of the same plant yesterday. I have to say, the latest pic is way prettier than the original.

Very pretty blooms, Jeff. I also like the second one best. I love ones with more than one color. I have a couple plants with first time blooms. I'll try to get photos later. I'd better hurry because the constant winds in the last week and a half are beating my plants to death. Looks like my blooming may be over long before we get a frost.

Lady Darlene continues to become more golden yellow. The first photo is from August. The second photo is from last week and the other two are from today. I wish it was this color all the time instead of starting off with so much red.

One new bloom and some repeats. I think the cool/cold nights are really affecting the buds. I have quite a few that are only blooming with petals on one side of the flower. Really ugly half blooms. Others are very slow to open.

1) ?? No idea what this one is.
2) Snow Country. Still cranking out the blooms.
3) AC Paint. It's re-reverted back to the color with the red streaks. Never know what you'll get.
4) Ben Huston. One of my favorites but a little slow to open this year.
5) Fleurel. I love the big white blooms.

Wow, Lady Darlene is really changing! You wouldn't even think that's the same dahlia. I like Ben Huston, very nice.

Just to brag a littlebit, after the hot Summer my dahlias are doing very well, the first frost wont be till late November, I sure will enjoy them until then. These are Snowbound, Fubuki Maroon and Crazy Legs. the second picture is Kelvin.