Beautiful Dahlia

For all Dahlia lovers.

OH beautiful.. I love Dahlias!!

The only thing that keeps them from being perfect is
1. They don't bloom all the time.
2. They don't want to look you in the eye. They like to look at the ground.

Wind that is a beauty.

Hello Windsurfer,
That lovely dahlia looks similar to my "Brush Strokes." It is about 5 ft. high and has the same color but also has some purplish streaks in if you look close. Anyway, just beautiful! Do you grow a lot of dahlias? I currently have about 10 types out there, I think. I enter them in the County Fair for something to do! HA!

This message was edited Thursday, Feb 28th 1:24 PM

Thanks MiniSchnuz I love them to, Iwould love to see some of your pictures.

Jim your right but when they do bloom they give their all and it is glorious :)

Not the dinner plate ones ones anymore they are too big and take up to much space, but I do have the smaller ones I squeeze as many as I can get into my small garden. I would love to see some of your pictures.
I also like the Pom Pom Dahlia, now that's a flower.

Hello all- I was reading what georgiaredclay said about dahlias. Here in the Puget Sound area of Washington State, dahlias are one of the longest lived flowers I have. The start up in june and go until the first hard frost. They sure give me vases and vases of flowers for the house, without ruining the overall view outside. I've wondered how they do else where and if the heat in other zones makes them bloom longer or for less time? Your right about the downturned faces as some of them are so heavy, they tend to fall forward. If they are cut at just the right time, the faces are more upward, but as they age, down they go! I have dinner plates, cactus, semi cactus and water lily types mostly.

I sure envy you guys, since I am the lousiest dahlia grower in Dave's garden, I am sure. I would be glad to have them perform, even if they stare at the ground...my bustline has the same problems these days!

It is so pretty and used to have Drawf Dahlias different colors and Minischnuz knows. She tried her's never got any. I am think about to get some seeds.

Penny4 I know what you mean about dinner plate dahlias would fall over I had to tie them up,the plant got so large that it would almost kill all of my other plants, I had to give them away.

Weez all you have to do is add some peat moss and sand to your soil, if you have hard clay soil then add gypsum to it mix well, you could also add some compost that would help a lot and feed them once a month during the blooming season.
I promise you will have some beautiful dahlias.

That is SO gorgeous!!

Wind I just got back from Home Depot and bought me two pink cactus. See what you and penny4 started. I have some dinner plate already and another that someone gave me a couple years ago. I guess if I wanted to move them now would be the time. What do you think.

Thanks JoanMN.

Jim I mailed the seeds off today and you will find some Pom Pom Dahlia seeds in there, so I hope that makes up for this post forcing you to buy more Dahlias lol.

That is beautiful!! I bought my first dahlias a couple weeks ago...Can't wait to get them in ground and see them bloom...

Vic you won't be disappointed they will bloom lovely blooms all summer.

Thanks for the advice, Windsurffer. I have pretty good soil, since I had to BUY it...ah, the joys of Alaskan gardening! But, you're probably right...I'm just planting them and hoping for the best. They surely worth a little effort! I have a pile of peat I pulled out of the bog up the hill about two years ago...maybe I could screen that and add some.

There is an elderly lady in our town who is an excellent gardener, and she has beautiful dahlias every year. Of course, we have to bring them in every winter, so it takes some consideration. Penny4 has a pic of a beautiful dahlia she entered in the local fair down in Washington. Being dahlia impaired, I don't know what it's called, but I'm sure she does. Hope she posts it to this forum. It's worth a look!

If you had room in your home for the Dahlias then it would be worth it. You and the elderly lady should get together and work something out, you know like maybe you do something for her in the summer and she keeps you Dahlias for you in the winter...just a thought.
I would love to see Penny4's Dahlias, I think that all of them are beautiful but you haven't seen beautiful until you see the dinner plate Dahlia. I'll bet if you tried it just once you would be hooked for life. I'll do you one better...I'll send you some seeds for the small Dahlias so you won't have to do so much work. Keep them in a small pot and just bring them in this coming winter. I am going to check and see if I have a picture of one of the small ones and will post it for you, then you can decide.

lovely Dahlia Kit!!! unfortunately i never attempted to try growing Dahlia here due to the constant strong winds blowing every now and then. most of my plants i have to tie to a stake or they will never make it. u sure got good hands to grow such lovely Dahlia!!!