They are just beginning. But beautiful, yes. This is the famous and pretty amazing Show 'N' Tell. Seven feet tall and flowers 10 inches wide. This flower isn't all the way open. I'll post another when it gets lacianated. Lucky Ducky and Fidalgo Julie have bloomed but I missed them with my camera. They'll have to come later.
This is another 10 incher. Not so tall - about only three feet but it's early in the season. It was an extra from Aztec Dahlias. Named "Calo Bells".
This message was edited Jul 19, 2005 6:25 PM
This is 'Embrace'. It's a smaller flower - only about 4" but it's a great producer of flowers and very hardy. This plant is about four feet tall.
I really like the 'Show N Tell', doss. The colors are so cool.
I am supposed to have that one so hope I do.
Seven feet tall. Wow, you CA guys sure grow them big down there.
Your description is nice too. I guess I should do that too. But am too lazy to do it.
Carol
I have no idea why it gets that tall. It just may be where it is. Kenora Superb which is in bud is right next to it and it's the same height. On the other side of the path there's a cultivar that struggles in our heat every year - but the flowers are so pretty I bear with it. It probably needs more shade and I'll move it next spring.
As far as the description - I don't want to have anyone get the wrong idea. From the photo you could think that Embrace is large. I wish that they would do the same thing in Iris. Sometimes Schreiner's will tell you how big the flowers are and I really appreciate it.
This is Fidalgo Julie. It's also a small flower and didn't do very well the first year - but this year it's already four feet tall. Sometimes the flowers bloom down in the foliage though so as pretty as the flowers are I don't think that it's high on my list of recommendations. We'll see if it does better later in the season.
Incredible!!
hiya doss,
Your flowers are amazing. The Show and Tell is a superb color. I tried it and lost it for some reason. It just never emerged for me. Your's has a deepness in the color I've only seen in promotional photos. Are you supplementing iron? That color is just fabulous...congratulations on a really colorful summer in your garden.
best to you,
Don
Caught me Don. Yes it's really that color but I had to adjust the photo's exposure in my computer to get it that way. It doesn't look real in person it's so red. I couldn't get the white balance in my camera to work well enough. I think that I would have needed a white box to do it otherwise. I'd try Show 'N' Tell again (I hate the name of this dalia - all of those quotation marks). It's really incredibly heat resistant. You might have just received a bad tuber. I basically just feed my dahlias 5-10-10 and a foliar spray every month.
Also - although this one did fine it's first year, Fidalgo Julie just suffered tremendously it's first year but now it's fine.
I'm getting Iris in the mail now. Hard to believe it's already that time of year. My Bianco cultivars are in the mail now. I can't wait.
Great! I am partial to the cactus dahlias.
Joan
Beautiful dahlias, doss, I guess I am with everybody else, that Show n'Tell is outstanding.
Fidalgo Julie reminds me a little of one I have called Crazy Legs. Amazing how similar some are but that Show n' Tell is truly unique.
It always amazes me how some dahlias are so prolific producing lots of tubers, bloom etc and some just struggle so. I have a really sweet little pink pompon, Joanna Petit, who just barely survives and limps along each year.
As dahlias go I find I am partial to the waterlilies and formal decoratives.
FD's and WL's tend to bloom later in the season for me. Maybe it's just the cultivars I have. What do you think? Anyone have early bloomers in these forms. Don - you seem to have magic with early cultivars - or just magic.
hiya doss,
I don't really care that the photo is touched up. NONE of us can admit to having all of our favorite flowers properly imaged by a digital camera...ever. Your flower is just bloody fabulous!
I hope to get my hands on another tuber this year, yet I'm only feeding them compost during the growing season with periodic spritzes with maxicrop and silicon to save moisture. Your plants are amazing. I just love tuning into your threads so that I can glean more inspiration for my particular dahlia fetish....lol.
Heck, I named a dog dahlia...I should be shot.
really marvellous doss, thanks for sharing and I hope to see more from this plant.
don
This is Myrtle's Folly - It's totally round like a fuzzy ball.
It's about 6" wide - highly recommended.
'Show N Tell' (at the top of the thread) is carrying it's flowers at well over 6 feet so I'm bringing a lot of them in the house. It has 22 buds on it. And last year it bloomed well into October.
This message was edited Jul 20, 2005 1:48 PM
I'm just going into hiding until frost comes! The few blooms I have are mediocre. I'll just go back to Tomatoes and Coleus and cry my heart out!
WOW!! I just LOVE that 'Show 'N' Tell', Doss!
Oh my goodness, doss! I just love that 'Show n Tell!' Unreal!
I think I have it but am not sure. I sure hope so. I would love to bring that bloom into my house!!!
Oh, Pirl, is it too hot for dahlias there in NY? But you have your daylilies to cry by tho, lol! But tomatoes around here in Oregon aren't doing that great due to the cool summer up until this past week. So I can cry among my dahlias too, lol!
Carol
Waaaaa! I don't have 'Show 'N' Tell' :-(
That's OK everyone, Show N Tell takes off it's first year if it's happy and blooms all summer. Don you must try again. By royal decree. I'm so bossy. And my tree Dahlia is doing great. Where's your photo?
And don't despair if you're growing your first year tubers. The second year they almost always are hardier, bigger, more prolific....If you bought them from greenhouses already blooming in the nursery - it's a shock to them to bring them outside. I do recommend planting from tubers. The dahlia houses will be open for orders in August or September. Then they ship in spring. If you aren't sure about your climate be sure and ask. Different cultivars work better in different places. It's so amazing to see something with a 1" stem come out of a tuber the size of a miniature carrot. You can see why they are heavy feeders.
I have been feeding them rose food and I mulch with alfalfa pellets. Not directly on the tuber itself of course. I've had a terrible problem with leaf miners this year though. That's a new problem on the scene.
I'm afraid that I may have confused some of you, the red and yellow one is show n tell - the pink one is somebody else. I'll get the name tomorrow and edit the post with the photo on it.
This message was edited Jul 19, 2005 9:19 PM
Doss,
They are all beautiful but especially the Show N Tell. I want to order some dahlias for my mom in NC, zone 6/7. Do you have any other favorites? From what companies have you had good luck?
Thanks for the inspiration,
Chops
I've bought from Park's Dahlias
http://www.cruger.com/pkdcont.html
Dan's Dahlias
http://www.dansdahlias.com/Default.htm
Aztec Dahlias
http://www.aztecdahlias.com/
Swan Island Dahlias
http://www.aztecdahlias.com/
Accent Dahlias
http://dahliasuppliers.com/accent/
These are just the ones that I've used. Aztec tubers can seem smaller than the others but they perform just as well. I've only had a few dahlia tubers that I've purchased refuse to perform - they all will replace what doesn't work.
I love Kenora Superb - another very tall one. Semi-cactus, very golden. Stellyvonne - a lacianated very pale yellow. It is a wilter in my zone 9 climate but the flowers are worth it. Belle of Barmera - another semi-cactus - dark orange/red. Alfred Grille - an old standby. Yellow in the center and pink on the outside. The flowers aren't big but they're fabulous and it's a good producer. Chilson's pride which is pink and white, Edna C. - a very pale yellow and large.
I'll be posting as we go along and you'll see all of them before the dahlia houses open. I only have about 25. A few I don't think I'll grow again. Yellow Corvette is just too pale and too small for my taste for instance. It's a fun form though. I'm growing waterlily forms for the first time this year.
This message was edited Aug 4, 2005 2:17 PM
Myrtle's Folly is on fire! Beautiful, Dorothie, beautiful!
This is 'Kenora Superb". Another great performer. Growing next to 'Show N Tell' it's a great combo. It's as tall and the flowers are the same size. Definitely a back of the bed cultivar.
This is Show N Tell right now. I decided you should get my perspective. And no, I'm not laying on the ground. I'm 5' 3" and I'm pointing my camera up.
I didn't take a photo today but an interesting thing has happened. I had leaf miner so badly that I had to use rose systemic on them. Then I mulched them with alfalfa pellets. You have never seen any plant take off like they have. Well, maybe Don with all his wonderful available fertilizer. By the way Don, I'm spending all of my money on organic planting mix. But my plants are happy.
Anyway, whether it's the rose food or the alfalfa, my flowers are more intense in color. Strange.
Gorgeous plants, Doss! For some reason I always pictured you being about 5'10". Isn't it funny how we create a mental picture of someone and then they turn out totally opposite of what we were thinking. Glad to know we see eye to eye! LOL
It is funny how we build up pictures of people. I was lucky. I had photos of you hanging out in the iris fields with John. I think we see eye to eye on a lot of things. :-)
Dorothie,
Your dahlias are magnificent. Wonderful colors and forms.
I'm finally getting a few flowers but a two year old would be eye level with them!
You're 5'3". I imagined, the same as mgh, that you were a very tall woman - on the order of Julia Child. It is amazing how we come to our ideas on how people appear. :-))
I must have a more powerful personality than I thought. And Julia Child. I'm in good company.
Some of mine are only a couple of feet high too. Kenora Superb and Show N Tell are just huge and early.
This is 'Desert Lodge'. It has 4" flowers and is less than three feet tall.
Love that Desert Lodge. You have great bicolors in your dahlias, doss.
I do have a couple single colored ones. A border named 'Prince Charming', a collarette named 'Lucky Ducky" which I'm very not fond of. And a big Formal Decorative named Edna C., Calo Bells - I can't think of the others. But you can't beat those great colors when there are two together, can you?
I'm going to post Bumble Rumble again. It's just too much fun to look at.
It sure is.
Doesn't Bumble Rumble's petals look hand painted. Lovely! After seeing yours, believe me I won't be showing mine off. Besides, it hurts my back to bend so low!
I'm afraid that it's either the rose food or the alfalfa mulch - which I'm trying for the first time this year - don't get it on the stems or over the tubers. Or the California weather. Give old Bumble Rumble some time. The East coast is about a month behind us when it comes to plants maturing or blooming during the season. Aren't you clever to have it blooming at all. And if the flower is too low, cut it off and bring it in. I do it all the time. I always have some 'Show N' Tell' in. It's too tall to really be a good garden plant. Looks like a small tree with a poof of flowers on top. But it makes new ones as fast as you cut them.
And yes. It does look hand painted. It's one of the most fascinating things about it I think. Can you imagine the hybridizer walking out in the field one day and seeing that???
It's true to it's name too. The bumble bees love it.
Dorothie, 'Bumble Rumble' is beautiful. I grew little border dahlias a few years ago. They would come back each year.....then one year they didn't come back up. I had forgotten how much the bumble bees liked them. They really like the 'Pooh' dahlia that I have. It is a lot like 'Bumble Rumble', but different colors. When I tried to cut some of them to bring them in the house I really had to fight them to get a few! ;-)
They sure do come back as soon as you cut them. I cut a big bouquet yesterday and it looks like I hardly even touched my plants. I think I'll go cut another bouquet for my neighbor.
I've always had green eyes but now they're greener with jealousy!
Bumble Rumble is over three feet tall right now. It will definitely get to four feet. Maybe Pooh is smaller? I do like Pooh too. I had to do some chewing over that one this year. I opted for a waterlily form instead. I've never done a waterlily dahlia before.
Oh gee Doss! I have ten of them growing. I love them best. With the way we differ with certain plants, you're bound to dislike them!
Mine are about 2' tall and green. Someday my prince will come and someday my dahlias will bloom. Actually my prince and I are really wiped out and ready to retire for the night.
I'll dream of alfalfa meal and your dahlias.
Doss, Pooh is a big dahlia ; that is the bush it goes to 4 feet as well and the bloom is probably 4 inches across. And in my experience it produce a huge clump of tubers. I wonder if Bumble Rumble was someone's hybridization work or a seedling. I am not absolutely certain of this but I think Swan Island Dahlias out here in Canby, Oregon doesn't really do any hybridization, they just grow a ton of seedlings from their own saved seed.
Pirl, no wonder you are all done in after being on that homegarden tour just a couple of weeks ago. Everything just looked spectacular and boy do I wish I could have been there. You are so blessed to have your prince right in there with you. My hubby does a few things for me but on the farm in the summer his work is understandly elsewhere.
Lenjo: one of my favorite memories is of my granddaughter, years ago, telling her friends about her Grandpa's "farm". The "farm" is 20 x 40 with a separate asparagus patch of 12 x 12, a row of berries 40' long and an herb garden. So much for the "farm" in Southold.
Thanks for the nice words about our tour but it's the daylily deadheading that becomes exhausting. I was out there three hours today. I stopped twice for a rest. Old age isn't all it's cracked up to be!
It's nicer to be inside, cool, clean and looking at Doss and the dahlias.
Sorry, I misunderstood again. And again. I thought that Pooh was tall too. Guess when border is in the same paragraph...(lol)
And what's the difference between seed collecting and hybridizing? Is it a matter of method?
Pirl - About the waterlilies (lol) You think that they might be too refined for my taste? I know gaudy, gaudy, gaudy.
Doss and Pirl,
I love the waterlily dahlias. I think they may be a little refine. That is a very good word to use for describing them.
Doss, I do love your dahlias tho. I do love the bi-color ones too. Yours are wild and I do like that. They would look great in bouquets in the house with many different colors of dahlias.
Carol
