Whoo Hoo! First Dahlia Bud of 2009

My friend DonnyBrook in FL grew this from seed and lookie, lookie its got a nice big bud. I think this is a sign that the 'Wakening of Dahlias Festival' may have to be bumped up in the calendar.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=6071977

That is awesome. Dahlianut how "zone envy" are we??? LOL

No kiddin! and as you know DonnyBrook is excited too because she started this from seed. I have no problem living vicariously through other people's dahlias when I'm under 2 feet of snow. I have no pride LOL.

Dalianut - You have my full support (because your in zone 3a)

Look at those leaves! I won't see anything like that here even in zone 7 until late June or early July. Oh to live in a sunshine state!

Wow, its like the light at the end of the long dark tunnel! :)

Hi Dahlia and everyone else!! Thank you for appreciating my excitement at my very first dahlia seedling baby!!! In our NH garden last summer, I grew some lovely dahlias from tubers given to me by a friend. While I do lots of gardening, dahlias were something I tried to resist because we come to Fla. in October, and I already have caladiums and glads to dig with a bad back. But they were so pretty (photo attached) that I got hooked. I'll bet you can all understand that, huh? When we arrived in Fla. I bought a packet of "mixed dwarf dahlia" seeds and thought, "hmmmm, maybe I can do this, and just maybe they can stay down in Fla." I had great success in the number of plants that germinated. I now have about 16 babies planted in various gardens in my Fla. garden and you are witness to my very first bloom! I can't wait to see what each flower looks like!

I wish I could send you all some of our sunshine and blooms. Today it's really chilly, if it takes away some of your envy!! LOL Thanks, Dahlianut!!
Louise

I sure won't see any blooms for a looooonnngg time. It would freeze the dahlia's butt off. :)

shoot. Flordia not that far from me and even it wil be logn time before a bloom shows here of anything.

Maybe Dahlias are tougher than I read them to be.

Donna.. Congrats on all yoru enw sedlings, hope each one brings you lots and lots of joy and thanks for
bringing a breath of fresh air through. sure is pretty! : )

Funny, Makshi!! Quite an image! LOL

Thank you so much, Starlight!! That's very sweet, and I am sure I will get lots of joy from each of them. I do think the dahlias are pretty tough cookies! When I left NH in late October, it just killed me to pull up my dahlias that still had blooms about to pop in really cold temps. They're very nice plants, aren't they?!

Look, Look!! Flowers!!! I had to do the "hand shot" thing because their little heads were hanging down for the camera....shy when you are still a baby, I guess!

and a pink one....

another baby.........

Cute, DonnieBrook! I like the little two fingerwidths-wide pink one. So dainty. And the petals on the last rich pink one, an interesting little scallop to their ends isn't it? Haven't seen that very often. Such variety in these little treasures. Happy Valentine's present for you!

Very prettiful DonnieBrook. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks, Dahlia and Poochella! Happy Valentine's Day to you both! What is fun is that my very good friend and former next door neighbor in Conn. arrived today for a nice long visit. She had a huge garden of dahlias when they lived next door, and she shared some of her tubers with me (that froze before they ever got planted). sniff. So, how lovely that my seedlings decided to open just in time for her arrival! A peachy one just opened this morning. It is not easy to get a nice shot of them, given how small they are and how the flowers face the ground. What's that all about???

Donnie pretty little dahlias. Happy Valentine Day to all.

awwwww look at the little babies. : ) have ya named em yet?

Got more pics. So nice to see what folks have.

Happy Valentines!

How wonderful that the dahlias bloomed in time for guests. About hanging their little heads dirt-ward: perhaps the seedlings didn't get the best genes for strong stems. You might try jazzing them up with some extra fertilizer, per this article. http://www.midislanddahlia.com/Learning/NADC/Myths1&2.html
They aren't drying out too much that their stems are a bit dehydrated are they? They don't look wilty at all, but Florida sun can be a bit overwhelming to the best tended dahlia, I hear.

Or disbud, if you aren't already.
http://www.scdahlias.org/howto/index.cgi?howto=disbudding

Thank you, Makshi and Starlight!

Poochella - those links were both so helpful! I think I may indeed need to fertilize them more. I am a newbie to dahlias, so I appreciate lots of helpful info like you gave me. Thanks! I also was not aware of the need for disbuding and will do that as well. I'll hopefully have some "improved" versions of these guys to post at some point! LOL