Any dahlias lovers out there in DG

I have quite a few dahlias, anybody else like this flower, i know she is technically a tuber but they are such a wonderful flower. The neat thing is that the only true way to get the same flower is to save the tuber. Technically every seedling is genetically different and you can grow them quite easily from seed and come up with your own new variety and name it yourself. Mine will start flowering soon here.

I love Dahlias.....have about 80 varieties, want to have more but don't have anymore room.

By the way, how is the Oregon Garden coming along? I've driven through Mt. Angel quite a few times.....pretty little place.

My goodness, bleek, what a small world!!!! I live about 5 miles east. The garden is coming along great, I have visited a few times, the variety up there is phenomenal.What brought you to Mt. Angel?

I love dahlias!!! I can't ever afford the tubers, so this year I bought a pack of unwin dwarf seeds, and I have just been so happy with them. They're 18" tall and every color in the rainbow. I've got true reds, yellow with orange streaks, pure yellow, maroon, lovely flowers. They aren't as showy as the big tubers you find at the garden center, but are a great border for my raised wall. I'm going to save the tubers, but am going to save some seeds as well to see what they turn out like.

Seed Dahlia's can be very nice, colorful an inexpensive, but you never get perfect flowers. The centers of the flowers are always incomplete. Maybe someone ought to do a Dahlia Co-op??

I have family in Scio and when I am there I always tour the area. I also always visit Schreiner's when they have their open house. Visit it on a Sunday morning when the harp player is playing and you never want to leave.

Met someone on the airplane to Europe who was a gardening fanatic and I send her quite a few Hosta's....she was from Silverton.

Always visit the St. Joseph's Wine Cellars in Canby.

I won't complain about these. One pack of seeds for 95 cents, and I got all this (and a few that aren't blooming today)
http://davesgarden.com/editgj/viewentry.php?rid=17819

I have enough really 'showy' plants and these are just perfect for me. Do love the showy ones, but just can't always afford everything:)

I'm a big Dahlia fan. We have some superb Dahlia nurseries here and I can't think of a cultivar I don't like. I prefer to buy them as cuttings in the spring, much cheaper, the large tubers tend to dry out too quickly in the packets.

This year we are trying a new introduction called Dark Desire, also growing several other named cultivars (will dig out the list later) and I've managed to aquire some true seed of Dahlia merckii for next year.

tiG the seed Dahlias are lovely and we've overwintered several of ours (Redskin) from last year.

I like dahlias too and had a few planted last year. Unfortunately, I left my tubers in the ground over winter, so I don't have any this year. If I plant seeds, will they grow tubers that I can dig up in the fall?

Yes they will Nmax.

Thanks Baa! I don't know if there is enough of this growing season left, but I will try it. If not, there's always next year.

SwaN Island dahlias out here in Canby, Oregon is a huge producer, they have about 50 acres and they have a wonderful show over Labor Day weekend. Last year I bought a packet of seed from them for $10 and they said it would be 100 seeds but it was more like a 500 seeds, I didn't plant the whole pack but I have probably planted out 100 of these. I am anxious to see what we get, this is how Swan Island gets some of their varieties. Their website is dahlias.com. It is worth taking a look.

wow, I'll have to get seeds from them next year, thanks for the link. Ordered a catalog.

Nmax

You could sow now but personally I'd wait until next March to sow them, they won't need looking after overwinter that way and you'll get a long season of blooms too.

My DH is a Dahlia freak!He loves them,but they do get expensive.He has his OWN dahlia garden which we enlarged so I can put brugs in it(what a guy)He likes the ball and poms,I like the dinnerplate and cactus.Some of ours are just starting to bloom,some that I have tagged as one thing are not coming out what they were suppose to be.So now its a surprize.I do have a problem with keeping them over the winter,they either dry up or get moldy.Cant seem to find the trick.Love to try to grow some from seeds.Tig ,yours look great!

CrestedChik

I posted up an old gardeners way of keeping them over winter last year. Once they're ready to store, wrap them in sacking and put them in an almost mature compost heap. Cover over with a bit more compost or carpet. Another way is to keep flowers of sulphur in their overwintering boxes, if you can get flowers of sulphur in the USA that is.

The Swan Island catalog gives great information about storage, growing, fertilizing etc. They just need to be above freezing and slightly moist as they will dry up and wither, so they say to put them into peat moss or cedar shavings. They even sell a wonderful little pencil that allows you to write right on the tuber what its name/color is. Your tuber needs to be a little damp for the pencil to work really well. It only costs a dollar. that was always a problem we had trouble with how to more easily label them. There are other smaller growers out here that I have gotten tubers from too and usually cheaper, some of the varieties will be the same as Swan Island but cheaper.There is Frey's and they are at www.landscapeusa.com There is also Connell's up in Tacoma, Washington and they are www.connells-dahlias.com. My dh is a huge dahlia fan too and takes care of ours. Maybe there is a way we could post lists of what we have and maybe do some trading. I wish I had picture capability but I don't at this time. Ours are just starting, we probably have a 100 varieties.I love the waterlily dahlias, pompons, and balls. Joann

About 20 years ago, a girl at work brought in a true dark purple dinnerplate dahlia. It was gorgeous. I persuaded her to dig out her tubers and share them. I happily planted my booty from her but nothing came up. She left work so I never heard if hers came back..I have been looking for this color now for 20 years to no avail. I have always been afraid that she had a very unique color and I caused it to be lost to the world. Has anyone ever seen a true, deep purple dinnerplate?

Baa,
If I remember I will find the address of a place in Berkeley that sells flowers of sulfur. I buy it for my work.

What is it?

Crestedchik, I am not sure what it is. a yellow powder. Baa may know. We use it in an acne treatment where I work. I never heard of it being used on plants before.

They heat sulphur and collect the vapour which is condensed to make the fine powder Kell mentioned there. I don't know why it's called flowers of sulphur though.

Sulphur has a good fungicidal action, here in the UK Roses never had blackspot in regions where sulphur was used in local factories. The powder is used to dust stored bulbs to prevent and/or cure fungus problems. It is also used to bring down the Ph of the soil if needed and is useful on tree wounds where a limb has been sawn off. You may even find it in the ingredients of a fungicide (if they list them). Not a chemical to be taken lightly though as it can have a strong purgative effect if ingested.

Kell

I had no idea they used it in cosmetics, I think I'm old enough now not to use any spot treatments (Thank Goodness LOL)

It seems that Dahlia classifications are different in the US, I've not heard of a Dinnerplate Dahlia, I looked it up and it's like out Decorative Dahlias. I've not seen a deep purple one though, must be a stunner.

Lenjo, I have not been a dahlia lover before now, but having recently seen some stunning dahlias, I'd love to learn about them. My mother always had a cutting garden of dahlias but I seldom visited when they were in bloom... and wasn't interested in gardening then anyway.

Thanks, everyone for the tips posted here!

Darius, as bulbs/tubers go dahlias are great because they just keep blooming if deadheaded until frost, where a lily or tulip, a true bulb, gives you basically one stem and or one flower. And the tubers multiply generally fairly quick. I still loves lilies, tulips, and daffodils even if you get the one time crop.Have fun, there is so much variety here too. Joann

Joann, do you dig your tubers up? I have not, and they come back. and multiply like crazy....I had one plant, left it in for several years, then went to dig the plant up and move it....oh my goodnes....there were maybe 25 tubers.....I separated and moved them to about 5-6 different spots. It was incredible. then last year, I didvided my dinnerplate dahlia, and had quite a few tubers develop on that also. I traded those away...and still had plenty for two plantings.

Yes, Pebble we do dig up the tubers. You know we usually don't lose tubers here because of freezing but more because of rot with all the rain we get here in the winter.Our ground is a little heavier and so we don't want to chance losing them. I have left some in the ground before and had them return,but for consistency we dig them up. We are stilling learning how to store them. Last year we kept them in an outbuilding and they shriveled some, we probably will try peat moss or cedar shavings this year. We have nice plastic crates to put them in.Joann

I got free a Cactus Dalia "Jenny" with my bulb order this past spring - - and now I am hooked. Does anyone know of a link to explain how to split the tubors. I can't seem to find the eyes although it sure has a lot of new "fingers". :)

Thanks!!

Alyssum,
I have the same problem with my dahlias here is Ga. Sometimes I don't dig then up but I lose some both ways. I can never figure out where the eyes are if they are not really pronounced. We have had rain so much the last few weeks that my yard is full of dahlias this late, they are just blooming. I have found several great dahlia sites on line by just running a search for dahlias. Cheryl

It's best to divide the tubers in spring as the new growth starts. Right now they are just finishing up collecting the starches they need for winter. A small tuber finger may not have enough oomph in there to get a start in spring if you cut them off now.

The eyes are up on the stems and are very small, I was told they are very visible for a few hours after digging but otherwise do as Baa suggests, wait till spring when they begin to grow. Alyssum if interested I have a few (15) varieties for sell this spring. My DD made us a brochure and I am just trying to "support my habit" by selling a few of our extra tubers. We are trying to stay very reasonable. Joann

I'd be interested in seeing the brochure,my DH LOVEs dahlias

Thanks for the tips every one - - and Lenjo, go ahead and pop that brochure in the box when we do our bulb trade. :)

Found this Fabulous Dahlia site..........I'm sure thinking order, order, order!! http://www.dahlias.com/



"eyes"

WWWWWOW

Think we can get a CoOp on these??? I sure would like to have one of those collections, or maybe we could get them to offer a collection for us.

"eyes"

I may be interested . . .let me know if you decide to do it!

Eyes, I don't know how much of a price break they will give you for a huge order. It might be easier to order individually. They have various collections that make them a bit cheaper, I also emailed you about this.

If you go a co-op I'll go in on it!

I put out the 4 bucks for the catalog......

Lenjo, got your catalogue and I love the dahlias you are selling........... if I order some now when will I get them? In the spring? Your prices are great!!

Yes, we will send them in the spring in April probably. We finally had a hard frost and the dahlias are black. Next week we will be digging etc.
Kell, the hard frost just kind of snuck up on us and I am feeling kind of disappointed. I have lost some new starts that were in my greenhouse. It was about 15 degrees here one night and my greenhouse is cold. My baby tibouchina bit the dust and the 6 angel's trumpets look pretty bad too. I just was caught off guard.

oh that is too bad! That is pretty cold for so early. I am afraid the same thing will happen to me. We are building a cheap GH called a hoop house to keep the frost off.........but are waiting to get the clamps. Just my luck, I ordered from Charlies Greehhouse just for the clips and then got sucked into buying a few other things. I get the box thursday and they send all the stuff I did not really need and backordered the clips. So I am hoping it stays nice till next weekend.
In the spring I will send you more brugs if yours die. How would you have kept them warm enough? I would think the GH itself should have kept it warm enough. at least that is what I am hoping in my unheated GH!!!