Do I let them ALL grow? question about dahlias.....

My dahlia tubers are all coming up now and they each have 3 to 6 stalks coming up. I planted one tuber to a pot. I think they pots are plenty big for the actual tuber to triple in size without touching any sides. Should I allow all the stalks to grow or do I need to only allow the nicest, strongist one to grow? Also, please let me know if they need to be pinched and how. I understood the terminal buds (when they come) could be pinched off to create a larger central bloom. Here's what one was looking like a week ago.

You can pinch once when the plants are 18-24" tall to create a bushier plant if you like. I always restrict growth to one or two stems per tuber.

Thanks for the reply.....it seems there are not very people interested in dahlias on Dave's Garden. Most of the posts about them seem to go unanswered.

Sunshines2day,
I have noticed that there isn't a lot of dahlia growers here on DG's either.
I have grown dahlias for several years and I talked with a dahlia grower here in the valley about your question. They sell their tubers and cut flowers at the Farmers Market.
They said you can just let them grow. If you want, you can pinch back each stem when they get their 3-4 true leaves. But they don't do this. They just let each stem grow to produce flowers, especially for their cut flower sales. But if you want only a few very good strong stems and flowers, you can pinch.
I don't pinch. I just let them grow. I don't know if you dig up your tubers each year and that can make a difference too. I don't dig up mine so far. I have left them in the ground in a raised bed and mulch them very high with mint compost and they have survived the winters.
I see you say that you are growing the dahlias in a pot. I have done this too but they do like being in the ground much better for root sytem wise and for constant water too.
I don't know if this helps you or not. But let me know if you have any more questions. I am not an expert but I do enjoy dahlias very much. My grandfather grew them when I was a kid and I loved them then so I decided to grow them myself. I love bringing in the cut flowers and putting them in vases.
Attached is a lousy picture of one of my dahlias from last year. I need to do better pics this year.
Carol

Oh, she's a beauty! And I think it's a vry nice photo! Thank you for sharing.

This will be my first year for Dahlias. A neighbor gave me some border dahlia tubers at the end of last season and I have been patiently waiting to plant them. I finally put them to grounds 2 weeks ago, only to hear that I was a tad on the early side. Now I'm just praying they will survive a few cold nights.

Wish me luck!

Janice they will grow without any problems from the cold as it is the ground temp that affects them untill they are up. You can speed the bulb up by sticking the roots on a tray of sand and putting in a warm place to wake them up. I have gotten away from digging mine but I bury with saw dust. Ernie

another

can't say my pics are pretty but the flower is in real life

Here are some pics of my dahlias last year, both single plant and one of the raised beds.
Carol

Here is the raised bed with dahlias.
Just to give you an idea what they look like if not pinched.
Carol

not a favorite but some like it

Eweed,
I like the one you list not a favorite. It looks different colors. Haven't seen one with these colors before.
If you would like to ever trade, just let me know.
I have a bunch of tubers 2 weeks ago, that I got from a guy who was selling them for 25 cents each, who has been growing them for 45 years. Some names on them and some not. Some have eyes and a lot don't. Tubers are small but should be ok.
Carol

a jungle

Ernie - I love your jungle. And I REALLY want a piece of that orange and white one. Please, please, PLEASE! I'm sure I have something you NEED! LOL!

Ernie,
Your "jungle" looks great. Your dahlia bed must years old compared to mine which is only a year old.

Sequee, I liked that one first! Hehe!
But yes, if you, Ernie, ever have extra tubers I would love one toooooo!
Carol

Do the remember thing and ask me in the fall if it returned this year since I have lost interest in digging them every year one never knows. Ha if It were the old days with a stake by every one I would go dig it up right now.

This is horse Feathers I like it. Ernie

oops this is not horse feathers but I like it anyway

This message was edited May 8, 2005 11:14 AM

I liked it first - you just have faster fingers than me. LOL!

Well, Ernie - you are way out-voted on the "not a favorite"! It's soooo pretty.

Daisy the amount of stalks comming from under the ground are determined by the eyes on the roots nothing to do with pinching. I only pinch buds off leaving the center bud to grow bigger than if left alone. What I see in your pic are plants that have enough leaves for sugar production lol and remain open so the flowers will develope right and not be shaded. I never fertilize and if I did I would sure not use fertilizer with a high nitrogen count because then you would get so much vegatation you would have a hard time seeing the flowers.People who are really in to these things spend hours disbudding but they are usualy people who take them to shows. I know one Lady who even puts a sun screen over her show flowers so the sun wont bleach the color.

Ok back to work now Ernie

You really have a beautiful collection. I can't beleive I never noticed dahlias before. Silly, silly me!

Wow DG has at least 4 enthussiasts Thanks for the pics and information. This will be year 2 for dahlias for me. It's my fourth year for an actual flower garden, but I discovered dahlis last year with a purchase from a catalog. I haven't (or don't recall) seeing anyone growing them here, and only occasioanally see a dinnerplate with one single bloom sort of folded over itself at the nursery. My first experience was really fun, I just kinda took a likin' to these gals. The anticipation of the "will it open today?" to the "it's still perfect!" a week after it's full bloom got me excited to try more. In my area they will not winter, as far as I know, and I will have to dig and store them. That's why I choose pots for this season, I figured it would be much more likely to get done. I've got pre-placed stakes already in the pots and they grow an inch a day. ( I wish they were coming up nearer to the stakes!) What I learn this season will only make next year's blooms a little stronger.

I'd like to see more pics, there is a tremendous variety in this family and I just can't get enough.

Linda

there are thousands and thousands of this flower I once had over a hundred of them but lately I have been shifting to more of what I really like and less of what is so so. These are magnificant mixed with lillys and a small sunflower and a couple of glads and some pampas grass and walla you have a seventy five buck arrangement lol not by me though Linda has the touch for that and btw she admits to being spoiled and even calls her self miss piggy for the flowers I grow that she gets a keen interest in about harvest time lol. I hope I didn't click on a previously clicked on one. Ernie

This message was edited May 8, 2005 8:36 PM

Linda,
Dahlias are my favorite flowers. They are fairly easy to grow, don't need a lot of care, look great in the garden, and also the flowers in a vase in the house is a bonus every day of the summer!
I am like Ernie now on what I really like as far as the type of dahlias. My favorites are the water lilies types.
How cold does it get in Texas in the winter? If it is like here in the Northwest, I think you could just mulch them real good, like 4-5", they should survive the winters just fine. We do get into the teens at times, lots of 32 degrees but mostly in the 35-45 degrees in the winter.
I don't know if people out there don't grow dahlias because they have to be dug most other places in the US, but I consider them easy to grow.
Carol

I love Dahlias too!
eweed your pictures are wonderful.I have lived in many places and have had gardens in most of them.My best Dahias were grown near Tel Aviv Israel.They were so easy,no lifting carefree.Now I have a garden in the mountains of NC.where they are grown in a big way for cut flowers etc.There I have to lift and store the tubers but it is worth every minute I spend with them.Last year I planted tubers down here at the beach in coastal south carolina.The flowers were puny compared with the others I have grown and I thought I wouldn't waste time with them again but they are popping up all over again.Maybe the flowers will be better this time but I don't thing so.It's just too hot and humid.Thanks for the pictures.

I've steered away from the dahlias because they have to be dug up each year. My gardens/border/yard/jungle, etc. are full of poison ivy and I am highly allergic, so I've pretty much let everything go. I have EarthBoxes and Large Pots for my veggies, and grow the occasional flower in a pot. A few weeks ago I planted the dahlias and a few canna - clothed in long-sleeves, long pants, shoes, socks and 2 pairs of gloves. I woke up the next day with both eyes swollen shut, have of my face blistered and red, my nose swollen to twice its size, and PI covering my forearms! Even my ears were swollen. After 2 weeks on steroids, I was almost "normal" again, but it was pretty awful at the time. I just ordered a bee-keepers outfit. Hopefully that will do the trick. I don't think I'd care to go through that again. It's pretty scary waking up with no vision - especially when your bedroom is upstairs and you live alone!

So...these babies better be mighty purty!

daisyruffles, my favorites are the water lilies types too.

My mother always had 2 rows of dahlias in her vegetable garden. One year after her husband died, she had someone disc the garden and she had not dug the tubers the previous fall, zone 6a. That year she had hundreds of dahlias everywhere!

Darius,
What a great story!
Is amazing on how hardy plants can be. That must have been interesting to see growing with the tubers all over.

Sequee, oh my, you poor thing. We have poison oak here in the NW so I know how you feel. My son had it bad a few years ago, all over his legs and feet. It was horrible and took several months to get rid of it. So I hope the dahlias will be worth it all. But I am sure they will be. They always look so good.

Downscale_babe, I wonder if you mulch your dahlias real good and keep them water heavily that they would be happier? They do like their water, that is for sure.

Onward, dahlia land!
Carol

I just found this thread, and I've certainly enjoyed everyone's lovely dahlia pics!

I tried some last year in a really big pot (figured it would make them easier to "lift" in fall), but unfortunately I didn't know that dahlias hate wind, so they were looking pretty tatty by the end of the summer. Then the pot drain holes got clogged during a wet week when we were away, and bye-bye tubers. I may try them again sometime, but I think they would need their own little raised bed with a border or something so I'd know just where the tubers were when it was time to dig them up -- my perennial beds are in a pretty haphazard state right now, definitely a work in progress!

Sequee, I'm so sorry you're badly allergic to poison ivy! Me too -- no fun! I'm battling it in our "fence row" of trees at the back of the yard, and I'm about ready to just spray brush killer on every green thing back there all summer this year! Unfortunately, it's been growing back there for so long, I'm sure the oil is all through the soil etc. I've had some luck using a product called "Ivy Block" that goes on like sunscreen 15 minutes before you head outside. Of course, I also wear pants, long sleeved shirt, etc, and everything gets immediately & carefully stripped off and tossed straight into the washer when I come inside, then I head for the shower and scrub down with phel's naptha soap. Needless to say, I mostly stay out of the trees!

I have Ivy Block and Technu in my arsenal, but have found both to be totally ineffective. I just ordered some Green Glove which is supposed to go on liquid, then form a "skin glove" that you peel off. Between that and the bee keeper outfit, I should at least be able to go outside - lol! The year before last I ended up in the hospital IN THE MIDDLE OF WINTER!!! Seemed like a good time to do some tree trimming, but apparently the PI vines had dried up on the limbs and fell all over me. So, it's 11 degrees out and I have the worst case of PI the ER attendents had ever seen. It was inside my nostrils and I was having the devil of a time breathing. The doctor asked if I found a big patch and went rolling in it - LOL! Yeah, real funny - I sure felt like laughing - NOT! Seriously, we've been spraying it for 3 years now and it just continues to spread. We even tackled one area with Triox. It's gotten to the point where it's the PI or me. Hence forward, I will hire someone to come out and do the Spring clean-up. I just can't go through that! And the dahlias are staying in ground! Forever! I have gazillions of Maple Trees (to the tume of 172 bags every fall!), so I cn give them a nice, thick layer of mulch, then hope for the best. And, by Jove - these puppies better be at least half as pretty as ya'lls!

Yes, even those "dead" vines can rub plenty of oil on you. Also be careful when you dig in an area where PI has been, as the oil seems to build up & persist in the soil. I got a pretty good case of it one spring in Chicago, all over my legs.... and I hadn't been near the woods for months! I happened to mention to the doctor that I hadn't gotten close to nature than sitting by Botany Pond, so I was baffled by the outbreak..... he asked, had I been sitting under the ginko tree?? Apparently ginko fruit (and mango skins too, BTW) have the same chemical compound in them as poison ivy, and although it was too early for fresh fruit, the ginko fruits had been falling to the ground by the pond for many years and had just permeated the soil there.

You also have to be very careful about what you burn in your fireplace!

BTW - Can anyone tell me how long it would"normally" take before I would notice a sign of growth from my newly planted Dahlias? They've been out about 3 weeks, but we did have a couple of weekends with cool temps. Will this hinder their growth?

Yes, Sequee, they will come. Just be patient.
Most of mine have come up but finally this past weekend, some late comers showed their tops. The dahlias do like warm weather to come above the ground.
Carol

I'm a 6b, so we're lagging a tad behind ya! It was only in the low 50's this weekend, and bitterly windy. Yesterday and today are in the 70's, so now I'm thinking - hello! Rise and shine ladies! LOL! (I never was any good at that patience-thing!)

Seems like mine in 6b didn't poke through the ground until mid June, and started blooming in late August.

Darius, They really don't start blooming until August? Oh my, that seems so late to me. I start having blooms by the middle of June up to November. Guess that is why the NW is good for growing things.
Out of curiosity, if you start them in pots with just a thin layer of soil or sawdust and then plant them in the ground like now, would they bloom earlier? I have done this with the tubers so I know which ones will have eyes.
Carol

LOL LOL! Guess I should stop the twice a day inspections then - LOL! It's just not fair that our growing season isn't longer. Whaa-whaa-whaa!

Carol, that's the difference in zones. I have no idea if starting them in pots would work, and I'm in a non-gardening phase this year, planning to move once again.

Oh, Darius! Not again! that sticks... I know how hard you worked getting this place livable. Darn! Hope you find happy digs. No pun intended!

Thanks... turns out I'm allergic to the residue from the heat my landlord installed (unvented propane) as well as the mold inside the walls. Hospitalized three times now in 6 months. : (

Holy cow! Time to git on out! Any luck finding a new place?

Haven't even started to look yet. I'm thinking maybe a different state, maybe even a different country. Somewhere my US social security dollars will go farther, maybe even to the end of the month, LOL.