General Dahlia Chat 2024

Krista · 2024-01-05T01:50:48+00:00

When do we grow up and stop ordering more tubers than we can possibly fit into the space we have, for the next season? Is that something I can look forward t...

MIDahlias

Does anyone know if Triple Wren doesn't have a picture of a dahlia do they have a generic picture they use? I was looking and Sandia Ruthie. The picture on TW isn't a Stellar. I'm wondering if it's a generic picture or if Sandia Ruthie blooms vary.

Juliarugula

MIDahlias The picture on TW isn't a Stellar

I noticed that too. We had Sandia Ruthie at the Midwest trial garden and the form was very consistently stellar throughout the season, like the Birch Bay photos. I would almost think Triple Wren had a labeling mistake, but the color is similar enough it makes me curious…

I’ve never noticed TW using a generic placeholder-type photo before, so I doubt that’s it.

Teddahlia

We have never forgotten to take a nice picture of a new variety. And we will be selling blue dahlias next year.

KitCMC

Is there a cuttings thread?

Krista

KitCMC Does this one work?

Cosey

MIDahlias Are tubers with excellent crowns, worth saving if the skin pealed off?

Leave them out to heal and dry off for a day or two. They will be fine. Plant as normal.

Dahlia53

Cosey thank you. I never knew whether to throw them out if some skin had peeled off the necks. I'll try drying and planting. Would that apply if the skin has also peeled off where the eyes are? I always tossed them in the past.

bloomhjelm

Not sure where to put this but I've been spending time between dahlia sales looking at AU dahlia sale websites. I'm saving photos of their interesting varieties in case I ever make an Australian friend or learn how to hybridize toward a similar goal, whatever comes first.

Juliarugula

bloomhjelm whoa. That Samoan Prince is weird. I think … I might not like it. And I really like weird dahlias.

ETA: I googled images of it, and I think the colors shown in the photo are an artifact of the lighting. Most photos show it as a variegated purple which is much more reasonable.

janell

bloomhjelm With Warren Vigor, former president of the Dahlia society of Australia, having married a Hoosier and residing at least part of the year in Indiana, maybe some of your dreams may come true.

blown_dry

bloomhjelm Wow! Thanks so much for sharing these. It may just be the lighting that makes it look so unusual, but Samoan Prince is weird in a way that I would buy.

MissyWeitzel

janell They're in MI and trust me, I've asked. lol

janell

MissyWeitzel oops. I knew they were in the Elkhart, IN club and made a bad assumption

Juliarugula

janell I knew they were in the Elkhart, IN club and made a bad assumption

Are you in the Elkhart club? (I was at the meeting this past Saturday- wondering if we crossed paths!)

calico20hill

@"blown_dry"A flower like that is a wonderful incentive to create an arrangement around it! I would love to try!

janell

Juliarugula I am not. I am only a few hours from Elkhart and met Rhonda at the Midwest meeting last June. A couple enthusiastic dahlia friends are in the Elkhart club though. Do you know Melinda or Karen?

Bessie

I saw an almost all white picture of Que Sera here : https://www.microflowerfarm.com/store/p/que-sera
Another grower(and most web pics) shows a much more lavender flower:
https://www.goldenrodgardens.net/dahliatubers/05q20jk8kswdxyli64w9qyh88xnhft?rq=Que%20sera
I know anemone flowers are not known for being a good cut flower. Does anyone have experience growing Que Sera that would like to offer their experience growing it?

Juliarugula

Bessie I know anemone flowers are not known for being a good cut flower.

I don’t grow many anemones for this reason. But I love Bloomquist Ginnie and Golden, and grow both of those and sometimes throw them into my household bouquets. Ginnie cracks me up, because she doesn’t really fade or droop or shatter when her vase life ends. Instead, she’ll look great until one day you’ll hear a “plop” and look over and the entire flower head will have simply fallen off the stem, all at once, completely intact.

AndreaB

Bessie I grew it this past summer. It was mostly white with touches of purple. It never really thrived, but I think that was partially due to some shading by BQ Golden. I remember it being just so-so. I never took a picture of it, so that tells me I didn’t care for it too much. I also didn’t dig it, so it was a one and done for me!

Teddahlia

I was getting excited about breeding anemones until I figured out there is a physical limit on their size. The disc florets often called tubes are petals that surround the pollen part of the flower. The pollen center on dahlias can only be about an inch or so in diameter and perhaps a bit bigger. That limits the size of the flowers. They also are difficult to pollinate because tubes interfere. Remember there was an Australian breeder who tried for about 10 years to get some really nice ones. He would post pictures of the best ones every year.

blown_dry

The largest anemone I have seen is Richard's Fortune, a Dutch variety. It really got my attention that way. It is 4-5 inches. Comet is probably the next largest that I've seen. It's too bad about the limitations as I would absolutely grow a giant anemone. 🙂
Richard's Fortune:

Teddahlia

Our club orders some things in bulk to get a good price for our members. That was one of the reasons we joined the club in about 1992. In those days people were strictly "chemical" growers and anything that fertilized or killed pests was fair game. The hot new product for group buying was called "Rose Systemic" and it came in a bag like fertilizer and was a combination of fertilizer, insecticide and fungicide. Of course we bought a bag and in today's dollars it would have been about $50.00. It was the smelliest, chemical stinking crap I have ever smelled. I almost fainted as I open the bag. Perhaps that was the marketing ploy back when"If it stinks enough it must be good" . Your question is "Did it work?" Atomic bombs work well too and yes it worked as long as it still stunk. That was our first and last bag of "Rose Systemic".
This year we are buying 10 bags of germination mix. I wonder what we will do with it?
2022 seedling that grows tall(over 6 feet) and is a miniature flower that looks really good but does fade a bit.

MissyWeitzel

I love Sandia Brocade! I ordered several new-to-me anemones for this season including Sandia Pouffe, which I'm pretty excited about. My challenge with anemone dahlias is trying to take a good photo of them. No matter which angle I try from, it just doesn't look very good.

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