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...

Juliarugula

Teddahlia Hollyhill Walla Walla would make me laugh. I’m with you on Hollyhill Oregon City though.

Krista

Teddahlia 🤣 🧅
And an abbreviated “Hollyhill O.C.” might get erroneously claimed by the SoCal growers.

Teddahlia

O.C. was a nice place to visit the last time we were there about 20 years ago.

bloomhjelm

Hollyhill Beavers? 😃

I think Oregon has lots of dahlia names from nature and place names that sound pretty. Marionberry, chanterelle, Florence, Astoria.

I think we avoided a frost up here in King County, WA this week so I have more time for blooms and photos and seed pods. I did take down my tomatoes just because I was sick of tomatoes.

calico20hill

bloomhjelm That reminds me...I better harvest all my tomatoes today before possible rain moves in. I've sure been enjoying a few BLT's this season! Next year I hope my basil does a bit more to go with the tomatoes...

Emilyp

calico20hill Have you tried Everleaf Basil? It does so good for me all season. It is compact, and doesn't flower until the end of the season.

Juliarugula

Emilyp Have you tried Everleaf Basil

I was even able to grow it in Houston without it bolting in the summer!

calico20hill

I will have to look for that Basil. The one I grew this year did not smell at all like basil and was not something I wanted on my tomato slices.

Juliarugula

calico20hill my guess is you had a cinnamon or Thai basil. Very pretty in arrangements, but not great with tomatoes (at least that’s what I think).

Everleaf or perpetual basil tastes pretty much like regular basil, although I feel like the leaves are a little tough - best chopped up small.

calico20hill

Juliarugula Yes, It was a Thai Basil. I thought it might be nice in bouquets but I didn't use any. Next year Will definitely go for Italian Basil. We missed it.

calico20hill

I just made the executive decision that we will NOT go to the Portland Dahlia Show today. We are probably past the quarantine on Covid, but our son still has it and I am pretty sure our immunity to anything is rather low for going about in crowds of people. I am so sad not to see what my friends are showing but darn it, I think we better sit this one out. I hope to see lots of pictures but they won't make up for the greetings and being there 🙁.

Krista

calico20hill Thank you for keeping yourselves safe! I’ll be hoping for lots of photos too as we won’t be making the drive down this year either, unfortunately. Hoping you all keep recovering and get all well sooner than later!

blown_dry

calico20hill Hope you all recover swiftly, Noni. I also have someone in my family that can't be catching anything, and I'm in the prime demographic to become disabled from an encounter with Covid. There are masks that are extremely effective so I can still go to dahlia shows etc. with no worries. I can give recs if anyone wants to send me a message. My son tested the masks during multiple semesters of college, brave soul.

calico20hill

THank you, Amanda! It's more the lack of physical energy here after fighting off Covid. Even with the immunizations it takes a hunk of energy out of one.

..We did go out today to my favorite nursery (Tsugawa's) and bought a new Japanese maple for our front yard, but that was all outside. I even did a quick reconnoiter through their hydrangeas but they were pretty worn out from summer. We bought our 3rd Japanese Maple for our front yard. Two different Coral Bark Maple "wild" seedlings I brought with me from our old house have done beautifully, The other spot, we have had 2 die and a third that needs to be moved to the woods along the creek. I had a good chat with an assistant at the nursery. She helped me pick out a Full Moon Japanese maple that will have some flaming red shades and she said it would probably withstand the summer sun that has fried leaves on the others I have tried, Oregon has a nice moderate climate until we get a blast of heat from the lower WIllamette Valley in the summer. I am just hoping this one will adjust as well as the 2 Coral Barks.

MissyWeitzel

I started digging and came across something I haven't seen before. This clump came from a plant I bought at the midwest auction, where all sorts of growers bring both tuber and cuttings grown plants that are auctioned off to raise money for the Midwest conference show. Many of the growers bringing plants have been growing dahlias longer than I've been alive and I'm no spring chicken.

I think this plant is from a cutting because there was no obvious mother. I've never seen this sort of mesh around a clump before. I'm not sure why it's there or what it was originally. It's almost like a tulle material. Have any of you seen this or know what it is?

The reason why I'm so curious is because it came off the clump so easily and didn't seem to have inhibited growth at all. So if this is some sort of product used instead of root riot cubes (which I loathe), I'd love to know more!

Bessie

MissyWeitzel that's the remnants of a peat pellet. They come compressed, and expand in water. I've used them in the past for sterile seed starting.

MissyWeitzel

Bessie oh! Thank you! They didn't seem to impact the clump at all. Did you like using them?

Bessie

MissyWeitzel I loved using them for starting seeds that weren't too big, like tomatoes and peppers. Squash are too big and grow too fast to use them. I decided against using them for Dahlia seed starting because of the netting. I like to remove the netting as I plant the seedling. They are sterile, which is an advantage for seeds which may be hard to start.

Justafewdahlias

My Crichon honey tuber’s first & second blooms (super late I know) have a totally blown center. It also has an insanely wiggly head and the petals don’t look lined up, it looks sloppy if that makes sense. Is it just looking so bad because it’s nearing the end of the season? Or did this plant have such a tough start/stressed life that it is now suffering and genetically broken down?

This very well could have been all my fault. I took a couple cutting from it before planting it. It came with a big sprout on it and I couldn’t resist 😅. Then at the start of the season I thought I might have root aphids so I choose one tuber to dig up to examine the roots/look for evidence of pests under the soil (this tuber)….I then replanted it after digging it up thinking “it’s worth a short to see if it will grow” Then earwigs chewed on this plant so much it struggled to grow. It wasn’t until I made some good earwig traps and rigged a row cover over it that it actually could put on new growth to grow vs being pinched back on its new growth by pests every night. I am now seeing maybe it’s all connected, digging it up stressed it out which made it prime pest target probably. It also wasn’t in a very good location, too shady. A tragic life for this tuber. I promise my other tubers grew without so many issues and without such a tragic chain of events!!😅

My question is do I toss this tuber or give it another chance next year? Can severe plant traumas like I described mess the genetics up this bad?

Bessie

Justafewdahlias I am horrible with the environment I give many of my tubers. If it was my plant, I would take a few nice cuttings from the tuber in the spring and see what the resultant flowers are on the plants. I would probably not expect the tuber to be worth growing out, from my past limited experiences in torturing dahlias.

SteveM

Justafewdahlias My question is do I toss this tuber or give it another chance next year? Can severe plant traumas like I described mess the genetics up this bad?

I trialed Crichton Honey (for use as a cut dahlia) about 35 years ago. It was not a vigorous plant and grew very short. I was surprised when I noticed it was still for sale. There are other orange varieties that make much better cut dahlias. And no, severe plant trauma won't mess up the genetics.

Teddahlia

"...genetically broken down?" In my opinion, it has never been good.

Justafewdahlias

Teddahlia

Not very good is one thing, but I mean it has to have been somewhat better than this at one time right?? 😂 online photos vs what I wound up with are a big difference. Bummer since it is a lovely color

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