Portland Dahlia Society meeting last night(7-9PM). I saw our Noni peeking in on Zoom, looking very relaxed. One of the "short" presentations was on the the new USDA climate zones. Portland obviously has moved to the sub tropics and we are now 8b with sheltered areas supposedly in 9a. The zones are mostly based on low temps in the winter and supposedly the 9a area does not get below 25 F in the winter. Someone pointed out it got down to 19F there this year. They always say: "these are just averages and it was also said they are 30 year averages." I raised my stubby hand and said the charts were busllshit. That was only after I had said it quietly at our table and my fellow table mates encouraged me to say it for every one's ears. Somehow people like opposing views.
I pointed out that farmers use soil temps to determine planting dates. I said that in my area they have an agricultural station where they track soil temps and have charts and averages going back many years. Dahlias need warm soil temps to grow and my theory is that you plant about a week before the date it normally hits that temp(My feeble memory remembers 60F as the temp but it has been awhile since I researched this information. )
If I were true farmer I would be using my trusty soil thermometer but I set my planting date by average soil temp and the date of the last frost.
The Portland Dahlia Society now has 559 members. I believe we are the largest society in the USA.
I delivered some tubers at the meeting and as usual I screwed up one of the orders as the person said " where is my second order?" As a seller, multiple orders screw things up. I sheepishly gave her one of the two additional tubers that I happened to have with me and found she had ordered two of the other one and we agreed upon a refund and I prefer orders of one tuber per customer. Later I refunded her money and now have one more of a scarce variety to sell to sell and it is one that sold out early.
Lot more items and here are bullet points:
Refreshment table was packed with homemade goodies. I tried 5 or 6 of them.
Club has so many members I had lengthy conversations with several people who look familiar but I do not know their names.
Dahlia Talk was mentioned positively and everyone was invited to participate on Feb 27 at 7PM on Zoom. I made two comments: (1) please ask those stupid questions on Dahlia Talk as the "less informed" questions are the ones we enjoy answering and you can get several opinions and there is no such thing as a stupid question in this format. (2) I said "you want to participate in Dahlia Talk because it is like being on Hollywood Squares." Of course I was referring to the computer screen on Zoom that has squares like the old TV show. but for some reason they all thought that was funny.
Lots of people are growing dahlia seeds for the first time.
Waterlily flowers are getting very popular.
Maybe more later as I am sure I left out 90% of what went on.
