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...

Bessie

magucci Idlewildblooms.com really impressed me when I first came across it several months ago. At that time I sent Emily (owner) an email expressing my appreciation for her excellent dahlia descriptions on the website. She had a previous 20 year career as a web designer, so having the Dahlia database tool makes perfect sense.

magucci

Bessie indeed! I have engaged her to help me with my website design. She’s really a lovely, generous woman and wildly creative. let us know what you decide!!

MissyWeitzel

Krista I print out a list of the varieties I grew this year. It's on a clipboard and I keep a pencil with it. As I divide I keep track of tubers in 2 categories: best and 2nds. 2nds can be questionable eyes, thin, small, accidentally chopped, etc. I only pre sell or offer in trade a portion of the best. The portion varies depending on whether I plan to grow again or not. The 2nds quantity does not exist in my mind until I do a midwinter evaluation and re-inventory everything. Some of the 2nds may be listed in my restock as small/ugly. Some get added to my planting numbers. Some get donated to my local society sale.

calico20hill

MissyWeitzel I like this concept a lot!

Krista

Juliarugula I divided by 2.5, and then went through and also took out anything that was a favorite that only had one extra after calculations. I’m figuring if everything stores and eyes up well I’ll find homes for extras in the spring.

MissyWeitzel print out a list of the varieties I grew this year. It's on a clipboard and I keep a pencil with it. As I divide I keep track of tubers in 2 categories: best and 2nds. 2nds can be questionable eyes, thin, small, accidentally chopped, etc. I only pre sell or offer in trade a portion of the best. The portion varies depending on whether I plan to grow again or not. The 2nds quantity does not exist in my mind until I do a midwinter evaluation and re-inventory everything.

Ah thank you so much, Julia & Missy! These are the types of strategies I was hoping to find out about! I’m going to adopt your practices, they’re going to really help me get organized, thank you!!

magucci

MissyWeitzel thank you for sharing this!

Juliarugula

Also, I should add - I just use a regular Google Sheets spreadsheet that I made myself. It doesn’t look pretty or anything, but I can cram it with tons of notes and info however I want. 😜.

Krista

Juliarugula My style, to a T!

BackyardBouquets_17

magucci

I keep looking at this but haven’t jumped yet. If you take her workshop do you get access to the database she created or do you still need to create/set your own up with smart suite

magucci

BackyardBouquets_17 You still have to set it up for your varieties. Essentially, there is a dahlia catalog. You enter in all of the varieties, their information (you decide what you want to track), and photos. Then, there is another separate area where you set up your "Field Plan", or what you plan to plant out for the next year. You can track it by groups of plants or by individual plant. Each one gets an individual item number that you associate back to the catalog. It's not that bad because you can import a spreadsheet (she shows you how to format it) instead of having to work individually through the database. It does take a bit of time to set up, but it's not bad at all.

LoriDee

magucci I took a workshop with her & there was a link to the database tool but I could never figure out how to access it & just gave up. (I should probably have contacted her) I have been making a picture of the tubers when they arrive & notes about the seller like great packaging, healthy all sprouted, extra bonus tuber included... or.... no neck, no eye, shriveled etc. because there are sellers i would like to avoid now because of blind tubers, no response, snotty attitudes etc . I would like to have a page in a database where I could put those notes. I wonder if I could add that to Idylwides or this etsy sellers spreadsheet? & is google sheets easy to use? my husband thinks it's a clunky program. Everything now is just handwritten notes on paper & I have no idea where it is 😝

KitCMC

Apologies if this has already been discussed in a previous post.

I purchased a Pom from NCascade last night named Lilac Willo. When I looked on the ADS website for classification info, they have a variety listed with the name Lilac Willo AND Willo Lilac (both lavender poms). There are a number of varieties with Willo as the second name, and an additional group with Willo as the first name. Does anyone have additional information? Is this a case of honoring blank Willo parent variety by naming its progeny Willo blank? Are they really just the same variety? I don’t see any others with the exact same words in the name. It seems like the Willo poms are all credited to N. Williams in Australia.

blown_dry

KitCMC Interesting question. At first glance, that are as many [blank] Willo varieties as there are Willo [blank] varieties. I will look into it more.

MissyWeitzel

KitCMC
In my ADS 1976-2022 composite listing of dahlias both are listed and with the same hybridizer - N. Williams from Australia.

KitCMC

MissyWeitzel that’s an awesome resource! Looks like they’re both listed as being introduced in ‘78.

blown_dry

MissyWeitzel Great resource! My theory at this point is that they are the same variety and Lilac Willo is the proper spelling.
I looked at the 'dahlia world' directory and all 'willo' varieites are attributed to Williams of Aus. Variety names that lead with 'Willo' are spelled Willo's, interestingly.

MIDahlias

I'm sure many, if not everyone reading this may cringe.

December 11, 2024 and still digging tubers. (No worries I've dug in January)

I broke a few Audrey Grace and Baron Barb tubers off in the digging process.

I was too lazy to get more tags, so I planted them. Then I thought, I have tubers that I didn't plant in 2024. My laziness left me and I went and pulled a few good looking tubers out and planted them 8-10" down.

Covered the garden with mulched leaves as I always do.

We'll see what happens. If the rot, no big deal.

Theory, the freshly dug and replanted might grow. The year old tubers might rot or they'll all freeze.

(mom's house)

blown_dry

MIDahlias Live on the edge, bro!!

KitCMC

MIDahlias let us know what happens this spring!

Justafewdahlias

MIDahlias
Zero cringing from me! Some really great garden experiments and discoveries I have found out from being too tired to do something the “ideal” way or just from me forgetting or not wanting to do some task. Lots of experiments also have happened due to gardening with my young child “helping” me 🙃

My son really wanted to replant some on the tubers immediately after I divided a clump….and I let him because the time he spent digging some holes to plant the tubers bought me a whole lot of uninterrupted time to get stuff done in the yard.

There were a few plants where I dug, divided off a few tuber chunks then immediately replanted them. I have a lot of gaps in one of my dahlia raised beds. I am planning to overwinter those tubers in that bed so I thought it would be easier to plant to fill in gaps when I can see where the existing gaps are now in the raised bed.

Latest garden slacker discovery: pre sprouting ranuncula corms works when done the same style that I sprout seeds (wet paper towel and zip loc)….after soaking the corms I realized I was out of potting soil and knew there was no chance of me going shopping any time soon so tested this method out. I must say much cleaner, less space, and similar results so far as sprouting in seed starting mix or soil.

Teddahlia

Pop Willo is his too and he obviously did not always have Willo as the first word of the name. Last year, I talked to an Australian who knew a lot about him but we discussed breeding poms, not naming them.

KitCMC

Teddahlia I know you’ve talked about the difficulty of breeding poms — it seems like his efforts were unusually prolific.

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