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  • General Dahlia Chat 2024

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.

    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.

      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!!

      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. 😜.

        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!!

        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

          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.

            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.

              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 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.

              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)

                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.

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