Here is my write up of Dahlia Talk. I added a bit to it for you all. It was a
very fun session especially when we were
arguing over whether there are any "novelty dahlias". It is a very stupid issue that grown people should not fuss over, but for some reason, they do.
Dahlia Talk 12-23-24
by Ted J. Kennedy
There were 29 participants and that was very good considering that Christmas was only two days in the future and Christmas Eve the next day. Our leader, Dan Baulig had moved the date and time to one day earlier so that our āgabfestā would not occur on Christmas Eve. He blew it. Two of the participants live in Australia and it was Christmas Eve there and for one it was 11:00AM and for the other it was 2:00PM. Australia is a very large country and has several time zones. I checked the distance between our two Australian participants and the computer says the driving distance is 2182 miles(Perth to Melbourne). Here in the USA we had a participant in up state New York last month and the driving distance from Portland to there would be about 2641 miles. By the way, the distance from Portland, Oregon to Perth is 9,215Ā miles. Our Zoom connection was near perfect and I thought he was just down the street from us.
There was no set theme for this Dahlia Talk session and our leader queried all of the 29 members for a subject to chew on. He wrote them down and we began to talk about 29 different subjects. And you expect me to remember them all?
What show flowers do well where was briefly discussed and the differences in regions of the USA were noted. In the Mid West the Giant and Large dahlias do very well. In the PNW both the smaller fully double types do well and in recent years all of the open center types have taken off and are probably just as popular as the full double forms. Waterlilies do well everywhere(I added this after the fact as we like waterlilies).
Novelty: It is always interesting to have a person who is fairly new to dahlias ask a seemingly innocuous question. It went something like: āHow do judges determine that a flower is a Novelty?ā This question turns out to be a perennial matter of disagreement between two factions of judges. On the āEliminate the Noveltiesā side they say that all flowers can be placed into the other classes and that there are no novelties. They say they are just poor examples of those forms. They would eliminate the novelty appellation. On the other side the judges say that there are lots of examples of flowers that are unique or unusual and they should be given a class to compete. Historically, several of the classes were novelties and āgraduatedā to becoming their own class. The discussion did very little to answer the question that was asked. However, there is probably no clear answer that could be given and that is why they are novelties. I left out most of the discussion and you missed some fireworks if you did not attend this session.
Should the ātailsā on the tubers be cut off before storage? We answered this question and most everyone gave the same answer. Yes, cut them off.
Can tubers that lost the skin around their neck sprout in the spring? We answered that one too. Two persons said that the skin can grow back and the tuber can sprout.
We discussed Trademarking of dahlia names. It was noted that all the clubs represented have rejected selling any trademarked plant material at their club sales. Lots of discussion but we are not lawyers and I will not repeat what may be unverified information on this subject. It was an interesting topic.
We discussed Saran wrapping tubers. The person asking the question is storing tubers for the first time and is using vermiculite for half and wrapping for half. The āSaranā method is fraught with potential mistakes but can result in excellent results. I did some recent research on the actual Saran brand to see if they have a different plastic in their product. They used to have an actual different plastic but switched to the same plastic that is used for other plastic wraps about 10 years ago. The article said that the old Saran plastic was less permeable and in fact much less permeable. However, it had some halogen chemicals in it and they switched to the current more common plastic. The article noted that meat wrap that the stores use to seal āStyrofoam on the bottomā containers of meat is very similar to the old Saran wrap and is much less permeable for moisture and air. Perhaps it could be used if that property contributes to better storage results. The discussion went more in depth on the actual procedures.
The results at the Portland trial garden were discussed and an article in the upcoming Dahlias of Today publication will have the results and I will only state that I personally fell in love with an entry called Olddoc Hippie Chick. And if you say you just like that clever name, it should be pointed out, I did not know the name of the flower when I saw it. It had wild flame colors and reminded me of a hippie girl wearing a tie dye shirt(not really).
There was a long discussion on growing dahlias in sandy soil in a warm climate(Melbourne, Australia). It is very difficult and compost and any organic material added at planting time disappears by the end of the season. After several minutes of discussion, it was pointed out that compost could be added during the growing season also(Walt Jacenko does this). Lots more detail was discussed and coffee grounds were used by at least two people as compost. One used coffee grounds with the filters mixed in and the other used coffee grounds without filters. The filters do not compost well and should be removed was one conclusion. Coffee grounds are generally good for dahlias unless you overdo it and that would be more than one half an inch added per week.
Cow manure was discussed. Dolomite lime was discussed. Phosphorus was negatively discussed. I am leaving out lots and lots of detail as I write this summary. Another reason to join the discussion is that you actually get to see the people in their little window on the computer screen. You know, do that āname with a face thingā.
Picture of Paul and Cheryl Howard and he participates in Dahlia Talk. He does not show novelty flowers.
