Random Dahlias

calico20hill

When this shows up in your 6" deep porch boxes that hold petunias and pansies....and it shows up just when frost is due...Willy Make It?

Krista

calico20hill Willy Make It

Best name ever! 🤩

Serenity_Base

calico20hill looks like golden crown which wouod be more orange in summer but yellowy now like mine which are the tallest out there for now

calico20hill

We are into a mild rainy period but there is a roof over this deck so Willy just might be a winner! It will be interesting to see what kind of tuber it makes in this shallow bed.

calico20hill

Willie this morning....I doubt if he will be a prize winner...on the other hand he is doing all this in the poorest of locations and growing conditions!...I will leave him growing as long as possible and save any tuber he makes or transfer him to a pot in the greenhouse...I just love anything that never gives up!

calico20hill

Serenity_Base This side of the house gets only the morning sun so I imagine it would be quite different in a full sun location. Lets just see if it made anything I can store.

Serenity_Base

calico20hill

Your yellow is random indeed, LOL. Still, yellow is always nice as we go into the dark season....

calico20hill

Well, Salish Willie Make it, made it! I wonder how long it will bloom...starting on Halloween, and now into Nov 1...But if a freeze is predicted I am going to immediately remove him to a safe place. He is semi sheltered from rain, sleet or snow but freezing air or heavy wind might hurt what ever tuber he is making. I do wonder what seed bud he dropped out of and how he got from the garden in back of the house to this sheltered front flower box. I did have seeds I was saving ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE HOUSE...Working on a table on the back deck.

Justafewdahlias

calico20hill what a lovely color!! Perfect to have for a Halloween bouquet! What temperature makes you nervous for freeze prediction ? If you saw what temps in the upcoming forecast would you quickly relocate him? In my area the coldest it has gotten at night has been 40, but next week might be as low as 37 and I don’t know if I should be nervous or not 😅. I have a few seed pods I’m trying to buy as much time as possible on the plants, but not so long they freeze

calico20hill

Justafewdahlias I don't see any freezing temps in the forecast but we are in an odd little micro-zone so anytime we get predictions below 40 degrees at night I know we could drop a bit colder then that.We are already several weeks over-due for the first frost. Also, these porch boxes are up 3 feet of so off the insulation of earth. Once the show is over on this bloom I have decided I will try to transfer the plant into a gallon pot and take it to my greenhouse. I would like to try to root some cuttings from it also as I doubt if it has more then a seedling beginning tuber yet. It has the secondary flower buds growing on it now and it surely would be fun to bring those into bloom...

Justafewdahlias

calico20hill 40 is what I have been using as my “caution” temperature also. It feels like I’m gambling waiting to see how much more time I can have with seed pods ripening on the plant. I think this week I will cut them off to bring inside in a jar of water to finish ripening. A few plants I had in grow bags I was waiting on seeds for I have kept alive the garage since it’s been very wet and windy here. One of my plants outside I rigged a floating row cover over it, I know it’s not much protection maybe 2 degrees but it makes me feel a bit less nervous in case temps dip below the prediction at night

Teddahlia

I dropped a tuber outside by the outdoor bench where we grow some strawberries in pots. It sprouted and reached about 2 feet tall but never bloomed. Let's see if it over winters there. Are random dahlias the ones you mis-labeled? We have several of those. Usually that is bad news.
Lost angel from 2013.

SteveM

A Random, volunteer, BB seedling with a nice color. It had early open centers in the Fall so was designated as gopher food. Probably a seed from HH Berry Purple.

Teddahlia

"Probably a seed from HH Berry Purple." My Berry Purple plants right now each have 5-10 ripe seed pods on them and I could in 5 minutes harvest enough pods to yield 500-1000 seeds. I harvested none of them this year as I have some better prospects that may produce a show flower or three.

I saved lots of seed from this one.

Bessie

Teddahlia 750 seeds at 80¢ a seed ... $600. Isn't it even tempting to sell them?

calico20hill

Any seed pods found now on my remaining dahlias are pretty much mush. No freezes, just rain and cooler temps.
I am glad I started saving seeds as soon as I thought they were viable.

Teddahlia

Yes, mush pods abound. There are still some good ones here but we have harvested enough seeds this year. Having said that, we always cannot resist grabbing a few pods as we cut down foliage.

Bessie

Normally a Red Flag Warning is something to be a bit cautious about with wild fires... But the first thing I thought about with this weather report is how the weather will hasten the ripening of any remaining seedpods in the garden.