Dahlia Talk
11-25-25
by Ted J. Kennedy
There were 37 participants. It is amazing that in this modern age that people as far as 10,374 miles apart can have a conversation, let alone be able to see the other person and have thirty something other people partake in the event. And if you want to show a few pictures from your computer every one can see them too. Yes, Melbourne Australia and New York are about 10,374 miles apart and everyone on the Zoom meeting shares an interest in dahlias. I still have my adolescent sense of humor and if someone one burped, it would the burp that was heard around the world.
What did the 37 people talk about? A written summary of somewhat random conversion is difficult to memorialize in the written word. I will touch on some of the things and as usual leave out most of it “as you should have been there” .
Heirloom Dahlias: We had a nice discussion on this subject. How old is is old enough to be placed into this category? No one had a hard and fast rule and although 50 years sounded good. It was pointed out that some dahlias of a more recent vintage were included in online discussions. It seems there is Facebook site for the “risque”(not a good word to describe it but what word would?) discussions of old time dahlias. So we started to name some of the “good old timers” .. I blurted out Kidds Climax from about 1940. Another person mentioned Jersey Beauty from the late 1920s, the one that sold for $25- when introduced(Google says that is $465- dollars today). Valda, a pom from 1939. Otto's Thrill(I blurted out that it was introduced by a man whose first name was “Otto” and there was a very minor laughter from a few people.) And lots more and it is subject we may cover again in another session.
Allen Manuel did a nice “slide” presentation of his new introductions. We enjoyed his discussion of the varieties that included the seed parents of most of them. We had a slide show of the passing entries at the Portland trial garden. That was further continued with even more pictures of the entries from Dan Baulig. Dahlia people enjoy seeing the new introductions.
We spent a lot of time on digging dahlias. The efficacy of using garden fork instead of a spade or shovel was discussed. We discussed the fact the experienced growers know which varieties must dug with extreme caution because of their proclivity to “break their necks”. The variety Red Velvet was mentioned as one of the very worst and there was almost a “scream” from person who announced it was her first time growing it and the digging did not go well. We talked about how to remove the excess dirt from clumps. A rubber mallet can be used to hit down on the stalk. Or, it was said that on occasion some growers drop clumps from 3 or 4 feet in the air to the ground and the dirt falls off. It must be said that the more valuable tubers need to get more sensitive care.
Washing clumps was discussed and one expedient way is to wash each clump in the garden as you dig. Two advantages were stated(1) The clumps are much lighter in weight and crates of clumps are much lighter(2)the soil from the clumps is returned to the garden instead of being dumped on your lawn.
We talked about overwintering dahlias in the ground where they were grown. This subject has been discussed over and over and I remember it being talked about in a dahlia meeting in 1994. The great majority of dahlia growers dig their dahlias. The majority of them divide the dahlia clumps into tubers and store them carefully. However, there always has been a population of avid ”leave them in the ground growers”. We discussed both the pros and cons and methods of doing it successfully. One “leave them in the ground person” who has done so for decades said he loses on average 15% of his plants. It can be worse and in a bad year about twice that many were lost. He philosophically said: “Yes. I lose some every year, but that means I have room for some new varieties.”
I am going to end this incomplete write up of the session here. Note that the next Dahlia Talk session is not going to be on a Tuesday but will be on Monday, December 22 in order to distance it a bit further from Christmas when every one is more than busy.
