General Dahlia Chat - 2025

Juliarugula · 2025-01-01T13:30:33+00:00

Justafewdahlias whew! Much better thanks! 😅

blown_dry

Teddahlia Thanks so much, Ted. 🙂

Teddahlia

blown_dry
I write this summary after every session. My next writing chore is to write the article for the Dahlias of Today publication on the Portland Trial Garden. What I need to do is to update my pictures of our new introductions along with the written descriptions. We are introducing more than usual this year as we are tired of growing so many flowers and a few years after you introduce something, you do not have to grow it unless you ae using it for breeding. We need to grow fewer dahlias as we get older.

Justafewdahlias

Teddahlia As a super casual dahlia grower I like the mindset of if you loose some oh well you have room for some new ones…..haha makes the loses sting less.

This loss risk vs reward made me think of a podcast I was listening to The Dig on Dahlias. A grower who sold cut flowers (one of the hosts) said she did not stake her dahlias….and she is growing lots of dahlias. She said yes a few may fall over, BUT plant or profit lost from the number of plants that mayyy tip over or a branch snaps is wayyyyy less than the time and effort it would take to stake all the plants at planting/tie them up. Time = money. I am assuming also someone selling cut flowers probably tends to grow sturdy plants that are less prone to tipping over, if that’s a thing.

Teddahlia

There are 450,000 dahlia plants at Swan Island Dahlias. None are staked up.

Justafewdahlias

Teddahlia I usually wind up staking a few towards the end of the season because I get nervous the branches with seeds developing will get snapped off during a windstorm

Justafewdahlias

I will admit I have little patience. I love “ early “ dahlias. My only reference for what an “early” dahlia is comes from the Swan Island website which says ~ 75 days to bloom. Mary Jo , moonstruck, Matilda Houston, China doll, gay princess, and amber queen are some of my early dahlias. (If you have any other “early” ones you like to grow please share!)

I have some seedlings from this year where I started the seeds 3/28 and they had blooms 7/3 so just over 90 days to bloom for a seedling. I am wondering if the timing of seedling days to bloom is at all related to that plant’s future tuber “days to bloom” in the upcoming years? Or if anyone has noticed a pattern with this? A seedling that bloomed earlier than the rest did it go on to become a tuber that bloomed before the rest in upcoming years?

Final question: Is there much focus or demand on trying to make “early “ varieties? It seems early appeals to people with short growing seasons, people who sell cut flowers, and everyone else who doesn’t want to wait!

SteveM

Justafewdahlias It seems early appeals to people with short growing seasons, people who sell cut flowers,

Dahlias are very much in demand in May and June, mostly for wedding use. Dahlias are short-day plants and set buds when the days are short. Unfortunately, the blooms grown out from an early planting are single or semi-double and not fit for sale (they would be fine for garden color). At my latitude, I have to plant around the middle of March when the daylengths are long enough to get salable blooms by the middle of May. If I want fully-double blooms earlier, I have to give them supplemental lighting. It is counterintuitive that dahlias are short day plants but do not produce the best blooms until the daylengths are longer.

There are varieties that "want" to produce buds on every lateral and these varieties could possibly be considered "early" when grown under normal, summer daylengths. For me, Chimacum Troy, 20th Ave. Memory, and Hollyhill Ambiance are a few that fall into this category.

If i was a grower who just wanted nice, spring color in the garden but didn't care about the bloom form, I would shorten the cuttings' daylength to about 10 hours/day for about a month (or longer) before I planted the cuttings out. The nightly dark period can not be interrupted - even the light from a garage or porch light can interrupt the dark photoperiod.

Teddahlia

I am not on the "early" bandwagon. The first blooming seedlings are generally very crappy flowers even for seedlings. A bloom that has many rows of petals, takes some time to form on the plant. Larger flowers take longer. There is not an "early blooming gene" . Cultural methods produce early flowers. For example, a hoop house where the flowers are sheltered and warmer at first and eventually the covering is removed and they are grown like other flowers. A small time commercial grower in a "high rent" area told me how we could sell one giant flower for $20.00 and 6 bouquet bunch for $100-.

JessieC

SteveM
“The nightly dark period can not be interrupted - even the light from a garage or porch light can interrupt the dark photoperiod.”
So interesting! My primary patch with about 50 plants is directly under a city streetlight. I’ve often wondered what this might be doing to my dahlias. I live in the city, so nothing is truly dark. But I wonder if the streetlight has been making things harder than they need to be….

SteveM

JessieC But I wonder if the streetlight has been making things harder than they need to be….

If you notice a difference in the number/size/quality of your tubers when you dig (compared to those not near the light) then it is likely because of the streetlight. You would also notice that your double blooms do not go open centered and retain good form until they freeze. (or you dig) The amount of light needed to affect the photoperiod is only about 10 foot-candles at the plant level. I think the red spectrum is supposed to be more effective and I use warm LED bulbs (about 1500 lumens about 6 feet from plants) in the field, but I use cool LED bulbs for cuttings and both spectrums do the job. At my latitude I need about 2 hours of supplemental lighting to keep dahlias fully-double and salable in the winter.

JessieC

SteveM Fascinating! And thanks for the photo of your setup too. I do have plants of the same variety in separate locations, but I haven’t dug up too many this year. Now that we are looking at some below freezing temps, I’m regretting that, but I’ve got pot tubers as backups.
That said, once it’s digging weather again, I’ll be interested to see how the tubers near the streetlight compare.
Thanks!

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