My write up on the Dahlia Talk session last night. I can understand why we only had 27 people. I was hot, tired and smelly from working in the dahlia garden. Sit in front of a computer screen or take a shower and go to bed early? Nice session, especially the part about the "three bears".
Dahlia Talk
06-24-25
27 people participated. That number is a bit low but this is the busy season for dahlias. We had no theme to the meeting and Dan just ask everybody what was on their mind. When that happens someone will mention something that elicits lots of other questions. In this meeting, we talked a lot about dahlia pests. There were lots of pests and as we went around the virtual room we discussed earwigs, thrips, lots of talk Japanese beetles in the Mid west, and many more pests.
Hornets and wasps were discussed and one person has them in her raised bed. There were several solutions offered to her. The claim was made that hornets live under ground and wasps above ground. They all sting but the hornets are worse. The commercial spray can sold to kill the nest was said to work well. But then someone said that was not an organic solution. She said that boiling water can be poured into the nest underground and Dawn dish washing soap is mixed in the boiling water and the bubbles prevent them from escaping. They drown. Neither method sounds like “fun in the garden.”
I did not even get a chance to mention my biggest pest this year was my neighbor's dog that dug under the fence and decided our dahlia garden was a racetrack. We went on to talk about those voracious rabbits and one person said he returned from a week long trip to find 16 rabbits enjoying dahlia salad in his garden. He lost many plants that year.
The pest discussion was not a “Who has the worst pest?” contest and people just calmly stated what pests they have had. The deer were discussed by several people(note the pests are getting bigger) and the commercial deer repellent concoctions sold by farm stores were said to be effective and smelly. Someone said they put coyote urine in it. And so it went, pest by pest and it was a very interesting conversation.
And then, one person said her pest is bears. She lives near a forest and a family of bears lives close by. The bears do visit their property and a three year old(the bears have been there for a long time!) “cub” likes to hang out on their property from time to time. They bring in the bird feeders at night. She says the bears have not yet explored the dahlia garden as it is on the other side of the house. The discussion of who had the biggest pest was over and if it a were a contest, we know who won. By the way, a bear was caught on her camera chasing a deer but ended without knowing whether the bear caught the deer.
On a lighter note, there was a lot of discussion on sugar. Several people in the group use molasses to increase the sugar levels on the leaves of the dahlias and the sugar deters insects. It does not kill insects but the insects do not eat the plants. The word “brix” was tossed out casually by one person and it turns out a brix refraction device is used to determine how much sugar is in the leaves of the plants. There are charts based upon the amount needed to deter different insects. Apparently, the sugar level can be fairly low for example to deter thrips and needs to be very high for Japanese beetles. Of course, where to buy molasses for this purpose was discussed. It turns out that farm stores sell molasses and the cost savings over grocery store molasses is substantial.
And there were several other subjects. The upcoming National show in Chicago again had lots of discussion. It sounds like it will be one of the very best and it is now sold out. However, if you just want to see the flowers or even exhibit flowers you can do so. And that bought up the show fanatic's question:”How can I transport my show flowers on the airplane?” We chewed on that scenario for quite awhile and there were lots of good answers. I am not going to list them here as this subject was also deferred to the next meeting and we may have a special guest cover this subject.
And as always, this brief discussion did not cover but a small portion of what was discussed. For example, you missed how to grow show dahlias in Australia in sandy soil. Fascinating and I learned a lot.
Finally, I now wish I had asked a question about the bears in the dahlia patch. It sounds like they are not attracted to dahlias. But lots of our discussion was on how to use molasses on the dahlia plants to make them sweeter. Do you think that is a good idea when you have bears in the vicinity?
Next Dahlia Talk is July 22nd.
Free picture from Google. Very poor resolution is reason why it is free.
