ADS goodies

I think I'll try more border types this next year ie: Suitzus Julie, Matthew Juul and White Lilliput-- all mignon-size. ADS Bullitin has some good ideas. Thanks, ADS!

News Flash! Cutting Tool Sterilizing Tip

The ADS recommends that sterilizing tools in 20% solution of non-fat dry milk mixed with water (U of California) when cutting blooms, dividing roots, or taking cuttings will reduce the spread of viruses. Dip the tool for 5 seconds and wipe it clean.

2012 spring planting

Finished planting over 60 tubers on May 24th 2012. Need to inspect and wet down tubers in mid winter, since I skipped that step this year and lost more than a few that just dried out. All of Tapestry just tapped out (not viable or just got dried out). I also gave away all Colorado Classic--it just couldn't hold its own (head up). Added more from Dan's Dahlias. He was very sweet and not only replaced Verone's Marmalade, but added a few free bees. Thanks Dan! Irrigation's set up, so now I have my commercial stock in. Still had 46 tubers left. So, I've plantd 6 Top Yellow mix, 6 Pooh, 6 Kallista's Angel out in a real ife (as in deer food available) test plot in a garden near the house. I'm wondering if they can fend for themselves. I'll add more to that garden then take the rest down to farmer's market.

Don't pooh-pooh Pooh!

Pooh was a star--bright orange, good for cutting and bouquets and prolific-with a good tuber harvest.

2011 Harvest

From November 14th to the 21st--in 8 days I harvested all my 45 of my plants (48 were planted 2 0f mine died off early on-reasons unknown-1 new tuber a specialty Orchid never came up which makes me extremely grouchy). 3 Clifton Lela plants yielded 14 tubers. 4 Allie White plants yielded 10 tubers. 4 Tioga Dawn plants yielded 20 tubers. 3 Ruby Viola plants yielded 12 tubers. 3 Aitara Diadem plants yielded 5 tubers. 3 Colorado Classic plants yielded 23 tubers. 4 Korb Impeccable Dream plants yielded 13 tubers. 4 Kalista Angel plants yielded 12 tubers. 1 Sorbet plant yielded 4 tubers. 1 Pink Splendor plant yielded 4 tubers. 1 Granny Naman plant yielded 7 tubers. 1 Normandy Wild Willie yielded 6 tubers. 2 Alpen Pearl plants yielded 3 tubers. 1 Tapestry plant yielded 5 tubers. 3 Pooh plants yielded 17 tubers. 2 Stella J plants yielded 8 tubers. 1 Verona's Marmalade yielded 0 tubers. 1 Marie Schnugg plant yielded 8 tubers. 5 Topmix Yellow plants yielded 12 tubers. 1 Clifton Zack plant yielded 5 tubers. Total tubers for 2012 Season will be 184 plus some new arrivals to be delivered in the Spring. I'll make some comments and observations about this year's harvest in the next blogg.

Thumbs Down

Colorado classic is large (6-8") and looks like a loosely, pinkish, feathered pompom ball-sounds good. But, these heavy blooms are attached to the plant by thin, longish stems that eventually can't support them. Probably, 90% of the blooms will break over. One plus is that, though they make a poor bouquet flower, when they are heads down their petticoats show!

Also, Marie Schnugg is exotically attractive, but is a poor team player in a bouquet, because within 24 hours it will start bailing petals in protest.

Second year with Sorbet and again stingy with flower production and plant growth. One more year to shape up or ship out.

That's it until the late bloomers show their faces!

Still more 2011!

More 2011 Dalias

5 varieties of 2011 Dahlias

The Big Sleep

This year I left plenty of stem on each tuber--truthfully, I still found it difficult to identify the "eyes" so, I was much more generous with the dividing process. Many of them looked blind, but it pays to adhere to the old hymn, "I once was blind, but now I see". So, everybody got a chance to "see".

I learned about the Ink In a Bottle pencil--the best marking tool for labeling each tuber with it's varietal name--sure beats marks-a-lot pens that blur.

Finally, each tuber was sulfur dusted (wetable).

My Dahlia friends, also, helped me with ideas to store the tubers more efficiently. I purchased (something like) 12"x14"x9"deep plastic file boxes; I needed 4 of them. Using perlite for medium, I layered single varieties of tubers with medium separated by newspaper or paper bags--both bags and newspaper worked equally well. On each box I listed each layered variety of tubers in order.

Then, this year, I stacked and stored the boxes in the front hall closet. When we had the garage remodled into an entry way, we didn't have the closet insulated. On an outside wall, it stays quite cool in there during the winter in Oregon, but won't freeze. Turned out to be a perfect and convenient place to store the tubers for the big sleep.

The learning curve

Not sure where I am on the learning curve; I can only hope centrifugal force hasn't thrown me to far off from where I need to be.

It's been a long time since my last post and a lot has happened. I'll enter a bit at a time until I get caught up.

The Roseburg Dahlia Club members have donr much to save me from myself. I got hands on advise on how not to behead my 2010 crop of tubers.

This year I added some new storage techniques that worked very well.

Did I say stout?

The bad news first. The first heavy rain in mid October brought my "stout" Kalista Angels crashing to the ground too heaqvy with water to hold themselves up. The good news is that they were the only statistic; I had tied every one else up.

Side note: the house is full of K. Angel bouquets, from the mandatory harvest.

These are Tioga Dawn, Korb Impeccable Dream, Allie White and Kalista Angel

Note: The Colorado Classic plant is quite weak and tall stems will fall over and break at ground level unless tied up.

Kalista Angel on the other hand is a dense stout bush which could easily be used as a 2'to 3' hedge. The flowers are often hidden within the dense foliage.

All plants have recovered from my accidental poisoning with Round Up (big oops). Anyway, most are looking healthy and are beginning the fall bloom.

minutiae continued

As I was reporting...

Allie White (2 plants) about 2'6" to 3'--same deformity (foliage looks burned)

Clifton Lela (4 plants) All about 1 ' with same deformity

Clifton Zack (1 plant) 6"--same deformity

Aitara Diadem (2 plants) 6"to 16" with same deformity

Korb Impeccable Dream (3 plants) 1'6" to 2'6" with same deformity

Kalista Angel (4 plants) 6" to 12" same deformity

Sorbet (4 plants) 6"to 12" same deformity

Thoughts:

1. I lost 2 Aitara Diadem of the 4 planted. Of the 30 remaining plants 26 show burned, deformed foliage. I can only assume that even though I was extremely careful, there must have been a small amount of drift from the Round Up weed killer I used on the weeds around the dahlias. I heard they were sensitive, but hey don't open a bottle of the stuff within a 1/2 mile of a dahlia! I'll have to use cloth or mulch for weed control next year.
2. I pinched the center growth bud of each plant at 2 to 3 leaf sets. I may have set back the growth on a number of the plants by doing this. Still learning...

By mid August of 2010...

Please skip to the next blog unless you're really interested in dahlia minutiae:



Tioga Dawn (4 plants):

• 1 is setting buds--height about 2'6"


• 3 are small--6"to 8"

Normandy Wild Willie (1 plant):

• setting buds about 16"--new foliage looks burned

Colorado Classic (2 plants):

• 1 is 18"--deformed growth around setting buds


• 1 is about 8" same deformity

Ruby Viola (3 plants)--6"to 8" same deformity

Allie White

The summer solstice (June 21) became planting day for my newly purchased tubers from Clack's Dahlia's.

Ginger bailed me out; she had just planted her tubers a few days prior to this--planting late in the season because of the extremely cold spring weather.

dashed hopes

Late fall 2009, I hosed off the tuber clumps, sun dryed them and by that evening had them in the mud room grouped by variety (original 18 tubers were composed of 8 different varieties) so I had 18 tuber clumps piled into 8 varietal groups. Each clump had 7 to 12 tubers; by the time I had finished dividing them, there were nearly 200 tubers from my first harvest. Snowberry Farm Dahlias was under way.

Late January 2010, I sorted out the few soft tubers, misted and repacked the rest in peatmoss and stored them in plastic drawers marked by variety.

In late March, many had rooted, none showed buds. Suspicion grew as the tubers didn't. Yet, faithfully, on the 15th of May--a few days after the approved planting time, Mother's day--I planted 1-2 tubers per hole with 4 staked holes per variety-- 32 holes in all.

The 2009-2010 winter was the coldest ever recorded in western Oregon; delay was to be expected. But, by June 10, I could wait no more. I dug up several tubers--all deader than door nails. I looked at my Dahlia rows neatly staked out. I was the queen of Hearts inspecting 32 marked graves where I had with great care buried 50 some headless corpses.

Back in November, I had divided the tubers from the clumps and apparently from their "eyes". Beheaded in such a way, by the spring, they had sprouted ghostly roots in the throws of tubermortis.

I'd planted 1/3 of the tubers I'd harvested. Out of all the remaining tubers, I found 2 Allie Whites with growth stems. TWO.

Snowberry Farm Dahlias was off and running (albiet, headless).

In the beginning...

Last spring 2009, I bought 18 Dahlia tubers from Ginger Clack of Clack's Dahlia Patch. By the end of last summer I had 18 beautiful flowering dahlia plants. In late fall I dug up nearly 200 tubers.