Really getting off to a late start with my dahlias this year. Weather has not been at all cooperative. I plan to get most potted by the end of this weekend.

hostasmore said:Really getting off to a late start with my dahlias this year. Weather has not been at all cooperative. I plan to get most potted by the end of this weekend.

I think it's probably for the best Gary, the weather across the US hasn't been dahlia friendly! Here's hoping for a mild Fall so we can enjoy the blooms on the other side of the season

Mine are going to hate me today. I'm moving them back to the greenhouse shelf but they are currently in the shade w a quick drink awaiting the protected home. It's fairly breezy here today so their leaves will get a bit tossed before they move in. Not everyone is above the dirt yet - so I'm hopeful those last minute ones get going happily!

Also good news - mama robins egg hatched so we have a chick. I have no clue what happened to her other two eggs, but she sure has been singing since chickbaby came. I did not see evidence of broken eggs anywhere or chicks on the ground. I think this is her first time, it took her over a week to build a nest but in the end it looks sturdy.

Good luck all! May weather improve!

I ran short of potting soil! 6 left to pot up. Of 115 clumps I had 5 losses. 3 due to rot, 2 to desiccation. I am happy with that. I am off to get one more bag of soil. Most had developing eyes.

Great job, Gary! I can't store clumps to save my life. Probably need more humidity. Always ended up with a dried up, shriveled mess so I quit trying. I did have a really good winter with tuber survival and now have over 160 in planters. This has been a wet, cool spring but the forecast shows things improving by mid week. I hope to start planting at the end of the month.

i've got all mine potted and many with two sets of leaves. going to try rooting some cuttings for fun. I also got the new bed laid out and should be ready to plant last week of May if our weather holds. Supposed to be a pretty rainy week here next week.

My peonies are putting on their show this week which is fun!

Look at you all go with 100+ tubers and I fret w my lowly little number! Hah. I'm glad you are all potting or digging this weekend, I was able to get a bit done. I worked on my moms bed and planters as she's elderly and loves the blooms but can no longer get down to the ground easily. So I go and take care of that for her as she's in a zone 5 and her ground is looking much warmer than my own currently.

It's been raining since last night. I slept w a window open - hearing the rain fall off our eaves was nice. However I think it's cooler now then it was all night long and I had to turn the heat back on to push back the damp and cool of the house.

I look out at my partially completed clean out of my compost heap telling myself I probably should have tarped it off yesterday so it won't be a wet mess if the sun makes an appearance this week and I can finish the job and hope the rabbits took a trip and moved on out.

And my plant babies: I pinched back 2 of my dahlias, I always feel guilty doing that. Do I need to be pinching? Do any of you not do so and still have nice plants? I think I'll go grab the rain boots, umbrella and a coat and go check to see if those later arrivals have indeed sent up a sprout. In the meantime I had planted some seeds to start inside for the veg garden and some annuals to tuck in as I need spaces filled. My hostas finally look less battered since the mid 20s. Funny how nature likes to tease us with spring when most of us are more than ready to be an active part of it.

Hope you're all having a nice weekend!

I've added: do any of you get The English Garden magazine? I've checked a bunch out from the library - they came in the other day - can I state - total garden goals for myself! And I'd love an English greenhouse. I'll keep dreaming!

I have over 180 tubers potted. Unless there's a catastrophe of Biblical proportions, I'm finished! Most are growing like weeds and I'm anxious to get them into the ground.

My hyacinths and daffs are gone for the year and dahlia blooms are a couple months away. I hadn't been paying attention and was surprised to see my yellow lady slipper blooming. I plan to bring more of these from Virginia next time I'm down there. Also want some of the pink ones.

No idea what kind of iris this is. They're growing all around the area where my family in Va.live. You see them along the road and around old abandoned home sites. Seems strange that all are the same color. I probably have 75-100. Peonies should be opening soon.

ST, I pinch out the top of my dahlias when they're about 18" tall. Helps them to branch out rather than grow tall and leggy. First couple years I grew dahlias, I didn't know to do that and ended up with some skinny 8-9' tall plants. Not a good look ...and impossible to stake! And only getting 6 hours of sun didn't help.

I'll pinch with confidence now! Thank you for that info.

Checking to see if any of you from Michigan are dealing with the flooding? Stay safe!

If I can get to my desktop today due to hubs working from home and overtaking my space, I hope to find my photos from the unnamed ones I grew last year and see if you helpful experts in blooms can give me an idea of who I am growing. I have guesses on two of them. I should also post photos of the two that were to have been the Emperor from Brecks, I hope you have a laugh as I did. In their own way they were lovely.

Today will find us hopefully finishing tilling the heap up to put on the garden and beds. I've gotten buckets of goat poo from my nephew to start this years heap with grass clippings and such. I'm hopeful maybe I can get two batches out before summer is done. This weekend I hope to pot up the planters. Tulips and daffys just gave up the ghost, but were lovely. Irises and peonies still in growth formation of leaves as is my false indigo, they are behind like they were last year and then we had a quick heat up I lost the first wave of blooms to it. I'm always out there hurriedly picking the lovely blooms so they aren't lost in those bursts of 90 degree days. Alas I'm loving the return of color to my beds.

Happy planting all!

over on the Peony forum many of us are dealing with the loss of blooms on even older plants, the cold snap didn't do them any favors.

The wind here is something fierce the last two days, my yard is completely exposed and we don't have our new fence going in for several weeks so I may delay the dahlia planting in ground until that's done. They are happily growing on in their pots.

Sulli - are you fencing your whole yard or a portion? It looks like you'll have a lot of work, but as long as it's enjoyable it goes quickly.

AM: I surveyed my beds as today was a day of gloriousness 72 and sunny and just perfect after all our rain and cool. I see I will have to do my weeding before I plant - I have a good crop of stinging nettle in my shade bed encroaching on my hydrangeas. I am also inundated w the state flower - the good old wood violet and don't get me started on creeping Jenny or whomever she masquerades as this week. I've got a lot of work to do. I think with the long weekend ahead I will plan to plant the planters and weed and get some stuff in the garden.

The compost heap is now 3/4s tilled up and dumped in areas as needed. Tomorrow night we'll finish the side left to do. The other half has the New goat poo in place and the compost that just wasn't broken down enough ie anything that stuck to my fork went back in. I'm more then happy w the compost - it's dark dark and hopefully good stuff! I kept running into millipedes, actual lady bugs and some worms!

I've posted my unknown dahlias in the hopes you can help me identify them. It would be good to have a name when I trade them or hand off to others I know, they aren't show caliber or anything, they are just lovely colored and make me happy. And we need happy these days.

I went out last night to see how the dahlia babes are doing. I'm happy to report the newest ones and the stragglers all have eyes starting to shoot. Man - we're a few of these slow! Lady liberty and raspberry punch I'm looking at you!

I'll be working on weeding today and planters tomorrow! I need to check soil temp this weekend but my thermometer is in need or replacement. I'd like some things to hurry up and get going!

How are everyone else's potted up friends doing? What is the dahlia you look most forward to growing this year? I'm excited to see all the new ones a) to see if they actually are who they say they are b) to see their blooms as they have happy faces c) and enjoy all the pollinators visiting. That was the best last year when they were loaded with butterflies as I've never had that many at any one time. Delightful!

Ok, I'm making changes to my layout! I'm off to think some more about who is moving where before the teaching day begins. Enjoy your long weekends!

Hello; So glad to find this thread and know that there's a dahlia forum; thanks for starting this 2020 one, Sulli. I'm on cubits on their dahlia growing forum. Lots of good info there too - many professional growers... but I'm a hobbyist with a dahlia addiction for something like 25 years, so I just enjoy reading and talking about dahlias. I grow for the pollenators and for bouquets for home and to give.

I'm in what they say is zone 8A - hahaha. It's a zone 7a in a bad winter or a late freeze. Summers have almost no rain for 4 months many years - and lots and lots of drying wind much of the year. It's cool enough most of the time - but the wind does a lot of damage, as does the sun. I'm a Phila transplant from many years ago and still love the summers back there - here, not so much.

The weather back east has been crazy - so glad you all have had the wisdom to wait on planting outdoors!

I planted out my tubers several weeks ago; i start any new single tubers or ones that don't provide good tubers in the basement of the landowner where I have my garden plot. Some are up. Some show no signs of sprouting. Some have been decimated by slugs and snails - I'd say that's our worst problem here in the Pac NW. The new ones often only have one sprout, so some may be lost for good, thanks to the slugs/snails.

I used to grow over 100 dahlia varieties - a lot of those that I loved are no longer grown, so I can't get replacements. I now am back down to 40 ish varieties this year (up from last year's 25!); I'm getting too old to do all this work. :D

Tubers rot here so easily! My soil is WET clay. I have to dig in early Oct. so the tubers don't get "hardened off." I divide in the fall - no choice - have to cut out most or all of the growing stems or they rot. Sometimes I leave a clump intact but it's so much harder to divide them in the spring. I dig every year; the two years I didn't were unusually wet and or cold and I had major losses.

So I guess this is an intro and a dahlia history too. Thanks for letting me ramble. Here's one I can't find anywhere anymore... so sad! Tatatahi Ruby - bred in 1997. It glows in a way that is hard to capture in a photo.

@flowerluvr53, You can still get the sparkle of that ruby...

http://www.ferncliffgardens.co...

Welcome to this dahlia forum, flowerluvr53! I sometimes chat on cubits, too, and grow for the same reasons you do. Happy to have you join us for dahlia chitchat here, for sure!

My dahlia garden is officially planted, aside from the 4-5 tubers that I'm planning on sneaking into the landscape around my yard tomorrow. It has been cool and gray here, and I'm hoping the Sun comes out of it's quarantine VERY soon! I cruised the garden today, staring at the soil hoping for any sign of sprouts breaking through. It hasn't even been a week since I planted, and the impatience is already showing up...yet both Shaggy Chic tubers surprised me and are sprouting above ground. Woohoo!

Welcome flower! I read cubits too. I find the breeding information interesting and all the work that goes into it. I'm just growing mine for color, beauty, and just to make the world happy. I don't worry about the perfect bloom on any of mine because in my eyes they are all lovely! Your photo was certainly pretty!

Melissa: so how long does it take to plant all those tubers? Did your boyfriend help you?

Well I got my front bed done yesterday I weeded and planted and mulched w my compost. I'd say it's beautiful at this point but it's all small plants that have no blooms. So wait I do! I have to get my planters done today in between the storms predicted. It was cloudy all yesterday which made for decent planting. However zombie around the corner was chainsawing and that's a noise I loathe! It was another ash that was lost to that darn borer.

I live in a rural town and what gets me is the amount of people who don't plant anything! I'm a gal that loves her flowers and foundation plantings. I feel houses float without things growing. Most around me believe in rocks and maybe a few weeds. So I decorate my yard in hopes someone else is inspired to join me. Of course I have one neighbor that decorates with gargoyles. We all have something we love. (Of course his open winged one Is kind of creepy).

If the rains hold off I do hope to get my dahlias in but I have a feeling it won't be until later in the next week. More time for things to warm up I guess.

ST- sounds like you are getting A LOT accomplished on a daily basis! I do all the planting myself, and it took about 12 hours overall. I am very methodical and organized about my dahlias, so I don't ask for or need any help. I dig all the holes, distribute my amendments (compost, earthworm castings, azomite, and Osmocote), then bring the tubers outside and plant them. Found room for 10 more yesterday, too! Now I must start selling/donating tubers, so I don't dump a couple hundred in the compost bin come mid July.

I also don't understand people who don't plant anything at all. Gardening is not for everyone, but there are so many low fuss perennial flowers that would just brighten a landscape up with minimal effort required. Then again, I live on a busy main street, and sometimes I just have to be happy if my neighbors actually mow their darn lawns.

Melissa: good for you for a large task done! I can imagine 12 hours is a lot of work. But imagine all the blooms you will have in the end. Fantastic!

I didn't get any planting done yesterday between the rain and a cookout. We did get to the big greenhouse but it was well empty of items. So I'm still on the look out for helenium. I plan to stop on our way to clinic tomorrow and see if I can find it there.

I'll post one of my dahlia leaves. I find it so interesting the leaf shapes and colors they can all be too as so different from each other.

I do hope I can get a bunch done today. I feel so behind - if I can get the planters done and then maybe I can plant in the garden. Then it will just be the three beds (dahlia included) to get done.

I'm totally drawing a blank: when I plant my tubers that I started in the house, how deep should I place them outside in the ground? I forgot to write that note down last year and I need some help. I remembered to write down fertilize and stake at planting but not the depth.