Stonehouse Dahlias:

"We are happy to announce that after evaluating our plants, we've decided to open our catalog again for some additional orders. A few varieties are sold out, but many will be available, including many of the KA dahlias. We are in process of updating the catalog and will have it complete by Wednesday, January 12. On that date, you will be able to see what will be available for sale.

The sale will be January 17th at 10:00am Mountain Standard Time."

Thanks for that Update Jason! I'll have to take a look on Wednesday, I ordered a couple KA's from the first sale. But may be looking to order another AC Big Mary if its available since that d**n mouse ate 3 of my tubers!

I ended up planting my 3 bags of tulip bulbs yesterday after talking briefly with a farm here who grows all of theirs inside. I completely forgot I knew this and I should have reached out to them sooner. She said it was about 8 weeks to bloom after they'd been chilled for her..... and we are 5 weeks away to V day!!! hahaha. She said get them planted ASAP so that's what I did. I put them on a shelf on my seed rack under light. I think you are actually supposed to gradually wake them up, but I have no patience for gradual. Hope they don't turn to mush or something!

Also started a tray of Verbascum- Southern Charm. More things to start soon, but I need to hook up the rest of my lights first.

Looking at going through the tubers on Sunday and spraying with bleach solution then if I have time I'd like to go through all of my friend's, which I have not done yet. I'll also be looking for further divisions and taking new counts of everything of hers. I do hope her Salish Twilight Girl looks good. I keep seeing people looking for this one! It's on my list for cuttings.

Scarlett- not sure what Floret's business plans are currently. I imagine she is still selling cut stems to florists in her surrounding area. I think she brands herself as a cut flower farm and seed company... however I do not know which, if any, of her seeds she processes herself. She could be importing and repackaging everything for all I know. I don't follow in THAT great of detail. Sadly, I'm more about the drama of her fans hahaha though I did "unfollow" that group over the weekend. Trying to clean up my newsfeed so I am not tempted to buy more seeds. No idea on her plans for her tubers. I've wondered if she is going to try and trademark her varieties she is creating or something. I've noticed there is not a lot of discussion regarding dahlias in the fan group and any of it is surrounding her seeds. I really feel like, whether she realizes or not, she is shifting the dahlia trends with consumers to be more towards open centers etc. On one hand I feel beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all flowers deserve love and these imperfect forms have long been in the dahlia community... but it seems more like she likes them and now everyone is following suite. (Another one of my like what you like people! rants ) then on the other hand, I wonder how long time hybridizers feel about this. Almost seems somewhat discrediting of their hard work? Since objectively speaking is is a lot harder to get the the more perfect blooms they are creating. I've heard her mention before she focuses on growing flowers that do not ship well to promote local flower sourcing, so I also wonder if that is part of her dahlia breeding. High petal count dahlias already don't ship great, but lower the petal count and its impossible!

Funny enough I told my sisters they could look through my flower photo album and let me know if there is anything they liked so I could give them any extras... and my one sister (unknowingly) selected a good few of my Floret seedlings!

I was curious. I tend to not pay attention too greatly to anything Chip and Joanna or Martha touch I'm not a fan of ship lap, French provencial, white and black decorating, high end everything etc. and since magnolia is featuring them, I'm not digging it. I at first was intrigued but as time has gone on etc, I'm less impressed. I know it's important to market one's business but at the same time there can be something called over saturation of the marketplace. I know you had mentioned the open centers before. That's too bad - I do like the concentric and closed centers myself. I do like collarettes for their pollinator appeal but it's sad to see the changes and what my gram would say is the lemming effect.

Did you find any more mice? I hate those things, but nothing by my dahlia crates this time for checking. We'll have to look this spring at where they might have gotten in but that can be something super tiny darn shape shifters!

When do you think you'll start your dahlia seeds? I know KA has a much longer growing season but my concern is how long it will take them to sprout. She says 3-20 days usually 5. But with my luck everything will be a full month! and do you think if starting them they'll grow lots quicker then a tuber or will they be slow being under the lights?

Can you tell I'm anxious to get going?! Oh and I need help w what is best for bells of Ireland. My starts fizzled last year in my winter sow jugs and what I seeded into the earth never came up. Any help would be great.

Temp is 17 with a high of 25. Weather experts aren't shy about issuing winter weather and lake effect snow warnings. The 1-3" forecast for Sunday night was a total "no show". Yesterday's 3-5" didn't happen at all and last night's 1-3"... nada! There has been nothing but a few lonely flurries. I wonder what weathermen do for drama in parts of the country where it's sunny and warm 90% of the time. Must get awfully boring!

I've tried to contact Clack's Dahlia Patch for two years. None of my Emails were answered. I don't do social media but could see enough of their Facebook page to see that someone recently asked if they'd be doing mail orders this year. They said "yes" and gave a different Email address than the one I had previously used. I sent an Email and asked about the availability of 15 varieties from their old catalog. Saturday night, Ginger Clack answered and said she would probably have 10 of the 15 available for sale. The other five were poor tuber producers and of course, one of those five was Homer T! She said her daughter is working to get their website up to date. Mary, fingers are crossed for your Homer source!

I still haven't gotten around to using my credit from American Meadows but the prices for bags of 3 clumps recently went from $12-14 to $14-16. Yesterday, I got an Email showing a 25% off sale! But the regular prices have jumped again, now up to $16-19. If their history holds true, early this spring the "regular" prices will rise to $26-29 but...... there will be a 50% off sale!! What a deal! I'm seriously considering using the credit for gift certificates and letting others deal with this.

Scarlet, I've been on the cabbage/tomato soup "thing" since Sunday. I've only had the soup, bananas and a few granola bars. Seems I can control the hunger by having several smaller bowls of the soup spaced a couple hours apart. I'm going to try again today and then reward myself with a venison stir fry tomorrow. I put my home gym together last week. Using that takes my mind off eating. I'm sore but it's a good soreness.

I watched that video but would never, ever drive any vehicle out on the ice. I can remember seeing a car used to drive on the ice that had the doors removed and the top cut off. I wonder if the guy on the bike had snow/ice tires. LOL

Oh that's a yearly thing between Madeline Island and the mainland. No thanks! Even being on the ferry in normal summer weather was a tad creepy knowing how deep Lake Superior can be. totally freaks me out! I know how to swim and was on that water in August and it was still like 55° the day we were in it.

Yay for good dieting. I haven't started! I'm really low on energy since getting this crud. Unsure why. So I'm taking it easy today. At least Christmas is all toted back up awaiting the hubs to take to the basement.

My snow melting is going really slow and I only got one gallon out of yesterdays. There was still a clump of snow this morning in it. Ah well, as long as I can fill jugs before I need to use them I'll be ok.

I'm ready to get growing!

Haven't checked for mice yet, but hoping they wont be as tempted to venture into the garage where it is colder... Also they should be less easily accessed now with less things for them to climb onto to get to them. I'll find out Sunday when I tear everything apart!

I have my fingers crossed for Homer T too! I also emailed a dahlia vendor last week. I know not usually my thing and I didn't want to be a bother, but I was really starting to wonder about PMO/ if the new site would ever be up. I had been getting sale/trade requests for Born Sty which I sourced from PMO which made me really wonder about their sale this year. I don't have enough to share really so I had been telling people where I got mine but didn't know when a shop would be open. Anyway I was pleased to find out she wrote back last night saying she will likely have a shop instead of email order this year and maybe in Feb with preview beforehand. My tubers were not the prettiest I've seen but I think all but one grew which is more than I can say for most of the others I placed orders with.

It's looking like June for the wedding ceremony... which should prompt me into high gear for getting into shape, but I'm still a bit reluctant... eating 240 cal soup for lunch.... but had some aldi brand tagalongs for breakfast I'm not dress shopping til I shed a few a couple of my sisters have said they're going to use the wedding as motivation since they don't want to look too large in the photos so hopefully we can encourage each other

Yay for a June wedding! What flowers will you do? Swim! Swimming laps even if you just use a kickboard will help you tremendously.

I'm marking off what I hope to plant next to one another in the dahlias and then I need to noodle the annuals next to them.

The snow can go! It's a heat wave here today with a high of 26°. My bucket of snow is still slow. I would have hoped that would go quicker but I have never been a patient person.

Is anyone else getting the itch to play in the dirt?

ScarletTricycle said:Is anyone else getting the itch to play in the dirt?

You have no idea. Our frost-free season ends around May 16th. That's when we get to play in the dirt, aside from the wildflowers we plant in Feb-March. Well, I guess if you count germinating seeds and taking care of seedlings as "playing in the dirt," then we get to start that (aside from peppers, radishes, and wildflowers, as I mentioned) sometime around beginning of April. Our gardening schedule is very tight in SD.

Thanks for the intel on PMO, Mary! I wondered if she would finally go the shop route vs the exhausting email one. I've been checking her status on DA, and am waiting for Dahlia Vacation and Mountain Diva Gardens to open, along with Productions in Canada so I can decide what CA vendor I'm buying from this year. Congrats on deciding on a wedding month, too! You left the Floret FB Fan Club? Not sure why she's veering towards open centered types, as they make crappy cut flowers, but maybe she wants to sell certain types to vendors and introduce the open centered ones as her own? Doesn't make any sense to me, but people will blindly follow anyway.

Scarlet, I'm starting to itch for dirty garden hands again, too. Hope you start feeling better soon! Our annoying health director has mandated masks again as of midnight tonight, and people are pissed. My friend tested positive for Omicron a couple of weeks ago, she is vaccinated, and interestingly enough, neither her boyfriend or I tested positive or got sick (neither of us have gotten the jab). Tired of all of it.

Dan, that's good news that Clack's got back to you. Someone told me a couple of years ago that they are happy with 15-20 orders. Guess they aren't buying into the whole dahlia madness thing! Kudos to you for the cabbage/tomato soup diet, uh the sound of it makes me nauseous, but if you know it works it might be worth the pain.

I've heard mixed on the peeps w the jab and illness. The hubs and I are dealing w what we think fell into a cold circa 2018. Since neither of us had one last year it was like a whole new type of illness. My whole family is just ready for normalIty.

But if you do need a test and you do go through your clinic good luck on timely.

Man, yesterdays dirt playing was a brief taste if you will. It felt good to be getting things growing in bigger pots. I need to do the geraniums soon and then more cuttings of the cuttings. I've got about 6 coleus in water on my kitchen table as they are heavy drinkers waiting to send out roots.

I've got one more place I'd like to buy from but haven't seen when they'll open. And you know in the end who knows what I'll get from what I ordered. I can hope right?! I hate this time of year between now and March. It's very long for me and I hate cold. My plants keep me busy and thinking ahead.

But I am ready to get going! I'm done and over waiting for spring to get here. Maybe I should bid decorate my front door for valentines.

Yeah I'll be interested to see how her shop looks. Same with Cowlitz. Does anyone have any updates on that? I think i signed up for emails, but can't remember. I am pretty certain I'll be ordering from Productions if you decide to go with another I can include yours and forward with any trades.

I just unfollowed it for now hahaha. So I can go look at it if I want to. 60+ posts a day is too many. It may chill out once seed shopping is done. When I first joined I was surprised there was some helpful gardening posts, but I have other groups for that. I kept cracking up every time I'd see this one member comment who didn't seem to be very impressed. This person seems to be mainly a sweet pea farmer in Australia or something and was upset Floret was telling people to soak their seeds. I also saw one of the admins share she would do some how to's on her IG page... the sweet pea lady commented asking if she was a professional horticulturist as she would only take advice from a professional etc.... I thought that was a little snobby, but after viewing the poster's IG page and seeing she's only been in the flower farming business for a year... I thought maybe she was just doing that for followers... she somehow had a few thousand, but only with 20 some posts which is a red flag to me.

All I know is I'm not about to do any how tos I sometimes share how I do things, but not really with the intention of educating because I think that would be somewhat of a disservice to the actual professionals.... but also I don't want people coming at me with lots of Qs either because they'd probably be things I couldn't answer and I'd look dumb! (at least to myself, they might be dumber and not know any better )

I absolutely hated that I felt obligated to share tuber digging/dividing videos on my website, but I sold tubers to many new growers last spring who were asking about that at the time of the sale, so I said I would share things on digging later. I believe this page is still up if anyone cares for a good laugh

I'm still battling a little bit of a runny nose, but yes the Covid nonsense seems to never cease. My sister who works part time at a local university got an email about submitting vaccination status... though she currently works 100% remote. All of the info on omicron just seems like they are spinning a wheel with random guidelines or info. It definitely seems current vaccines are less effective on it, but should that matter if it is less severe? Though if it really was less severe, I'd think the death count would be lower right now? And having Covid (even Omicron) still counts for nothing.... ? like I said they are spinning a wheel!

I ended up getting from the first sale:
KA's Mocha Maya
KA's Papa John
KA's Bo Peep

They sold out so quick. I tried to login in five minutes early and I could so I bought them. Even then the servers were so busy it took a little bit to complete the transaction.

Hope you can get your AC Big Mary!

petespetals said:Thanks for that Update Jason! I'll have to take a look on Wednesday, I ordered a couple KA's from the first sale. But may be looking to order another AC Big Mary if its available since that d**n mouse ate 3 of my tubers!

I ended up planting my 3 bags of tulip bulbs yesterday after talking briefly with a farm here who grows all of theirs inside. I completely forgot I knew this and I should have reached out to them sooner. She said it was about 8 weeks to bloom after they'd been chilled for her..... and we are 5 weeks away to V day!!! hahaha. She said get them planted ASAP so that's what I did. I put them on a shelf on my seed rack under light. I think you are actually supposed to gradually wake them up, but I have no patience for gradual. Hope they don't turn to mush or something!

Also started a tray of Verbascum- Southern Charm. More things to start soon, but I need to hook up the rest of my lights first.

Looking at going through the tubers on Sunday and spraying with bleach solution then if I have time I'd like to go through all of my friend's, which I have not done yet. I'll also be looking for further divisions and taking new counts of everything of hers. I do hope her Salish Twilight Girl looks good. I keep seeing people looking for this one! It's on my list for cuttings.

Scarlett- not sure what Floret's business plans are currently. I imagine she is still selling cut stems to florists in her surrounding area. I think she brands herself as a cut flower farm and seed company... however I do not know which, if any, of her seeds she processes herself. She could be importing and repackaging everything for all I know. I don't follow in THAT great of detail. Sadly, I'm more about the drama of her fans hahaha though I did "unfollow" that group over the weekend. Trying to clean up my newsfeed so I am not tempted to buy more seeds. No idea on her plans for her tubers. I've wondered if she is going to try and trademark her varieties she is creating or something. I've noticed there is not a lot of discussion regarding dahlias in the fan group and any of it is surrounding her seeds. I really feel like, whether she realizes or not, she is shifting the dahlia trends with consumers to be more towards open centers etc. On one hand I feel beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all flowers deserve love and these imperfect forms have long been in the dahlia community... but it seems more like she likes them and now everyone is following suite. (Another one of my like what you like people! rants ) then on the other hand, I wonder how long time hybridizers feel about this. Almost seems somewhat discrediting of their hard work? Since objectively speaking is is a lot harder to get the the more perfect blooms they are creating. I've heard her mention before she focuses on growing flowers that do not ship well to promote local flower sourcing, so I also wonder if that is part of her dahlia breeding. High petal count dahlias already don't ship great, but lower the petal count and its impossible!

Funny enough I told my sisters they could look through my flower photo album and let me know if there is anything they liked so I could give them any extras... and my one sister (unknowingly) selected a good few of my Floret seedlings!

Jason! Do you grow quite a few dahlias?

I know I think I ask this yearly - how do you all decide (besides height) what you plan to plant next to one another? Do you keep like shapes? Colors? Or just throw it all to the wind and you grab a tuber and stick it in the dirt? Since I've got time (ok I am avoiding such grand projects as deep cleaning!) and I'm playing with my planting map I thought to ask yet again. I'm trying to avoid pockets of similar color and I know nothing blooms all at the same time - but you know how it can go when micromanaging a garden.

Still can't sleep. Wonder what I can do to change that besides some serious ear plugs.

Happy hump day.

Nice Jason! We got two of the same- I got KA's Papa John & Mocha Maya. I had KA's Cloud ordered from another source, but it got canceled so I'll be trying for that from Productions in Canada (cheaper anyway!) I also want KA's Champagne. I'd like a Khaleesi too, but I think a member two of my dahlia society grew it last year, so I am holding out with the hopes of getting a tuber or cutting locally.

Not sure if I mentioned what my KA's Cloud and Camano Zoe were replaced with- I'll be getting a Harry Meggos, Crazy 4 Teedy and maybe a Maki? Honestly unsure and maybe more than one Crazy 4 Teedy. I sent her a list of 10 or so from her original list I'd be happy with, but Harry Meggos and Crazy 4 Teedy were the only ones left in stock so she must have done well with her FB ordering system. I wouldn't be able to keep track unless I was jobless hahaah. Seeing on the Google- Melissa you have or had Crazy 4 Teedy?

Not seeing many other pictures, but I saw it on IG posted by Miss Madaline awhile back and thought it was pretty. She does have a small tuber shop, but that one's not listed. Very interesting though... she has Kathleen! She must have sourced it from Virgil's Dahlias- this was the last minute dahlia vendor I found that was having a clearance sale! His tubers were all really nice, I hope I can get some to grow better this year. Some got shoved in a crappy corner of my garden and didn't perform well. I did get at least one Kathleen nice bloom.

I just checked his site for this year. Not open yet.... but he has a photo of Blyton Everest.... did he have this one last year and I was just ignorant about its rarity in the states? Either that or it was out of stock when I got to the sale. Remember I just posted on FB looking for this one for my BIL who found a photo of it on Reddit and decided he wanted it though he's never grown a dahlia before in his life then I got a mildly passive comment saying it's probably not here yet since its a UK variety.... well guess what NANCY it's here. I will obviously now be keeping a sharp eye on this hidden gem of a dahlia vendor hahaha.

Been a minute since any dahlia pics have been shared. I probably shared this before, but here is a photo of Kathleen.. It seems to vary in the amounts of pink & yellow. Mine was more yellow.

Wonder what his prices will be like this year. I think even at full price they were not high.... however this one is listed as $16 on the other vendor's site.

Mary: have you scheduled dahlia care in between wedding readiness? Yay for finding more sources. I'm heading to menards today while kid2 is at an appointment and will look at various things I think I may need. Too early to check for tubers. When are you starting your dahlia seeds?

AM: will be heading outside here in a bit to load my bucket with more snow. Only 6 more to fill. No I'm not going to drag in any more buckets. I'll do this a bucket a day. I may compact everything down today as it now looks like packable snow so maybe I can get more in my bucket.

I aim to get different bulbs for my lights. They told me I could use LED bulbs but they are marked to check the ballast if using in a traditional fixture. Fire and all. BTDT so those will go back. It says they have quite a few bulbs now in.

I'm ready to get going with my planting.

I think I'll start dahlia seeds end of March or early April. I already know I need more grow lights. The new shelves I got are 4 feet wide and deeper so the 3 ft lights I got aren't cutting it. I have 2 for one shelf right now. I thought if I somehow enclose the sides to conceal the light in more that would help? Not sure but buying 2 lights per shelf could possibly still be cheaper than buying the 4ft ones... 3ft are $16 a pop but I think the 4ft were a lot more. Maybe they had more bulbs. I'll have to look more. For now I need to hook up what I have and get the rest of the slow things started. Mine are all just LED hanging light fixtures I got at Home Depot. They came with the bulbs. I was looking at the work lights. Too bright?

Looking back at photos I must have started seedlings mid Feb last year.... then my Floret ones much later. I found a video with 1 inch sprouts on Feb 23 and potting them up the first week of March... they grew faster than I remembered. Cuttings were in late March. That seemed to work out ok with my one cutting that worked! Perhaps I'll start those a little earlier to account for error. I'd rather use space on potting up cuttings that I know what they'll look like than huge seedlings that could be ugly hahaha.

Mary: one of the things I do to add light - get a dollar store windshield reflector. Mine are fairly soft and pliable. I punch new holes and wrap the back of my shelf with such to help as a reflector and a tad bit of insulation from my cool basement. 4 foot tubes here - flourescent are about 3.50/ea. the LEDs are double that but again in my instance I have traditional shop light/ballast. And whatever the issue is w an LED bulb or adapter that's needed.

I've had luck with just 2 bulbs a shelf mine do just fine I'm sure they can do better w more lights, but at the same time I don't want to overload my outlets - old house and all.

Now if it were my garage …

ScarletTricycle said:I know I think I ask this yearly - how do you all decide (besides height) what you plan to plant next to one another?

"Do these plants look nice together?"

Hello! I just started last year. It was a little mixed on success due to being in Dallas and warm/hot weather. Figured out a few things and better garden locations that will help this year!

I found that September/October/November I had a 90% of my blooms even though I planted in mid-March. I had a dwarf that bloomed until January 2nd when we had our first freeze along with Bodacious. Black Satin and Vassio Megos did Ok. Juanita didn't bloom. Cafe Au Lait did very well. I got sent two Bodaciois instead of one. Both did extremely well. I had ten buds when it froze on 1/2.

ScarletTricycle said: Jason! Do you grow quite a few dahlias?