We have had a few coolish days too, but not quite that cool. This weekend it is supposed to hit 90 for the first time this year. I am a little leery of planting out the last few small plants and subjecting them to that heat. I had planned on getting the last ones in tomorrow, but I may just hold them until next week.

I think I have about 175 in the ground now. There are a couple that look terrible that I know I need to just pull. I did pull out one the other day that was obviously dying -the stem had rotted though just below the ground. I cut off the growing tip and am rooting it up - the 4" of it I kept is looking much better. It is Bowen a little white Pom that I am looking forward to.

I have never tried growing cuttings before, but this year I cut off and rooted about a dozen sprouts where the tuber sent up two or three. The all thrived. I planted out a few of them today. It will be interesting to see how they do.

It's fun to watch their progress. One long sprout ripped off the tuber so I cut the sprout back and planted it in with the mother plant. If it doesn't grow I haven't lost a thing.

I spent this afternoon mapping out my beds - I had sort of lost track of what I had planted and where some of them were.
I found out that I planted doubles of several that I hadn't realized I did (in different beds at different times).

I of course counted them up as I did the mapping and found that I have 237 planted out right now, and about another 20 that I plan on putting in when they get a bit bigger.

I think its to many! -Certainly they are to crowded for them to all do well. I plan on doing some real critical comparisons this season and culling a bunch of them. I think my space can handle about 200, but 250 is to many. I have at least five different purple ball dahlias - it makes more sense to grow several of the best ones and ditch the others.

I also have my first bloom of the season - its a little single, Bee Candy, that was a bonus tuber from one of my orders. I haven't grown singles before, but it sure is cute, and kind of amazing to have a dahlia bloom of any sort before the lilies are blooming.

Too many dahlias makes tending them too awkward. I had 60 last year, 40 this year - in a mixed garden, protected from deer. Next year I hope to have just 25 - the best of the best (I tend to dream a lot).

I have AC Paint in bloom and a good bud on Penhill Yellow Queen.

The remaining three dahlias have been planted and I've staked them so I won't step on them because the growth is barely 1/2".

Good luck with culling your collection, Geof! It is so hard to choose which ones to toss. I have a few buds on several of my dahlias that somehow survived in the ground this past winter: Kelgai Ann, My Love, and Blue Wish.

I have that I must have missed lifting last year and they're both about a foot tall already.

I am amazed that you two had dahlias survive in the ground over winter in the NE, especially if you didn't do anything special to insulate them. You must have had good snow cover this year.

Arlene - a bloom on AC paint is really surprising this early - is it one that was in the ground? or did you jump start it early?

I was surprised as well. This did happen one time, maybe 4 years ago, when I left several in the ground because I didn't care for them: of course, they're the ones that returned and were a foot tall by mid May.

Not enough snow to credit any snow cover this past winter but most of the time it was mild though we did have one zero degree day, which I assumed would have killed off any forgotten dahlias...but it didn't.

AC Paint was so huge I had to keep it in a mulch bag. I divided it a few times and ended up with five pieces but any good dahlia grower would probably have gotten 10 or 20 plants from it. These were taken a week before I planted it in the garden.
Look at the bud!

Great looking plant, Arlene! Your ACP is "slightly" ahead of mine. I'll be happy with blooms by September. LOL

No sightings or evidence of my rabbit this past week. Some of the damaged plants are trying to make a comeback. There are 6 or 8 that I will replace in the next couple days. We were close to 90 degrees yesterday and I can't even remember the last time it rained. So I'm sure the conditions aren't helping the already stressed plant's recovery. I water every other day but would love some rain. Chlorinated water is no match for the real thing.

The forecasts have shown rain at least a dozen times in the past 2-3 weeks. So far, nada. I love how Weather Underground shows the precise percentages. Friday it was 82% at 2 PM. A short time later it had dropped to 47% and later 4%. Why don't they go a bit farther and make it something like 82.3 or 82.7. Unbelievable!! LOL

Thanks, Dan. Currently I have one stake in the ground for that plant but it could use three more. The wind is horrendous today and, if it were August, the stems would be snapped off unless I continually tied the stems to the stakes.

I've had rabbit sightings but no further damage to anything here except hostas. The deer also feasted on the huge Sum and Substance. Maybe Mother Nature is trying to tell me I should not attempt growing any hosta in any garden.

WU makes me laugh with their very precise predictions. Many times we've had rain in the front, not in the back.

I found a bud on Pacific Ocean today while mowing. It is about 2 ft tall. Dahlias are looking very good. got .8" of rain last night. Everything looks fresh today.

This is my second Dahlia, that has some blooms, the first one lost its main branch and most of the buds to thunderstorm we had.

pirl said:Too many dahlias makes tending them too awkward. I had 60 last year, 40 this year - in a mixed garden, protected from deer. Next year I hope to have just 25 - the best of the best (I tend to dream a lot).

I have AC Paint in bloom and a good bud on Penhill Yellow Queen.

The remaining three dahlias have been planted and I've staked them so I won't step on them because the growth is barely 1/2".

I had AC Paint for the my first two seasons, but not it succumbed to a pest. My wife misses it, perhaps we could arrange a trade in the off season. I have a new one that may be interesting that I just purchased and is now emerging above ground. Is called Reijman's Firecracker. It is a wild looking thing in the photos.

[quote="mandolls"] I spent this afternoon mapping out my beds - I had sort of lost track of what I had planted and where some of them were.
I found out that I planted doubles of several that I hadn't realized I did (in different beds at different times).

I of course counted them up as I did the mapping and found that I have 237 planted out right now, and about another 20 that I plan on putting in when they get a bit bigger.

I think its to many! -Certainly they are to crowded for them to all do well. I plan on doing some real critical comparisons this season and culling a bunch of them. I think my space can handle about 200, but 250 is to many. I have at least five different purple ball dahlias - it makes more sense to grow several of the best ones and ditch the others.

I also have my first bloom of the season - its a little single, Bee Candy, that was a bonus tuber from one of my orders. I haven't grown singles before, but it sure is cute, and kind of amazing to have a dahlia bloom of any sort before the lilies are blooming.

Wow, I am blown away, and my mind is boggled. 237 would be an incredible sight. Are they all different? I hope you have a large garden.

"Wow, I am blown away, and my mind is boggled. 237 would be an incredible sight. Are they all different? I hope you have a large garden."


Not quite large enough apparently. My back yard is larger than a standard city lot, but I'm not on a farm or anything really spacious.

I believe this year I have about 175-180 different varieties. I about doubled the number of varieties I had last year. 60 of the plants are smaller varieties, Poms, Orchids & Anemones, & Mini FD's, and only 25 or 30 are Giants (AA,& A sized). But yeah it seems like a lot of dahlias to me too - can't wait to see them all in bloom.

I planted/replanted a dozen or so yesterday. I think I counted 149 in the ground. I dug up 8 or more that had been nibbled on by the rabbits or what I assume might be earwigs. I squished a half dozen of those hideous looking creatures yesterday. I just finished putting down Diatomaceous Earth in hopes it will prevent more insect damage. I hope I can find some Sluggo Plus tomorrow. I put the nibbled plants into planters and will wait to see if they recover.

I cleared out a 3'x8' section in the backyard garden this morning. This will be my "tuber garden" where I'll plant any left-overs and hope they will produce tubers for next year. Family and friends can't use any more plants this year and I can't stand letting them go to waste. I just more or less cram them in and don't concern myself as to whether they'll bloom or not, although some did well last year.

I'm still watering with the hose and praying for rain. The forecast shows rain several times each week but we get nothing. I water every two or three days and wondered if maybe I was overdoing it. Then I remembered the monsoon season last year (A.K.A. the month of June) and really wondered if I could overdo it. All but about three plants survived then in what looked like rice paddies.

I planted 5 dahlias on the flower beds, started those in holed rubbermaid containers with Peatmoss, they sprouted about 5"... Got them from Holland Bulbs..hopefully they grow good like some that transplanted earlier... A couple of the dahlias leaves don't have great color (not as green as the rest of them kind of lighter and splotches), anyone know what may cause it ?

I checked my live trap early this morning and found an incarcerated rabbit. Yes!! I took him to a park about a mile from here and hope he doesn't find his way back. I hope he's happy. I know I am! Now I have to hope there aren't others.

Congratulation!!

Some sort a marauding varmint was in my dahlias and vegetable garden early this morning and again this afternoon.

about 1/2 dozen dahlias have big chunks gone - they were larger plants so they will recover, what ever it was also pulled down and ate a bunch of my sugar snap peas - they are in a raised bed that is at least a foot of the ground - I have never had problems in my high raised beds before exempt for the occasional deer - and I didn't see any hoof prints. I may have a groundhog again, which is scary as they can do a lot more damage than bunnies.

So sorry to hear that, Geof.

Today I saw all lilies not in protected areas, have been eaten by the deer.