Sulli: looked at your video - you've done a lot of work on your gardens. I always did wonder how your butterfly shaped bed turned out. And even if you found some low spots in your yard, you still had beautiful blooms to share. Some of your yellows into butterscotch piqued my interest. I don't think I have many in that range heading back to yellow. I'll have to peruse everyone's posts this summer and see as bloom season goes along.

Vals: do you have a flower farm? If I can ask, how did you make your way to land in Canada? Look forward to your dahlias too, I don't think I have more than one that tends to be dark foliage. I'll have to pay attention this summer.

@Pirl: how are you doing lady? I hope winter has allowed you to be out and about. Will your helper be joining you to plant this spring?

@Melissamaeday: do you have the warm up this weekend? Did you stop with your purchases?

Dan and Gary: hope all is well and you have your dahlia beds all figured out.

Shawn: how many will you be planting? How large is your dahliabed?

Hiya: are you to the point you'll be planting soon?

AM: today will be a scorcher at a high of 46° So after work this afternoon I'll be working on various gardening projects. I am collecting snow for a faux rain barrel (read garbage can), I hope to plant some more winter sow jugs of annuals, spray paint my lids for the dahlia labeling and maybe get some warmth while outside and sun on my nose. Does anyone else love warm up days like this when it's been so cold? To burst my own bubble, they finally have come forth to say the non accumulation of snow overnight will now be 1-3". Since they have been wrong all season long, I'll say nothing will land and we'll have frost on the car and maybe just a dusting.

Hope everyone is well! Which also reminds me I should go check the tubers as we have a new month starting Monday. Good thing I've remembered Feb is so short - it usually fouls me up with bill paying.

Happy Saturday all.

Hey, e'nuff talk about warm weather! This is ice fishing season. Don't rush things! LOL

No ice here - they said the waterways are all opening quicker then they expected. I suspect I'll read this weekend on fall-ins as per usual. Stay safe Dan and catch something storytelling big!

ScarletTricycle said: back Sulli! I always wondered how the butterfly shaped bed turned out. Sorry to hear about the job. It's been a tough year. I'll have to look at your link.

that bed is still going to have some dahlias in it, it's actually got a ton of room to add on to this spring. I got a gorgeous rose to climb the arch and have an idea about making a rose tunnel that I'm excited to work on!

I did just read Santa Cruz dahlias book on hybridizing, long term I think I'd like to work on some of my own plants but it'll be a few years before I get things established for projects like that.

I have a few of the KA dahlias coming as cuttings this year, they were hard to track down. KA is Kristina Albrecht-Santa Cruz Dahlias new introductions the last few years.

Scarlet - came to Canada 52 years ago now, and left for greater opportunities here (was a radiographer) but no, while I continued radiography (industrial) I 'hobbied' with sheep for 30 years (Tunis, St. Croix, UK Suffolks etc) while bookkeeping, and of course, with gardening in my English genes I kept making gardens but as a huge hobby and not a 'flower farm' though now I'm retired from sheep I have acres to expand into

Loved your dahlia video Sculli and I think it's an excellent idea to go from a bed of dahlias to dahlias in the beds I had a bed of 200 'spare' daylilies that I had to move as I just didn't like so many mixed colours in one spot.

That was a sweet little video, Sulli! I love seeing other people's gardens, and ANY flowers will do right now. Oooh- looking forward to seeing your KA's dahlias this Summer, too. They definitely are not easy to acquire, nor are they cheap.

Yes, Scarlet, we have a warming trend here now- FINALLY! It is a glorious 52 degrees out, and the snow is quickly disappearing. My tulips and daffodils are starting to poke up through the soil, as well. I was toying with the idea of buying some David Austin roses the other night, but added a few dahlia tubers to an ongoing open order instead. My plan is to go through all my tubers over the next few days, so I can start figuring out what I'm really going to grow.

Melissa: I've been outside in a short sleeved shirt, turned the heat off in the house for the afternoon and have the front door open so light is streaming on in! I'm ready let's go spring!

Sulli: I had gotten that book last year and attempted but let me tell you I had a heck of time waiting and waiting for the dahlia to loose its petals and do it's job of course when I got the book and by the time I had time we had the early-ish frost. Ok I'll admit it was probably on time and I wasn't ready Though I know it can be a crap shoot - what color and type of dahlias would you like to breed?

Val: there are quite a few sheep farms near me. I'd have to think they are a very gentle animal to farm. Oh heck - go big with a flower farm! Even if it's for yourself - what fun to have space and no more casual food browsers to mow them down for you. What all will you be planting?

AM: I've now got 9 pots with sprouts - does anyone else have problems with Kelvin Floodlight? That's the only one dragging it's feet, it struggled last year and looks like it's doing the same again now. Which is part of the reason I potted it up early to see what I could do with some cuttings. Well I'll still give it a chance but darn it's a slow poke.

After seeing Sullis blooms I'm ready to get mine all growing! Sorry winter can be done and let's move on I think as I age, flowers just make me happy and I enjoy watching them grow, hanging out w the pollinators and seeing their pretties.

thanks for checking out my video!

I've been going through videos and I have so much to look forward to but I also had a dream I used my flame weeder to melt snow I'm thinking my subconcious is in a rush to see some ground!

Melissa, I actually looked at my list and I could only get one or two KA's, rumor has it Stonehouse is going to open up orders on a few more but my budget is really tight this spring. I really want her Mocha series of 3, I don't know if her plants are big tuber producers so it will be interesting to see if the prices start to come down in the next year or two.

Scarlet, I have no idea what I'd try to cross. Dahlias seem to be more prone to doing their own thing when crossing or collecting seed. I have a huge interest in brown and gray flowers, I know sounds yucky but the floral industry is introducing these colors by pumping carnations, tulips, lisianthus and rose full of dye and it would be amazing to create natural versions since I try to limit chemically exposed varieties as much as possible. I will be learning about iris crosses over the next year, plan to make a list of possible cross combos and then maybe after a few tries with that, I'll go for dahlias and roses!

I also have a great affinity for contrast color combos, like golden yellow blushed with lavender or coral with blue lavender. Karmel Korn and Jowey Winnie come to mind as examples and are two of my faves.

I had peonies and daffodils peeking out then we got 2 weeks of snow, sleet and freezing rain. It's over but I still have stretches of white. This weather was nothing crazy but last year we had snow all of twice and both times my lawn was green by noon. The flipside was a May frost which killed a lot of the annual seeds I'd already sown.

I don't start my dahlias early in pots. Honestly, I can't spare the space. I should have started my tomatoes by now but keep forgetting to pick up potting soil. Soon my chrysanthemums will arrive and sit inside for several weeks. I only ordered dahlias from 2 places but am eagerly awaiting my boxes.

I also hope Mrs. I. De Ver Warner will come up again. It's supposed to be hardy to zone 5 or 6 so I left it in the ground under a pile of manure. Tried that with Mystery day too as an experiment. Fingers crossed!

Hiya: how many tomatoes do you want to grow? I planted mine yesterday because I'm not one that adheres to the correct schedule I'm a few weeks early.

AM: I've got the bulk of the dahlias under the lights and as soon as they have some length to them I'll take some cuttings. I'm interested to see if I can do this easily and keep them growing. And I'm glad they fired on up as I was worried my dividing wasn't too great. And I really don't have a lot of extra room for starting early and will feel overrun with plants for a while, but if it gets them growing sooner than not and blooming sooner I'm all for it. I felt like last year I got blooming well and then frost. I'm sure it was a normal season but it just felt short in my book.

Hope everyone is well!

No matter what I've done, I can't get my late dahlias to bloom earlier. They must have specific sunlight requirements that can't be met indoors. I once had some Penhill bloom less than a day before frost. That's just not worth it to me.

Arlene: I will see what happens. Right now I've time, dirt and tubers and I'm tired of snow and cold and green and sun are making me happier! How have you been? Have you stayed well over these last few months?

It's always worth a try. We'll all learn from your experience.

Very busy here. Had many rooms painted, new carpeting in the master bedroom, new bathroom flooring, new toilet, upholstery cleaned, four area rugs cleaned, all new blinds in the bedrooms (love the room darkening ones), and truckloads of "stuff" went to the dump. I'm getting to sorting through too many books now.

My only outdoor time has been walks to the compost to deposit kitchen scraps.

It sounds like you have a jump on spring cleaning!

True!

Bed enlargement help needed:

I'm currently doing a light study to see how it's falling in the area I'm contemplating. I'm taking into consideration later in the summer and trees. What I'd like to know is how dependent on first light until 9am is needed for growth and flowering? The dahlias have been in this bed before, but the ones that I planted further up in the shade of the house with more afternoon sun (like what I'm seeing at 11am shadow and why I'm enlarging to avoid) had a hard time flowering and growing last year. I just want thoughts on this before I ask the hubs to dig. The bed is backed by the garage and faces the southwest.

Thanks for your thoughts!

I don't know how dependent the dahlias are on light before 9 am, but I do know that most of my garden is in full sun by 9 am, and some of the plants start receiving shade around 3:30-4 PM in the Summer. That is great that you are looking at the way the light falls at certain time of day, it definitely helps to watch before you start digging! I once had a row of pots that were really struggling to grow (I assumed they were in mostly full sun), but my boyfriend figured out that my shed was shading out a portion of my patio during peak times of the day, hence the strugglefest. The garage may also reflect light, depending on what color it is (I've noticed my plants along my neighbor's fading wood privacy fence wilting in the heat).

I think I am really done ordering this season! Received my invoice to pay this morning (a vendor who takes your order in the Fall/Winter, but doesn't bill until she's sure they survived storage) and everything on my wish list was listed there. I also placed a small order this weekend, but that was more of a hidden treasure impulse purchase. A friend invited me to like a FB page, and a small hybridizer had a list of still available dahlia tubers. I saw two varieties that have been about impossible for me to acquire, so I hurriedly shot off an email and Venmoed him the $. Garden centers are starting to put product out, and I'm ready to roll!

Thanks Melissa! Yes my study was interesting. I checked every 2 hours until 5pm as we are still before daylight savings. I at least have an idea of how light is falling.

Interested to hear on your most recent purchases. I'll be looking at menards and Walmart tomorrow just in case anything needs to hop in my cart

What I consider the first day of spring is when garden centers put their dahlias out for sale. Drove to my favorite garden center yesterday and found their usual 5-6 dozen (or more) varieties of packaged clumps on shelves. I hadn't intended to buy any for a few weeks, just wanted to see what they had. But when I saw there were only 8-10 bags of Frost Nip, I decided to buy it, along with a bag of Snow Country. On the way to check out, I spotted American Dawn. I picked up a bag and it felt at least 2-3 times heavier than the others. One clump was, by far, the biggest I've ever seen in a package. Never one to pass up a deal, I bought that bag, too. When I got home I trimmed and cut off the danglers. The big clump of AD looks like I could divide and possibly get 5-6 tubers from it, though I don't know why I'd want to. The clumps were packaged by Netherland Bulb Co. I've had a few mislabeling issues with them in the past. But my fingers are crossed and prayers have been sent that these will be true to name. At $6.99 per two, I'm willing to take a chance and will blame myself if there's a problem.

I've pretty much given up on Clack's Dahlia Patch opening and assume they have closed their business.

I'll read your post after I get home but found Dutch dahlias at the grocery the only place to have them. I'll let you know the two I got when I get home.

And if any one cans, lids are starting to make an appearance slowly. Found wide mouths at the Walmart but $1 more this year - $3.28 a box .

More later!