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Too Many Tubers ) Fewer Blooms

18 years ago

Is it true that the larger the number of tubers in a clump, the fewer the blooms? I read somewhere that too many tubers "sap" the energy that needs to go into producing flowers - they into the tubers instead. Thanks very much.

Anna

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Comments (6)

ginjj
18 years ago
The "experts" at my dahlia group say that leaving the tubers in the ground and letting them multiply over the years will eventually cause a decline in your flowers. I haven't noticed that to be true with mine which have been in the ground for probably 3 years or more. It can be a lot of work to dig and divide properly. The other day I dug, cut in quarters with a saw and then gently separated a few which I re-planted. The reason I divided that one was because I had way too may flowers on way too many stems!! So I guess it can go either way.
Ginny
anna_in_quebec
Original Author
18 years ago
Thanks Ginny - I wish I lived in your climate! Maybe someone from a more northern climate can chime in here? I have this massive clump which just arrived in the mail, and it is sooooo gnarled and twisted with tons of fat tubers - I don't know what to do with it, nor how to even begin dividing it.

Anna
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too many plants - too much variety?
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For claiming not to have much of a sense of design principles, I would say you have hit the nail on the head with the problem with the design as proposed. Repeating some of the same shrubs in different areas of the garden, using layers of different height shrubs juxtaposed against each other in the deeper areas, are all tried and true design approaches that make a garden more interesting. You might also consider the use of smaller perennials that combine the same foliage color or texture to knit the garden together. As a example, you could pick up on the foliage color of the Loropetalums by using some of the same foliage color Heucheras as edging, or contrast them with some chartreuse foliage such as lime green Heucheras or Acorus gramineus 'Ogon' or similar. You could also bring these same foliage and flower colors into the tree level by including a specimen Cercis canadensis 'Forest Pansy' as part of the mix. You could work with flower color in a range of the same color, picking up on the magenta flowers of the Loropetalum with complementary pinks, reds and purples or closely related flowers of the Azaleas, or Verbena bonariensis or things like Salvia chiapensis or Dierama pulcherrima. The only info you haven't given, but that does enter in to the equation, is what will go in sun or shade, and whether the plants as located are appropriate for the amount of sun. I would suggest that you relay your concerns to the original designer, and have him/her give a whirl at tweaking it. If they just don't have that certain "it", it does sound like you could probably spot the plants yourself and do your own design using the plants you've already selected, if upon reading up on them, they work with your sun/shade patterns. As an example, Loropetalum is unlikely to be as happy in full hot sun as it would be in bright shade or morning sun, and lantana doesn't bloom nearly as well without full sun. If your conditions radically vary around the yard, plants that will tolerate either conditions may be the best "glue" to hold it all together, and things like Nandina and Pittosporum tobira, while perhaps not the most fascinating shrubs, work well this way. I'd suggest dwarf forms of each as a lower level, using Nandina domestica 'Harbour Dwarf' and/or Pittosporum tobira wheeleri as lower edging, or combining with the equally useful Trachelospermum jasminoides, Bergenia crassifolia, etc. These may not all work as well in your area, but are classic dependable shrubs here in northern California. Perhaps a visit to your local botanic garden, or looking at gardens in your neighborhood that you enjoy will give you better ideas of how you could tweak your planting plan...
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Comments (2)
In pots I kept mine going well into October until a major frost did them in. That's their time then to let dry for a day or so in the garage, foliage removed and the bulb put downstairs into the coldroom to sit awaiting the ides of March to be started again. Begonia are not the fastest bloomers, they will sit for many weeks before coming into flower but the wait is worth that and more. I've made a point of pramiding a number of pots holding begonia and for the show they put on, they make the decision easy to put up with them. In the bed, annual begonia has, for me, put impatiens on the back burner. They too last until hit with killing frost, then they add their worth to the compost.
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Comments (3)
Unfortunately, I think, there's two types of growers and I do believe that advice is different depending on your goals. If you want to take a flower to the flower show, then you do things you wouldn't do if you just wanted a big bushy plant...IMO. I got hooked on Dahlias from a friend who couldn't care the least about them. He brought me a clump that had to be from a 3+ year-old plant, and it was what he had split off because that plant was "too big" for his garden. He proceeded, after several beers, to literally rip tubers off the clump and, without considering which end was up, stuffing them into various holes in my garden beds. Most grew, and were covered in many flowers. Call it luck or whatever you want, but Dahlias are left by many in the ground to grow into larger and larger clumps. I have to believe that most of those clumps have many stems. I received this year, for the first time, a clump rather than a single tuber. It is Firepot, and the tubers are about the size of ping-pong balls or a little smaller. I assumed they sent me a clump because they couldnÂt separate the tubers from the crown with enough assurance theyÂd get eyes on each tuber. Currently, each of my 3 Firepot clumps has a single sprout. Meanwhile, some of my single tubers have shown multiple starting sprouts. If I had to decide, I would let a clump grow whatever number of stems it wanted (within reason, considering how much area I want it to take up) but I would trim single tubers to a single stem. No long years of experience involved in my decision, just my interpreting what IÂve read. Cheers, Russ
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Comments (2)
I am only a few miles from you over the border in WI. I was gifted with a number of additional tubers late this year and just finished getting them in the ground last week. Last year some of my tubers didn't get in the ground till mid July. I still got blooms off of most of them, just not as many and not until September. All of them developed additional tubers, so I am able to see if they do better this year. Since you have a green house and are growing them in containers, you can always move them inside when the early frosts hit. Seems a no brainer to me.
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sierra_z2b
18 years ago
Anna, ahem I live in a northern climate! LOL!

I have some dahlias that I have been planting for years....they come out of the ground in a huge root ball in the fall.....really huge ball of tangled tubers. What I do...and I know some of you will totally freak about this but.....I slam it down on the ground, it breaks it up in smaller pieces that are more manageable. There are so many of this variety....I just toss the extras and damaged tubers in the compost pile.

Now I did that last fall.....but the clumps are still large. So after reading on here and recieving my mail order dahlias..which were just single tubers...I plan to take one clump of these and divide it up small, maybe even single tubers, to see if I get more flowers, this year. I'll be able to respond to this more accurately next fall, after this little experiment. Can you manage to get one or two single tubers off the clump that have eyes..and maybe plant the rest as a clump. Then we can compare notes in the fall.

Try doing a search on here.....this is where I got the info quite a while ago, not sure what thread now.

Happy gardening,
Sierra
plantlady2
18 years ago
If your clump gets too large the plant gets lazy & doesn't have to put out as many blooms to try to reproduce-- it just lives off the tubers. A plant that is somewhat stressed- like a dahlia trying to grow from one tuber will try harder to keep itself going & put out a stronger bush, & more & bigger blooms- & better tubers too as it's trying to reproduce itself in all way possible. If your clump goes too many years in the ground it can also start to rot because there's just too much mass there.
anna_in_quebec
Original Author
18 years ago
Thank you everyone - this dividing business sure is daunting! I find you also have to be in the right mood!
sierra_z2b
18 years ago
plantlady2,

Thank you, thank you, thank you......now I know I am doing the right thing. Of course now I will have even more of this one variety....:O I hope my new ones grow like this too. Its better to have to many than none right. LOL!

This will also give me the oportunity to practice dividing tubers without worrying about losing the variety altogether.

Sierra

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