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My first dahlia from a tuber just bloomed

11 years ago

I am beside myself with joy. When I went out this morning to see if my dahlia had bloomed, it felt like Christmas morning and I was a child again. The dahlia is Mary Jo which I ordered from Swan Island, and it is just the prettiest mauve tinged with yellow. I'll come back this evening with a picture.

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avamava
Original Author

11 years ago

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Comments (16)

vikingcraftsman
11 years ago
Great news, glad you shared it with us. Now start making your list with which dahlias you want for next year. After taking pictures of course.
avamava
Original Author
11 years ago
Here you go! I love it.

My list for next year is about a mile long. The list I really need to work on is the list for where I think I can grow them in my yard.
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Planning my first Dahlia experience...
Q
Comments (4)
Hi igwiz, I was just going to add when you look at tubers in the store, try to shake the storage medium aside as well as you can in those plastic bags and see if you find any green shoots or lighter colored swellings/eyes on the non-root end of the tuber. Or if there's a cut-off stem, look at the area just below it, where the tubers connect to the stem. If you see any green shoots or swelling eyes, they are good enough to try. Also look for healthy, plump, firm tubers; not shriveled up dessicated messes. If one or two is shrivelled, fine, but make sure you get at least one healthy one showing some growth potential. Then: YES, follow dahlia jeff's advice and they should grow if the soil is warm enough, and you don't flood them with too much water too early and I'd bet my last penny you'll find they are all pretty! The east sun might not be ideal. Would they get at least 4-5 hours of full sun? Do you have an area where SE or South sun exposure would be possible? The more full sun, the merrier. I'd find some good tubers in colors you like and give growing them a try following the widespread advice on the web or here. Protecting against slugs/snails is a must: they love to chew down young dahlias! Good luck and let us know how you fare.
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Manhandled my dahlia tubers :(
Q
Comments (4)
To keep from loosing your dahlia locations...it is suggested that you plant a stake at each one when you plant. All but the miniature varieties will need staking up later as they grow, so by putting in a stake even a small one when you plant you will know exactly where to put a taller sturdier one when they get up several feet high, without impaling the hidden tuber as you stake it. After many frustrating years, I now also bury a plastic tag with the plant name along with the tuber, so when I go to dig it up after its dormant I know which one I am diving and possibly giving away tubers to. A label just stuck into the ground by it will be pulled out by chickens, crows, children, dogs, ets. Been there, done that! Last year was teh first year with 4 chickens in my garden. They pulled out all 160 labels and flung them as they were scratching for bugs! They also unburied the tops of the tubers. THis year they are no longer allowed in there when the dahlias are growing!
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First Dahlia Bloom
Q
Comments (3)
I enjoy the flower on the stem for a few days, and then let my wife cut it. In fact after a few days, if she has not cut it, then I'll do so, just to keep the plant pushing its blooms. We wouldn't want the plant to think it had entered its menopause period. No offense meant.
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New to Dahlias. help my tubers are drying out
Q
Comments (14)
Love opposing views. I have been storing dahlia tubers in plastic bags for over 20 years now and I do not seal the bag so there is some air getting in there and my success rate is outstanding. I store several thousand tubers each year. Not only do cardboard boxes wick moisture but they also can rot when they they get moist and can cause rotten tubers. And I have heard of very many people having their entire crop of tubers eaten by mice that chewed through the cardboard boxes. I experimented with the potting soil and put my best tubers in it. They stored much worse than those in vermiculite and sprouted in storage weeks before the others. Sprouting while in storage is not good. Potting soil is not a good storage medium. I would use nothing at all in preference to potting soil. Swan island Dahlias uses no storage medium and places their tubers into plastic tulip crates that are lined on the top and bottom with sheets of newspaper. There success rate is pretty good and they store several hundred thousand tubers each year. However, they have a dedicated potato root cellar for their storage facility and the temps an humidity are ideal. Off gassing does not occur in plastic bags at any rate that hurts tubers if you use vermiculite in the bag and/or you dry the tubers before storage.
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addicted2dahlias
11 years ago
What a beauty, avamava! Haven't had my first bloom yet. Waiting not-so-patiently!
Noni Morrison
11 years ago
that is so pretty! Love the color blend. Its a lot like "Wyoming Wedding" at the very end of the season when the pink in it fades and let's the other colors in it show through. You might want Wyoming Wedding to go with that one! It was my favorite out of 160 different dahlias last year.
avamava
Original Author
11 years ago
Oh, wow, "Wyoming Wedding" is a beauty. I think I'm addicted to this color palette, since I planted a bunch in the same vein: "Bliss", "Linna", and "Day Dreamer".
Noni Morrison
11 years ago
that is so pretty! Love the color blend. Its a lot like "Wyoming Wedding" at the very end of the season when the pink in it fades and let's the other colors in it show through. You might want Wyoming Wedding to go with that one! It was my favorite out of 160 different dahlias last year.
Noni Morrison
11 years ago
I don't know why but I have never seen a flower from my "Linna" even though I have tried it for 3 years. The plants seemed much spindlier then the others I was starting this year. I notice the same thing with Sheer Heaven and Bluetiful, two Swan Island Dahlias I Really loved their first year.
mytime
11 years ago
One of my favorites in the same color range is in bloom right now...it looks brighter on a sunny day! This is Bahama Mama.
hnycrk
11 years ago
Absolutely beautiful flowers!
addicted2dahlias
11 years ago
How do you get Bahama Mama to bloom in Alaska in June??? Mine doesn't even have a bud yet - but Jitterbug just bloomed, and though tiny, I like her a lot!
mytime
11 years ago
Oooh, now I think I'll have to get Jitterbug!
As to getting blooms already...I start mine in pots in the garage, then they move to the house when they get above the dirt, then to the greenhouse, and then outside the end of May/beg. of June. I have at least 6 or 7 that generous gardenwebbers sent me that I probably won't see blooms on this year. If we don't have them started early, we don't see blooms until the end of summer, and even though they are beautiful, it just isn't worth the garden space for only a week or two of bloom.
Bahama Mama is actually much prettier than the pic I posted...for some reason some of the mauve came out brown with my Iphone.
Noni Morrison
11 years ago
I do the same routine as you, down here in Puget Sound. Interesting that we seem to be on about the same time table!

Yes, I thought the brown Bahama Mama was the ugliest one I had ever seen, LOL. Glad to hear it is just a cell phone camera issue, not the flower! I LOVE Bahama Mama and felt a bit protective towards it.

I picked my Hollyhill Candystripe today. Its a first for me and so pretty. From the pictures I was afraid it would be lavender with a red stripe but its a nice candy pink with a red violet stripe which works for me.
addicted2dahlias
11 years ago
lizalily - can you post a picture of your Hollyhill Candystripe? I googled it, but am getting a purple flower, even tho the colors are listed as pink, white and red. :(

I can't wait to see Bahama Mama bloom. We've taken a number of winter vacations in the Bahamas and it would be nice to have a reminder of those times. Alas, catalog pictures and reality don't always sync, but I always enjoy seeing a new variety open.
addicted2dahlias
11 years ago
Mytime ~ If you would like to try Jitterbug, I would be glad to send you a tuber in the fall when I dig (assuming it produces some). That way you could wake it up whenever you wanted to next spring.
mytime
11 years ago
Addicted2dahlias, that is such a generous offer. I'm sending you an email.

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