Voles will definitely eat dahlias. It is kind of a problem, because things even sold as "rodent proof" in the trade can be attacked if the vole is hungry enough, or if it just wants to dig through the area, it may not eat it, but just shred it up for nesting material. I found out the hard way when over 100 Allium 'Globemasters' didn't come up this spring. When I dug in there, the area was completely undermined with vole tunnels. Alliums are routinely advertised as being immune from rodent attack, unlike, say, tulips.

Been a while since I have been able to get back here. So Sorry!! I am down loading that PFD as I am here to see if what we are talking about, could be the same thing. I don't know where they came from but it killed an enormous amount of tubers most of them before they could come up (discusted!!) I have treated the whole yard with Ortho MAX...I hate using pesticides since I have pets. I know I put in this Flower bed about March and it had all new purchased dirt in it, so I thought they might have come from either the tubers (dahlias &/or Hostas) or maybe even the new purchased dirt. ( An unwanted bonus...Yikes!! ) Then in the flower bed that has been established for some years prior to purchasing the house I put in Cyclamen about February, and they were doing wonderful I mean really great, set seed and everything, then 3 of the 4 went what I thought was dormant...so 2 weeks ago I decided to plant other bulbs in there place, as soon as I dig them up they were sitting in these little creepy bugs, the tubers/bulbs were not damaged just the leaves, I washed them off gave them a good inspection sprayed them with a fungiside and replanted the little ones with a good dose of Ortho Max, The leaves are once again starting to come back up slowly but surely. This is why we decided to treat the entire yard...I put in a new flowerbed this weekend with Glads and young strawberry plants, I treated the bed before I put the mulch in, I have never had to put anything other than a bit of dish detergent on my Strawberries but I hope to ward off any creepy crawly root chewing scavengers before flowering season starts, once fowering season starts for my strawberries I won't use any pestisides in that flowerbed ( they better not like dish detergent ) It was a bit amusing though when I showed my husband a handful of dirt with the pesty creepy pests in it, all he said is he would be back in a bit, when he returned and he said with 2-20 pound bags of Ortho Max we will just treat the whole yard, those things are GROSS...Just to give you an idea of the over kill, I live in a Mobile home park my entire lot is 40X70!! He has since calmed down he said he would treat the yard that day ( he did )and then in another 10 days then we would do some digging in a few places to determine if we need to continue treatment or change treatments, but just to let you know my cheep Dahlia tubers that I purchased to replace the exspensive tubers, I planted last week are in fact coming up already and don't seem to be bothered by the Ortho Max or the bugs...the expensive tubers that did survive are not doing well even to this day and are always having to be treated with a fungiside, they weren't a good quality when I recieved them so I shouldn't be surprised. I hope you are doing well in the garden with your Dahlias, for me I am keeping my fingers crossed. Thanks for the information... I'll be back

The purple giant turned bright white on the tips, magenta on the middle, and deep purple in the center. It looks fantastic and is doing wonderfully. Two of them have perked up. Ive noticed a difference in the structure of the... um.. bush? and foliage. The ones that look wilted tend to be less full and bushy. Much more lengthy, Also I felt the leaves, and they are perfectly healthy, firm. Not wilted at all. But their leaves look as though they are in a state of constant wilt. Because of out heat I try and keep them in shade. Dahlias do much better here when shaded for most of the day. They definitely aren't full sun plants down here. I try to plant them where there is full morning light and dappled shaded light during the afternoon. Some of them get hit by the after noon sun for an hour or so unfortunately. During the day it averages around 87. I say this because one day its 80 and the next its 90. We rarely reach 3 digits. and normally dont go above 95. I live nearish to the coast so it helps keep things cooler. At night I would have to say we reach from 60 - 70.

I too am having a tough time with NG's this year. I think it's been mostly because of the high 90 degree temperatures. I'm watering 3 large NG pots every day now, which is getting old. Two of the pots are generally OK, but the third pot has lost almost all of its flowers. My NG pots are on our south facing deck which gets a lot of sun. But I have 2 large umbrellas which shade the pots some of the day. I moved the ill NG pot to a more shady location and I hope it recovers. Last year our NGs in the same locations were fine, but they did take a lot of watering. Next year, no NGs for my deck.