>>Lots of growers pulls off the side buds to allow that main middle one room and energy to grow bigger. It also allows for a longer cutting stem. Some growers of the smaller dahlias prefer to not disbud, and cut the stem with two immature buds with the middle fully open for bouquets. Typically, those immature buds will not open once the stem is cut, but they add a fun design element in the vase. Some of us (me) leave them on the plant, deadhead the center blossom off when it's done, and have the fun of watching the side buds open. Sure, the flowers are smaller, but they're dahlia flowers. What's not to love? :-) For the ones I cut for vases, I do leave the buds on the stem. They look great, but like you said, don't open.

Thank you all for the great suggestions! Annie-I haven't bought the paint yet, but the color I have at the top of my pile is definately teal! :) It is a basement room with a drop celing though, so colors definately look different. I think I can pull off her current pottery barn bedding if I paint more a turquoise or aqua color, maybe even layer a plain turquoise quilt under her ccurrent quilt and layer some plain turquoise pillows and a few patterned pillows. I think I am fighting trying to keep some cream/pinks while mixing a more vibrant color. I really do prefer teal, and the aqua is

Milk here wasn’t homogenised and the cream floated to the top. ‘Top of the milk’ was considered a treat. My mil saved it and served it in a separate jug. Milk came in glass bottles with foil tops. It’s still available that way, as well as in plastic jugs. The foil is colour coded. Silver top is full cream milk. Gold top is even creamier, made with milk from Jersey or Guernsey cows. I’m pretty certain that nobody would serve a glass of cream.

The red leaves on the one Red Sunset is not due to chlorosis. Chlorosis does not present as red leaves but rather leaves that have a washed out, pale green, chartreuse or yellow coloring with darker veins. And that could be due to either an iron or a manganese deficiency, both of which are common with alkaline soils. With red maples the deficiency is typically manganese. There is no easy fix for this. Acer rubrum just does not tolerate alkaline conditions well and it is just not a good choice of tree for those conditions. You can do some temporary fixes addressing the Mn need but you are unlikely to get soil pH anywhere close to what it needs to be. As to the red coloring of the new leaves, I'm not sure what to attribute that to. Are you sure it is not just the flowers you are seeing? They appear before the tree leafs out and are red in color. It's definitely NOT chlorosis but possibly some other nutrient deficiency, the source of which may also be the high soil pH.