Dahlias – Gerd's Garden

Posted on April 6, 2022 by Cara

February and March 2022: The Gardening Frenzy

As often happens in spring, I’m so busy doing the gardening that I don’t have the time or energy to write about the gardening I’m doing. So, here’s a summary of that’s all gone on the last few weeks.

All spring crops and spring flowers have now been sown. I’ve built two new small raised beds close to the back deck which will serve as my greens bed–several types of lettuce, spinach, and chard, as well as leeks and green onions. Herbs have been planted in my smaller greenstalk, also near the back deck. I planted some broccoli seedlings as well, but the snow/hard freeze we had at the end of March killed them off.) I also broke down and ordered some onions starts from Dixondale Farms when my leeks and other onion seedlings did not seem to be faring well; those are all now planted in my large raised beds farther back in the yard. My various onion, leek, and shallot seedlings are still coming along, and will hopefully be ready to plant out later this month.

As for spring flowers, I’ve had a lot of success with my sweet peas and pansies/violas, as well as my lobelia. My snapdragons, not so much. I put a few out before what turned out ot be a hard freeze, and they did not survive. 😦 On to round 2 of sowing snapdragons.

I also ended up purchasing a bunch of tubers/bare root plants, because I was inundated with a million garden catalogues and I only have so much restraint. I received a great looking bunch of purple viking potatoes from Gurney, but they were so fresh and juicy that when I cut them up, they all got very moldy and I had to toss them. Still chitting up are some french fingerling potatoes and red gold potatoes. Still to arrive are two types of raspberry bushes (most of mine died last year, due to some kind of disease); a trio of blueberry bushes; and some thornless blackberry bushes as well. As none of my asparagus seems to have survived the winter, despite growing very well last year, I also had put in another order of asparagus crowns.

I also picked up a new dwarf Fuji apple tree (“Reachables” variety, from Gurney) because I was finally able to find one in stock! The full-size Fuji apple I’ve tended since last spring will go to a friend with a much bigger yard. I also picked up two bare root yellow roses from Costco at $15 or so a pop, which was a great deal. (The red roses I picked up there last year are all thriving.) And my dahlia tubers are all ordered, but not shipped yet as I’m in Zone 5a/b.

Still to sow are my warm weather crops. This weekend I will finally get my tomatoes, peppers, and tomatillos sown. The flowers and all of my curcurbita crops (melons, cucumbers, squash) will get direct sown in May, as they don’t like to have their roots messed with. Also, I only have so much space left in my grown room in the basement!

Spring is definitely here, and I’m swamped. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep up with the blogging this summer, but no promises. Happy gardening!

Posted on January 5, 2022 by Cara

Garden 2021 Wrap-Up: Dahlias

This was my first year growing dahlias. I had never even heard of them until February of this past year year, when I was unexpectedly stuck at home for six weeks due to a surgery and ended up binging on gardening videos. This past spring, the flower farming world (here in America, at least) was all in a tizzy about Floret’s new book, Discovering Dahlias, and as everyone seemed to be obsessed with them, I decided to try growing a few. Over the course of my recovery (and because I was still generally stuck at home due to Covid), “a few” turned into 17 different varieties in tuber form and another three varieties of dahlia seeds. (For people new to dahlias, one of the key things to know is that dahlias don’t breed true. If you collect seeds from a dahlia and attempt to grow them the following year, it’s really a crapshoot as to what will come up. They’ll all be dahlias, yes, but the size, shape, height, and color will not match the parent flower. This being the case, most dahlias are sold in tuber form, which produces an exact clone of the previous year’s flower. And thus specific dahlia varieties are maintained.)

Here is what I ended up planting this past year:

Dahlia, Crème de Cassis	Van Zyverden (Walmart)
Dahlia, Belle of Barmera	American Meadows
Dahlia, Black Satin	Swan Island Dahlias
Dahlia, Cafe Au Lait	Skyfall Flowers
Dahlia, Cafe Au Lait	Longfield Gardens
Dahlia, Cheers	Swan Island Dahlias
Dahlia, Fleurel	Dutch Bulbs
Dahlia, Fleurel	Longfield Gardens
Dahlia, Giant Hybrid Mix	Johnny’s Seeds
Dahlia, Karma Choc	Terrain
Dahlia, Noordwijks Glorie	Longfield Gardens
Dahlia, Redskin Mix	Pinetree Seeds
Dahlia, Unwins Mix	Baker Creek
Dahlia, Kelvin Floodlight	Van Zyverden (Walmart)
Dahlia, Emperor	Breck’s
Dahlia, Southern Belle	Swan Island Dahlias
Dahlia, My Forever	Swan Island Dahlias
Dahlia, Mary Munns	Swan Island Dahlias
Dahlia, Belle of Barmera	Swan Island Dahlias
Dahlia, Vixen	Swan Island Dahlias

There were actually several more tubers I tried to grow, but once I sprouted them and tried to plant them out, I found that they were covered in crown gall.

Of these varieties, my strongest growers by far were the Kelvin Floodlight and the Fleurel. Fleurel was the first variety I purchased, and as it arrived looking dehydrated, I ended up buying it from Longfield Gardens as well. However, even the dehydrated tubers sprouted reliably. Kelvin was a impulse grab from Walmart’s bins. Both grew about 3′ tall and produced blooms 7-10″ wide. They were just gorgeous. (However, when I lifted them this fall to store them, the Kelvin tubers definitely had gall and the Fleurels looked like them might as well, so I’ll be starting with new tubers this year.) Another show-stopping dinner plate dahlia was the Belle of Barmera. I intend to grow all three again this year.

I had several non-dinner plate dahlias. Of these, the ones that grew best were the Southern Belle, Creme de Cassis, Emperor, and Vixen. Of these, my favorites are Vixen, as it looks exactly like a Disney-fied rose, and Southern Belle, which has a gorgeous array of sunset colors.

My Creme de Cassis only grew true for one of my tubers, however; the other produced a peachy large bloom with a huge open center. The plant grew 6′ tall and was extremely prolific–producing many more blooms and earlier than any other dahlia I grew this year. None of my Cafe au Laits produced a true Cafe au Lait either–just similarly colored 4″ blooms. And there were several other dahlias that didn’t match their names, or I honestly couldn’t remember which one was which, but even so, I ended up with huge bouquets of flowers from August until frost, which for us this year wasn’t until the end of October.

From left to right: “Creme de Cassis; “
“Cafe au Lait”; and Kelvin Floodlight

I’m looking forward to another large crop of dahlias this year! I have a bunch of new varieties on the way. 🙂

Posted on March 7, 2021March 7, 2021 by Cara

Ordering Live Plants, part 2–Flowers

I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time watching gardening videos on YouTube this past year. Between quarantine and my knee surgery, I have’t been able to do much; and with this long winter, I’ve needed to be reminded that the green will come again.

I’ve found a lot of vloggers I like, but the downside (?) is that they’ve inspired me to expand my garden from just veggies to include flowers–most of which I’ve never even heard of, much less grown. And many of them are not grown from seed.

Dahlias

Dahlias seem to be the big flower this year. Floret Flowers, a small family flower farm in the Pacific Northwest, is very influential in the cut-flower industry (the flower version of market farmers). They just put out a new book on dahlias, Discovering Dahlias, which has really amped up the buzz. Dahlias are one of those weird plants that have a huge amount of variability in their DNA, so the only way to guarantee what type and color of flower you’ll get is to divide up a tuber (or take a cutting from a growing tuber). You can grow them from seed–I’ll be doing both this year–but with the seeds, it’s a total toss up what type of dahlia you’ll get. The seed mixes I’m planting are Unwins Mix (Baker Creek); Redskin Mix (Pinetree Seeds); and Dwarf Cactus Mix (RH Shumway’s). They will not be as big nor as luxuriant as the flowers from the tubers, however.

Dahlis are a bit finicky; the are not frost hardy, and so in my zone (5a/b) we have to dig them out each fall and store them overwinter. The bonus of this is that, like most tubers, they multiply when they are planted; you’ll usually end up with more than you started. (Which is awesome, because dahlia tubers are expensive.) Swan Island is the oldest dahlia farm in the US; and Floret Flowers usually grows dahlias ,but took this year off so they could build up their stock again. Both of these farms are pretty expensive, however. The best prices I’ve found on dahlias (non-wholesale) is from Longfield Gardens in New Jersey. However, no matter which company you try, most dahlia tuber varieties are already sold out. The ones I’ve ordered are scheduled to be delivered mid-April.

Here are some of the dahlias I’ll be growing from tubers:

“Dinner plate” dahlias (7″-10″ blooms) Left to right: Fleurel; Lavender Perfection; Noordwijks Glorie; Thomas Edison; Vancouver; and Cafe au Lait. Cafe au Lait is considered one of the most desirable dahlias, and is often used in bridal bouquets.

Other dahlias–“Pom Pon” Dahlias (4″ blooms) Left to right: Black Satin; Cheers; Great Silence.

Ranunculus

Those darn YouTube gardeners have also turned me on to another type of flower I’d never heard of: ranunculus. Ranunculus are grown from corms (kind of like really small tubers) and from what I understand, they are almost as pretty as dahlias but are not nearly as finicky. They like cold weather and can be planted as soon as soil can be worked. Of courser, my orders won’t be delivered until mid-April, as that’s when the flower companies have decided that they should be planted in my zone, but next year I should be able to get them in the ground much sooner. I’ve decided to go much less dramatic with the ranunculus colors as well. Left to right: Picotree Red/Yellow (Longfield Gardens); Tecolote® Pastel Mix; and Tecolote® Rose (Easy to Grow Bulbs).

Finally, I’ve also ordered my absolute favorite flower, Night-Blooming Jasmine. Night-blooming jasmine is actually not a real jasmine; it’s a jessamine, which is a member of the nightshade family. Technically night-blooming jasmine is not perennial in my area, as they can’t handle frost; but I’ve been told that if I keep them potted and bring them inside to overwinter, they should survive. So that’s my plan. 🙂 I absolutely *love* the smell of their flowers; regular jasmine just does not compare, and I’ve desperately missed their smell since I moved back to IL.