2024 Variety Highlight- September
It’s been awhile since I’ve done a variety highlight so let’s go. There’s not really a theme to this- these are just some varieties I’m loving right now. Some are new to our field, some we’ve grown a few years.
Copper Boy
Copper Boy- Red seems to be getting popular again. I’m getting more and more requests for it. I’m glad, ready to move on from the burgundy phase. Copper Boy is gorgeous, shorter dahlia but cut deep and you’ll get some good stems.
KA Cinder Rose
KA Cinder Rose- A lot of my new KA’s died off in the July heatwave, but this beauty stayed strong. And she’s given me several stems already. Only her first year here but showing good potential- here’s hoping for some good tubers!
20th Ave Gwen
20th Ave Gwen- this has been a pleasant surprise. I’m not sure if I ever even saw it bloom last year. If so- I think it missed it. But it’s gorgeous, well worth the wait. This is a dahlia you want to let open a good bit on the plant because the color develops more as it opens. It softens and takes on some peachiness on the lower petals.
Normandy Bright Day
Normandy Bright Day- I was expecting the color to be a bit more vibrant but it’s a beautiful peachiness which I’m not sad about! First year here but it definitely gets a pass to keep growing.
Doodlebug
Doodlebug- I’ve been growing this for a few years and I just keep thinking it gets cuter and cuter. It’s a smaller size than most of what I grow but has a certain sweetness to it. It also blends into any fall palette!
Diana’s Memory
Diana’s Memory- this is an old favorite. I lost it a few years ago because she’s not a great tuber maker. But she’s always been a favorite blush so I decided to try again. Will she make good tubers? Well we’ll know in a month or so.
End of Season Dahlia Checklist
It’s time to begin your end of season tasks. Yes- I know they really just got going good, but some of these tasks you need to do now!
So to prep your dahlias successfully for over winter and next year:
1. Make sure they are labeled properly. Double check every plant and make sure it’s tag reads the correct variety. I use old vinyl blinds (the cheap kind), cut them up and write on them in pencil. It has never failed me! If you are digging your dahlias, zip tie it to the base of the plant.
If you have a mislabel that you can’t identify, try posting in Dahlia forums on Facebook, asking friends, check with the supplier- there are multiple ways to figure it out. And if I can’t find the actual name, I just write a description- that way I know it’s not what the original label said it was.
2. Figure out when you need to stop fertilizing. Look up your average first frost date and then work back a month from there. After that point, don’t fertilize any more. You don’t want to encourage a lot of new growth towards the end of the season. Just let your dahlias focus on tuber growth during the last month. If you don’t wait until frost to dig your tubers, just stop fertilizing about a month out from when you will dig.
3. Decide on your winter storage method. We’ll talk more in depth about this later but decide if you are going to dig or leave your tubers in the ground.
4. Make your wish list for next year. Decide who you want to add and who’s getting the boot to make room for new additions.
Where are they now?
Today it’s the dahlia version of “Where are they now?” I decided to share updates on the varieties that I’ve written about in the past and how they fared in the extreme heat/drought of 2024’s summer.
Last fall I released a list of 5 varieties that really stood out to me as being potential great cut flower varieties. But in 2024, I’ve seen some different results (this is why I grow a variety minimum 3 years before I’ll add it to my “must grow list for the hot South.”)
1. All That Jazz- well I’ve yet to see a bloom, they are barely at bud stage. The plants are small and have struggled despite being in a slightly cooler spot than a lot of other varieties. We’ll see if this one gets to stay.
2. Cryfield Harmony- Can’t speak to this one b/c as I said last year- it’s a great cut flower— For cool weather growers. So hopefully some of you tried it out!
3. Caitlyn’s Joy, Copper Boy, and Tahoma Curve- I’m grouping these because they’ve all done excellent. Tahoma had a bit of spider mite damage but pulled through it well. I’ll continue to keep these in my collection.
4. KA Mocha Katie was also a special mention and it has done exceptionally well. Got attacked by spider mites but just keep right on growing and has been a steady producer for weeks now.
Below are all the photos of these varieties:
Out of Your Control
One unintended benefit of writing a newsletter that goes out across the country is that I can tell by the number and the content of the emails I get what kind of year it’s been for growing dahlias.
And this year- it’s been rough! I don’t always follow the weather across the country but I do know that the extreme heat/drought in July that a large majority of us experienced was brutal and caused a lot of loss.
Hamilton Lillian
At the end of July I walked around my field with a clipboard. I took notes on every variety- I figured it would be a good time to see who’s really heat tolerant. But what I kept seeing over and over again- was the phrase: “xyz caused by extreme heat”- insert spider mites, powdery mildew, etc- whatever was the case for you.
At first I was really bummed and very frustrated. I knew my dahlias were almost a month behind where they should have been. But then I realized something….
We had been consistent. We fertilized when we should have, we controlled pests when they attacked, we removed old leaves to allow air flow, we netted on time. To be honest, we got it really right this year.
But the weather had other plans- And nothing we could have done would have changed that. We did everything we could have and should have but at the end of the day- the weather is out of our control.
So I took a few days and accepted it. I adjusted my mindset and realized that we are going to have a killer season once we get to mid- September. The dahlias are just going to be a little later this year. But on the plus side- October weddings are going to be gorgeous!!
What if you are new to growing and didn’t know to fertilize, control pests, etc? Well- it’s not too late. Fertlize them soon. Look around on this blog- there’s lots of info about bug control, fertilization and general dahlia growing knowledge. It will still make a difference for this season.
So if you are frustrated - hang in there. It’s going to get better. The weather is already getting better. Fertilize, water, control your pests and be patient a little longer. The blooms are coming!!
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**You may have noticed I said “we” a lot in this post. I couldn’t have done it this year without my incredible team. There is absolutely no way the dahlias would still be alive without them. They are amazing- Sophie, Nonah, and Josie- You ladies are the best!!
Hapet Champagne
Water Water Everywhere!
It’s hurricane season here in the south and most of the coastline is bombarded by rain at the moment. But what does that mean for your garden and your dahlias?
After growing dahlias through almost 10 hurricane seasons, you pick up a thing or two so here’s what I do to prep my fields for nasty weather.
Holly Hill Black Beauty
I live in the Upstate of SC so not quite the crazy of a full blown hurricane up here. But we do get tropical storms occasionally. (I honestly hate those b/c if were are getting a tropical storm I know my coastal friends are getting slammed with a category 3+ Hurricane. There’s not much you can do in that case.) So really this is advice to get through nasty thunderstorms and high wind.
Preparation is key. It starts from the day you plant your dahlias. Good drainage is your best friend in a heavy rainfall and high wind situation. But you have to plan for it from day 1. If you missed the boat on that this year- go make a note to fix it next Spring. You want your drainage at the level where 6-8” of water will drain off within 24 hours. Dahlias can take sitting in water for that long- it’s not great for them but they’ll make it.
Support- You will probably need extra. We use hortnova netting to support our dahlias. These nasty storms are why we use 2 layers on everything but the shortest varieties. We also went around the field with paracord and used this to tie up any dahlias that were growing outside the netting- they like to try to escape. Paracord works better than twine- paracord tightens up when it gets wet so less droopiness.
Remove the Yuck- Removing the lower leaves on your dahlias in hot climates is a common practice to increase airflow but not always possible when you grow 1000’s. But this has been such a rough summer with the extreme heat that we made time for it. Leaving all the old yellowed foliage on during a heavy rain event is going to cause some fungal problems later on down the road. Most years we only do this as needed but occasionally we have to do the whole field.
Remove the blooms. Blooms that are over the main canopy of your plants are top heavy and are going to catch in the wind and cause your whole plant to sway more from side to side- therefore pulling at the roots unnecessarily. So we remove any blooms above the main plant canopy.
These tips will help protect against major losses in my experience. I saw a question on Facebook the other day and it reminded me of a similar incident that happened to me many years ago. The poster was asking: “Should they try to dig their dahlias to save the tubers after all the rain came through?” It appeared they didn’t have a great drainage situation and were worried about rot.
I had a portion of my field (that is now fixed thankfully) that had very poor drainage. It was mid October and we got loads of rain- standing water of several inches in between the rows. I was really worried about my plants rotting. So since it was almost the end of the season, I cut them back and dug them up. I thought I was being very clever and saving my tubers— WRONG! Removing saturated tubers from the ground is not the right thing to do. There really is something to the process of letting tubers “cure” a bit in the ground before digging. This requires drier soil (not bone dry) but soil with an average amount of moisture. Any year where we’ve had a wet period before we begin digging- I noticed we had increased storage issues during the winter. Years where we get just a bit of rainfall- they tubers always store much better. The amount of water a tuber holds going into storage makes a difference. I don’t know of any scientific studies on it or even how to measure it. But the basis of all good science is observation and observing over many years has taught me to pay attention to the moisture levels in my soil during digging season.
Moral of the story here is — Prepare ahead of time because in this time of crazy weather patterns you never know what’s going to come and I’ve never been sorry that I over-prepared!