Warm Climate Dahlias

Dahlia Game Plan 2024: Bug Control Part 2

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Last time we talked a lot about preventing bugs. Because if you can keep them out, you don’t have to worry about this second part- Controlling them!

One big point I made last time was to scout your plants. This helps to know when bugs are coming into your garden. Knowing when certain pests are going to appear year to year helps to prevent huge outbreaks of them. Using sprays as a control and spraying a few days before you predict the pest will appear may help you kill the pest in the early stages. You will need several years of data to predict this though. That’s why we talked about keeping records of your scouting expeditions into your garden. Scouting will help you get better each year.

But what do you do if you missed the signs and you’ve got a bug problem? Spraying a pesticide can be an effective solution. We stick to organic pesticides around here. We have a lot of wildlife- some intentional like our pets, pigs and ducks and some we attract due to water and food sources we make available.

Few tips about spraying before we get to what to spray.

  1. Spray early in the day or early evening. Mid Day, Full Sun spraying can burn your plants.

  2. Don’t spray if it’s very windy

  3. Try your spray out on a plant or two if you are uncertain as to how it will affect your plants

  4. Use a backpack or hand pump type sprayer for even application

  5. Always read the fine print and measure precisely when mixing your solution- Don’t Guess!!

It is possible for resistance to pesticides to build up so you also want to alternate your sprays. Always have at least two on hand.

Caitlyn’s Joy

I always keep Captain Jack’s Dead Bug Spray and a pyrethrin spray in stock. Capt Jacks is a spinosad based spray and this is a systemic- meaning it’s going to go into the plant and the bug will need to munch on your plant to ingest it.
Pyrethrins come in multiple brand names and work very similarly. Look for “OMRI” on the label if you want to ensure it’s organic.

We do maintenance spraying on a weekly basis and swap out each week. However, some pesticides allow for tighter windows of every few days if needed. If you have a large outbreak of a pest, this may be needed in order to gain control. So application frequency depends on how many bugs are you dealing with?

This is why I prefer to do maintenance spraying. I grow in a hot humid climate with lots of bugs. There’s no doubt that I’m going to have bugs that want to eat my flowers. So why wait until they damage my crop beyond repair. We spray to stay ahead of large outbreaks and also to prevent the spread of virus.

So what if you don’t want to spray? Well… to protect your blooms, you can use the organza bag method. This will give you blemish free blooms. However, you must remember that there are still lots of bugs that are eating your leaves and hopping from plant to plant. So if you have a virus on one plant, it’s moving to the next if you do nothing to control those pests. I highly recommend that if you want to swap tubers or cuttings with friends that you use some method of pest control to keep down the spread of virus. Dahlia viruses are so prevalent these days that I think we all need to do what we can!

Dahlia Game Plan 2024: Bug Control- Part 1

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I’ve been getting so many emails about how to get rid of bugs that I know you all are ready for this post! So let’s get started! This is going to be a two part series because it’s just too much for one post.

There are (unfortunately) lots of bugs that like Dahlias- at least here in my hot Southern climate. If you live elsewhere, you may be fortunate enough to not have to deal with some of these (lucky you). I like to break the common pests list into 2 categories: those that do petal damage and those that do plant damage. Some do both.

Petal Damage:
-Thrips
-Japanese Beetles
-Cucumber Beetles
-Earwigs3
-Grasshoppers

Chewed up Peaches N Cream

Plant Damage:
-Thrips
-Leafhoppers
-Tarnished Plant Bugs
-Spider Mites
***Now you may wonder- Why do we care if a leaf gets damaged or nibbled? Well unfortunately, the plant damage caused by these pests is how viruses spread. So we have to care about it. ***

Luckily, the control methods for plant damaging pests often work for petal damaging pests and vice versa. However before we get to controlling pests, let’s talk about preventing them!

Prevention is key and the key to preventing pests is to scout and observe your crops! So what does that mean?

To be an effective scouter, you need to walk your field/garden on at least a weekly basis to specifically look for pests (diseases too). We have a big field so we walk with a clip board and the camera open on our phones. Pictures are a great documentation record. You can easily track changes from week to week. After the weekly scout, notes are compared. This information will then factor into what pest control or prevention methods we will use later on in the week.

Also after several years, you’ll be able to know when certain pests are going to appear in your area. This is when prevention really plays the biggest role in your bug battle.

Common Forms of Pest Prevention:
1. Timing - Adjusting the timing of your planting can mean you avoid certain pests attacks. For example, Japanese Beetles attack the worst during late May- early July in my area. They do the most damage to petals. So by moving our planting time to May, it means we don’t have lots of blooms until August. Thus avoiding the petal damage done by Japanese Beetles.
Now, I know a lot of home gardeners leave their tubers in the ground and this means blooms in June. So what are you to do? Well, the easiest idea would be to prune your plants back in early June and delay bug development. But if you must have blooms, I’d suggest the organza bag method. It’s the most full proof for preventing petal damage.

2. Water - Water is a powerful and easy prevention method. A few years ago we started using an overhead sprinkler to cool our dahlias in the middle of the day during the hot summer months. It worked well- 5-10 minutes twice a day during the hot part of the day. However, I also noticed that I didn’t have any powdery mildew on my crop until mid fall (when we stopped using the water to cool) and also the spider mite population was very low. So I started researching to see if it was just coincidence or if there was something real there. Turns out that powdery mildew comes on during period of heat and dryness but with high humidity. So by wetting the plants down each day, we were keeping the dryness at bay and cooling them. Also the water rinses off any PM spores that might be hanging out on the leaves. Spider mites also tend to attack when plants are stressed from heat and drought. So controlling those conditions led to a lower population of spider mites in the field.
Another way to use water is to simply have water in/near your field/garden. Bird baths, fish ponds, frog ponds, etc. Water brings in beneficial insects and animals very quickly. They all need it to survive. So if you provide it, they will come. Back in 2018, we added a duck pond and frog pond to our farm as means of controlling drainage/water run off. I saw a huge increase in the number of birds on our farm over the next year. Bullfrogs like crazy too!

3. Spray - There are a lot of pest control sprays out there than can be used when pest populations are low to prevent larger outbreaks. This leads into part 2 of this short series so we’ll talk about it more next time.

Dahlia Game Plan 2024: Getting Organized- Fertilization

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The new year has begun and it’s time to get ready because dahlia season will be here before we know it! For some of us it’s only a month away and others will have to wait until late Spring.

This series is designed to help you develop a more organized approach to growing your dahlias. Today I want to introduce you to my spreadsheet that I use for tracking fertilization and pest control.

So why do I track these 2 things specifically?
- Because there’s more than just me working around here. This way my employees know the bigger picture of what is happening in the dahlia field.
- Because in a few years, I’ll have valuable data that I can use to project things like: How much fertilizer do I need to buy at the beginning of the season? When do the Japanese Beetles usually show up?
- Because it keeps me accountable to make sure my dahlias are getting cared for regularly

Today we are going to concentrate on the fertilization side. Pest Control is coming in the next blog.

First off consistency is very important. We like to eat regularly, so do our plants. Dahlias aren’t a plant it and forget it type of thing. Consistency can look different depending on your goals and amount of time. We are a commercial farm so we fertilize every week. But maybe every other week works for you or even once a month.

Just keep in mind you will see different results depending on how often you fertilize. I recommend at least every other week for the home gardener.

Sylvia, Pink Sylvia, Caitlyn’s Joy and Sweet Nathalie

Now- what are we fertilizing with? Dahlias need different nutrients at different stages. From sprout to around the 2 month mark, they need a complete fertilizer (Complete fertilizer has nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus) which has a higher percentage of nitrogen.

I really like to use liquid organic fertilizers in this instance. My favorite is to mix fish emulsion with the Rose and Flowering fertilizer from Neptune’s harvest. This gets the nitrogen to the highest percentage in your mix but also gives the plants some phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). I like to go ahead and give the P and K in the early stages because I feel it really helps out the early bloomers. They are going to be setting buds around the 40 day mark.

Once you see bud development, it’s time to swap your strategy around. Now the plants need a higher percentage of phosphorus and potassium. But you can’t neglect the nitrogen. You just don’t need as much. I especially think the nitrogen is important if you have a long flowering season. They are going to need a lot of food to keep going.

I like to use a few different things. Alaska Morbloom is great- 0-10-10. I would add a low dose of some nitrogen (fish emulsion, kelp, etc.) if this is the only fertilizer I was using. I also like the Southern Ag Bloom Booster- 10-30-20. (There are a lot of companies that make a similar product to this as well).

I do recommend taking a trip to your local nursery or feed and seed. See what they have in stock. Fertilizer can be heavy and expensive to ship. And it’s always good to support your local businesses. Remember there are a lot of similar products out there- it’s more important you know what nutrients to focus on during the different stages of growth.

Peaches N Cream

So how do we apply it? Well if you are really lucky, you have a fertigation system that feeds it through your irrigation system. Unfortunately I don’t. We use a battery powered backpack sprayer. I highly recommend the My4Sons brand. I’ve had mine for years.

You can also mix ingredients in your spraying. You don’t have to spray each one individually. But you do need to research online or read the bottle to make sure it mixes well with others. If you have an oil based product in your mix, I recommend using an emulsifier product to keep everything mixed up.

If you are working on a small scale, a watering can or pitcher works just as well. They also make hand crank sprayers. Dahlias benefit from a foliar spray because they have such broad leaves.

Coseytown Clem

Lastly do make sure you are watering consistently. Hydration is just as important as feed for the plant! Irrigation systems are pretty easy to set up. And winter is a great time to research how to do it!

So Game Plan Step 1- Get Organized and decide what your fertilization schedule will be this year.

Peach Fuzz- What Dahlias Match the 2024 Pantone Color of the Year?

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You’ve seen it all over social media in the past week- the 2024 Pantone Color of the Year: Peach Fuzz.

I gotta’ admit- I love it! It’s a beautiful warm color that makes you feel..well…fuzzy!

About 10 years ago, someone told me peach was coming back as a trendy color- I thought they were crazy and had visions of peach and blue floral fabrics from some of the old 80’s interiors in my head. But the resurgence of peach over the years has been nothing like that. It’s brought about a warm cozy feeling in a world that is wrought with calamity and strife.

Peach flowers make me really happy. I love how there are so many different shades of peach. The color “Peach” incorporates a lot of shades and can often be hard to identify when trying to fill a flower order. “What shade of peach would you like? Coral Peach, Orange Peach, Pink Peach, etc.”

But fortunately dahlias provide many options. So without further rambling, my favorite peach dahlias to get that “Peach Fuzz Feeling.”

Yvonne: All you Dahlia Lovers out there- loved this one! You sold it out fast in our Fall Tuber sale. After the pantone prediction, I’ll definitely be growing more of this one in 2024. Might even add it to my cuttings propagation list. Yvonne is a gorgeous waterlily dahlia with an early blooming habit. We were able to get two flushes out of this one this past summer.

Hapet Champagne: This one fits into the peach pink category. It also changes color a bit with temperature. It has more peach tone when it’s warmer. Then more yellow with a bit of pink outline on the petal edge when the weather cools. The petals are so fluffy and occasionally serrated on the end- I think it lends itself to the ‘Fuzz’ part of the Peach trend.

Peaches N Cream: I know— you might be tired of hearing about this one. But you can’t have a list of Peach Dahlias without it. But let me once again tell you how amazing this dahlia is: She’s productive, early bloomer (meaning you get at least 8 weeks of blooms in our climate), good tuber maker, high demand color. Really what more could you want? If you aren’t growing her yet, why not?

Brookside Cheri: I love this dahlia- she’s warm, fluffy and always has that sun kissed look. However, I’ve had trouble keeping tuber stock over the past 3 years. So that’s why you’ve never heard me sing her praises. I’m going to give her one more year to see if she can prove her worth. She’s so beautiful that I think it’s worth one more try!

NATC Mai Li- This one is a bit of a color changer- it’s definitely in the peach range during the warm part of the season but once the weather cools, it takes on some pinker tones. But I feel like the peach stage works very well in our Peach Fuzz line up. This is a variety we’ve been testing for 3 years. And it’s on the list for propagation into full scale wholesale production!

I feel like for once that the Pantone color will be adopted faster than usual. It seems like it often takes a couple years for the color trend to filter into real life. But I think since Peach has been popular for many years now— this is just going to be fuel on the fire!

Rusty Dahlias

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“And something in a rust tone….” This is a request I’ve heard so many times over the past 2 years from my florist customers! Rust has become one of the popular accent colors for fall palettes.

I thought I’d share some dahlia varieties that I use to fulfill this color request. Rust, like peach, is kinda up to interpretation. Do you want rusty red, rusty brown, rusty tan? So I consider it a color family and not really a single color. Thankfully dahlias have a lot of tonality to them so it makes it easy to get the range a florist needs.

All That Jazz

All That Jazz- This one fits under the ‘Rusty Red’ category. Prolific bloomer, began blooming mid September from a mid May planting. Tallish at around 4’+. The color fades into golden tan tips which complement the rust color nicely. Photographs a bit red but really is a rusty color. Great tuber maker too- makes nice fat tubers with an easy to divide habit. Definitely growing more of this one next year!

Cornel Bronze

Cornel Bronze— ‘Rusty Bronze’ You know I had to include this one. It’s in the ‘Rusty Bronze’ category. It’s an easy dahlia to grow, blooms prolifically and has a neat plant habit so it doesn’t turn into a rangy mess. Good tuber maker (although can be a pain to divide).

Brown Sugar

Brown Sugar- ‘Rusty Red Brown’- Dark stemmed so it adds a bit of drama. I like this dahlia although I’ve heard some others in warm climates who don’t think it’s all that. It has always grown well for me. It is a flusher type of dahlia (meaning it’s going to throw most of it’s blooms in a short period). That can be a downside because the color is definitely unique to the fall season. So you’ll want to time it well. Good tuber maker- nice fat ones that store well.

Copper Boy

Copper Boy- ‘Rusty Copper Red’ - This one is a good alternative if you don’t like Brown Sugar. It’s a bit more copper toned red, blooms early— so make sure to plant accordingly. If you have a market for this color early in the season, you can probably get two flushes out of it. Has a plant habit similar to Linda’s Baby- which means you need to cut deep to force long stems. This is my second year growing it and so far I’m a fan.

Valley Rust Bucket

Valley Rust Bucket- ‘Rusty Orange’ This is a two tone dahlia- I love two tones because they always work well with so many palettes. They have an instant ‘blendability.” I wish the blooms were a bit bigger - this is a 2-3”. But it definitely makes up for it the number of blooms. Pretty good tuber maker as well!

Totally Tangerine

Totally Tangerine- ‘Rusty Copper Tan’ I wouldn’t have considered this to be in the rust palette when I first saw it. Early in the season, it’s a warm peach. But as the weather cools, it goes more copper with some tan as it fades. I offered it to a florist who was looking for some really unique blooms for a styled shoot in the rust palette and she loved it. It doesn’t have a great vase life so I’d relegate it more to the garden but if you do design work and you grow your own blooms, it’ll hold for a day or two.

Sierra Glow

Sierra Glow- ‘Rusty Tan- This is a great dahlia if you need a large bloom in the rusty palette. Sierra Glow has always been a good one for my hot climate. Holds well in the vase- it’s hard to find large dahlias that have great vase life in a hot climate but this one works!

Ice Tea

Ice Tea- ‘Rusty Terracotta Brown’ This was my original rust dahlia- the first variety I had in this color palette. I first clued in to this color trend when I couldn’t keep this color in stock a few years back. It’s a good consistent bloomer. Makes good tubers but you need to be very careful when digging them. It creates a tuber with a round bulbous body but a very skinny neck. It’s very easy to break the necks when digging so lift carefully.

Honorable Mention: These 3 dahlias above blend very well into the rust palette so I’m including them. From left to right- Rose Toscano, KA Mocha Katie, and NTAC Mai Li

There you have it- my favorite rust dahlias that work well in a hot climate! If you aren’t growing rust tones- it’s time! Color trends move and change but most of them stay around for a few years so you’ve got time to grow this beautiful tone!