Name: Jon George Gainesville, FL ...crazy enough to grow dahlias in
I love Wanda's Aurora...I ordered two this year as replacements and neither sprouted.
DarcyD Aug 10, 2014 5:54 AM PDT
Name: Darcy D Green Oaks, Illinois
I have Wanda's Aurora...I can earmark one for you if it makes tubers. It's quite magnificent.
FLflowerboy Aug 10, 2014 4:31 PM PDT
Name: Jon George Gainesville, FL ...crazy enough to grow dahlias in
Thanks Darcy! I hope they multiply well for you. I could never get Wanda's Aurora to make keepable tubers.....I have plenty of Wanda's Capella if you are interested.
DarcyD Aug 10, 2014 7:30 PM PDT
Name: Darcy D Green Oaks, Illinois
Thanks Jon! I can't wait until trading time...it's going to oh-oh-so much fun!!! I hope mine make lots 'o babies
CCvacation Aug 10, 2014 10:25 PM PDT
Name: CC PA
Portia, thanks for posting those images! That's how I hope to grow mine some day, if I could bring myself to limit the number of varieties so I could grow 4-5 of each type side by side...
Were any of the trial plants blooming? Will you be able to go back later this month for round two image sharing? (Fingers crossed!)
portia Aug 11, 2014 5:33 AM PDT
Southern PA, Brandywine
CC... Those pics were from their trial garden. I thought that trial gardens meant they were growing potential new intro's but I guess Longwood's trial garden is really to say 'do you like seeing these types of plants, which are your favorite'. They had a ballot box near the entrance where you could vote for your favorite plant you'd like to see in the garden. They also had things like different sages growing, giant zinnias, some peonies etc. The interesting thing is they DO have peonies, sage and some dahlias growing elsewhere on the property already, incorporated into their planting borders, so I don't quite get the point of the trial garden if it's not 'new' to the garden, but hey I'll take blooming dahlias any way I can!
I have a membership and we are only 15min away so I go at least once a month, I'll see later in the season how the plants are doing and maybe actually take my DSLR then. We were there again 2 days later for a symphony concert and I got this picture of one of their 'flower walk' borders, it was stunning to see the dahlias growing in with lilies and salvia and other plants.
I looked for a few minutes to see what this variety was, but either there was no tag or it was grown over by a plant. I thought it kind of looked like Wanda's Aurora but wasn't sure. I didn't realize they had more dahlias growing in the borders we didn't see last time--will have to check it out next time! We only had a few min of intermission to walk around. Also I thought these dahlias looked 'healthier' than the ones in the trial garden which was interesting--just the plants and leaves.
CCvacation Aug 11, 2014 9:41 PM PDT
Name: CC PA
How fun! I bet that if you connect up with the right folk, you could be given a walking tour to the dahlias tucked into the landscape, who might know their names. Places like that often have plant/tuber sales for fundraising, and would probably give extras to volunteers...
portia Aug 12, 2014 5:01 AM PDT
Southern PA, Brandywine
CC, I submitted my volunteer form two weeks ago! I definitely thought that exact same thing... hehe.
drewtheflorist Aug 12, 2014 5:20 AM PDT
Name: Drew the Florist 14 miles S E of Pittsburgh
Longwood is a special place, if you're close enough, you could visit every couple of weeks and it would be different everytime. Wish I was closer. The Grtr Philadelphia club had its show there last September and we were able to stop on our way home from Cape May. Great show in a great venue. We have a top notch conservatory in Pittsburgh that has a few dahlias in their outdoor display that I hope to expand upon one of these days when I reitire...
portia Aug 12, 2014 6:30 AM PDT
Southern PA, Brandywine
drew, I've got the September show on my calendar this year! I can't wait to see what people are growing.
I have another garden to visit! When we take my sister home after the Dahlia Show we will be about 1.5 hours from Ferncliff Gardens, up in BC. I talked Mr Islander into making a trip on up there before we head home on Tuesday I liked most of the ones I bought from them last year but the pinks were not all the shades they looked like on the computer. I want to see how the flowers actually look first hand before I order more this year. With the import fee, I want to make sure I like it enough to pay that fee on it!
I promise to take lots of pics to share! You are going to get so tired of looking at my pics this wek You can save some for winter if you want.
I have found the quality excellent on all the ones I bought...Excellent foliage, good strong stems. NO wimps among them. One of the new ones, Mission Thunder, is a bit of an oddball, and goes open centered early Its soft yellow on the backs of the petals and lavender on the front or vice versa, so its a very stormy color all right...maybe a bit of lightening thrown in.THey are only about 2.5" across on long stems.. But that is only one of the many . They are all very proliferous.
Camera quit working after Verrone's. I am just going to down load them but its late so probably won't post them tonight What a fabulous day...Verrone.s, Lobaughs then Dan's Dahlias! The ones I liked at Verrone's were mostly un-named seedlngs since I have already skimmed the cream off his selections I saw a LOT I liked at Lobaughs but could only write down the names. Dan's is quite the operation...certainly more then I would want to do. He had some nice ones but many were quite old varieties and not so many I would want to grow. I did put together a short list there though, His rows were very long and the ground was hard to walk on, so I was pretty tired by the time we finished there. Kind of felt rushed between all the gardens without adequate time to savor them. Traffic was gruesome so by the time we got back, I found my car and headed home, I missed one ferry and didn't get home until almost dark. Still had to run out and cut 200 dahlias for table decorations. Dang but my garden looked good in the twilight! I think all the flowers doubled in size and volume today!
I'm off to bed now but have to get up and cut some huckleberry foliage at the crack of dawn to unload in Tacoma and move my car by 9.
I hope to have time to share tomorrow evening or at least Sat morning. NOw to download my photos and see what the camera needs...more battery or more card..?
And I doubt anyone would have noticed them missing when surveying the patch. After seeing the other gardens today (admittedly with different purposes then mine) I felt real good seeing mine afterwards. I think it is has just hit its peak.
Still too dark out this morning for me to go cut huckleberry.
anniecan Aug 29, 2014 11:15 AM PDT
Name: Annie Luck Apex, North Carolina BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN TH
Sounds like THE BEST DAY EVER Noni
DarcyD Aug 29, 2014 12:09 PM PDT
Name: Darcy D Green Oaks, Illinois
So jealous! Must live vicariously Hope you get your camera back in action.
mandolls Aug 29, 2014 12:33 PM PDT
Name: Geof WI
I made my partner come out yesterday evening and "survey" the dahlia patch with me. There are more different blooming dahlias right now that there have ever been. But I don't think I'd have 200 if I cut off every bloom, even the partially opened ones.
I got some shots in today. For some reason it takes a very long time to take a shot but its not on "delay". SOme setting is off and I Am too tired to figure what it is. Another terrific day and dead tired tonight! Mr Islander drove the flowers up to the hotel mid morning so I was free to go to the park with the tour. Got to the test Garden and no one else had volunteered to help there so I presided at the coffee and donuts (Fantastic huge doughnuts...couldn't quite resist them myself). My sister got dropped of at the park while Mr Islander delivered 9 buckets of flowers and 3 of huckeberry to the hotel. There was room on the bus so I was able to ask my sister to join me for the day, and we enjoyed the Connells garden very much!We both saw some seedlings we REALLY liked. We got a lot of photos but its going to be Sunday before I have time to download them probably. Met a lot of nice people including Linda who has written here a few times. We had a nice chat on the bus. I invited her over on Sunday to see my garden, but I have to find her again to give her my address :smily:. We visited the Waltons (Narrows Dahlias) last...oh my goodness, what a beautiful site above The Tacoma Narrows and Narrows Bridge! Absolutely wonderful healthy plants and beautiful blooms...those folks sure know their dahlias! Saw some real nice seedlings too That I hope make it through the process.
We got back to the hotel feeling rather shaky and sat down for salads before heading over to the Convention Center to do up the table bouquets. It went very well making them up, and we did manage to sneak some nice details into the them Made it home by dusk again, dusk seems noticeably earlier today. We had great weather, no rain but some clouds to shade us and make interesting skies. We are so tired as to be almost speechless tonight. We don't have to be up and off tomorrow unill eleven-ish. We'll get there about the time the show opens. Gotta go check out those Hollyhill folks as well as all my other friends and see what they and their dahlias have been up to.
Benny101 Aug 30, 2014 6:25 AM PDT
Greenville MI - zone 5b
Donuts ?? Did someone say donuts ?? :-)
Dang you're a busy girl Noni . I would love to see some of those gardens , almost like a trip to the candy store .
Geof, what varieties does your partner like best ? Last night after our daily flower inspection I read part of my 2015 wish list to Connie and her reply was " you forgot one " hmmm oh really , she says " you forgot Verrone's Morning Star " I smile and go into my speech on how we need to grow double dahlia here, and it's a pretty variety but a pollen monster machine blah blah blah etc etc , she just kept smiling and nodding her head as if to say " you can whine all you want but you best save a spot for it "
Guess what we'll be growing
You can save some for winter if you want.
