Dahlia Photos: the sublime to the blurry forum: 2014 Images for Public, Private and Test Gardens that you have visited
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| The genetic trait that makes flowers variegated is called a transposon. It is also know as the "jumping gene" as it bounces around to create the variegated flowers. It cause a disruption in the formation of the red pigment but does so in a pattern of dots and splotches. It sometimes moves a bit sideways and the flower gets it's solid color that it would have had if did not have the transposon. If the transposon moves a bit(jumps a bit too far!), the flower is now solid and if you try to take a cutting from that branch to preserve the "sport", you may or may not get a solid flower as the transposon may jump sideways and you may again have a variegated flower. When you have the "Jokers Wild" transposon, the color splotches are just much larger than variegated flowers. The flower you refer too is probably of that type. The same problem is there. The flowers all will have the transposon gene and it will jump around. It should be remembered that Barbara McClintock won the Nobel prize for discovering transposons in variegated corn kernels. We are going to introduce this next season the Greg Deets new incurved cactus with the "Joker's Wild" gene called "Medusoid"(he named it, so do not blame us for the name!). It is really fun to grow and some of the color combinations are especially pretty. One of them puts yellow in the flower so you have a tri color flower although the yellow is only at the base of the red petals. Look for pictures later when we work on the website. We also have a maroon colored pom that has the "Jokers Wild" trait and has really cute large splotches of white with the maroon red. It may not be a very commercial variety but Margaret sure likes it. |
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Ted, is that Greg's out of his Cockatoo ? ( If only Cockatoo would keep it's centers closed ! ) |
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| Yes, Medusoid is a seedling of Cackatoo. We wanted him to name it Cockatoo-two but he refused and instead chose an adjective related to "Medussa". He is a marine biologist who is used to naming things but apparently the names of marine animals are more unique. Cockatoo occasionally had a closed center. Medusoid has very good centers and is a much more vigorous plant and it makes tubers too. It gets a full recommendation from us. |
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| Portland Dahlia Society annual picnic meeting starts at 4PM today at Swan Island Dahlias. |
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| Wow Medusoid sounds neat , lots of goodies coming out of Hollyhill this season , ugggh and I want them all !!! |
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| And I am lusting after Zephyr and some other Blossom Gulch new ones. |
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| Zephyr dies look pretty sweet , is that a big plant Ted ? |
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| I doubt that very many dahlia people have seen the Zephyr growing "in situ". It is not yet released, not entered in a trial garden and only being grown at the Blossom Gulch garden in rural Coos Bay, Oregon. They are consummate growers and breeders of dahlias. The flowers at the show are the only evidence of it's tremendous potential. So does it grow tall or short or take hot weather or have poor stems or fade a lot are all unanswered questions. But just based on the flowers I saw at the Portland show, I am going to be first in line to buy it. I doubt that it would have much potential as a cut flower and that it's delicate florets may wilt in 90 degree weather. Here is probably an example of a show flower being worth all the intensive growing techniques to give us a tremendous flower. Gosh, I would still try it if I knew it did not make many tubers. |
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| Nick Gitts of Swan Island Dahlias spent several hours with the dahlia club at our annual picnic at Swan Island Dahlias. This is the most time he has ever devoted to the club. So we were able to ask him "every question that we thought he would not answer". First it should be noted that sales are at record levels and the business is doing very well. Tuber sales are up. Cut flower sales are way up. They have remodeled the main office to expand the gift shop and sales are way up there. He has hired two more office workers to help with the increased business. In the field operation he has 9 people picking cut flowers and they start at dawn and on the busy days are picking until 3 PM. He says he is going hire more help in the field department next year. Sales of cut flowers are so brisk that he sells just about everything the farm produces. Right now sales are running about 1000 bunches of 10 flowers per day and many days even more. He is now getting picky on who he will sell to. Those orders that call for many specialized flowers to be shipped by overnight express delivery are not being encouraged but they still do some.(example he just shipped 300 giant dahlia flowers). They have abandoned Farmers market sales that they did for many years as the profit margin and labor costs are higher and they do not have the labor and flowers to spare. I know that they used to sell about 300 bunches at these Farmers markets. Even the sales to the National flower wholesalers are being curtailed in favor of sales to a local flower syndicate that is willing to pay the price for local grown flowers. He is considering adding 5 more acres of leased land to the operation. He is continuing to plant the overwintered 2.5 acres of dahlias that start to produce cut flowers the last week in June. He also will be planting a couple of acres of cut flowers in March and those will bloom a couple of weeks after the overwintered planting. He uses irrigation sprinklers to prevent freezing during really cold weather and successfully saved most of his planting despite the low temperature of 8 degrees during the only really cold snap of the winter. He has plans to expand the flower processing room as the current room is only about 25 x30 feet and treating and shipping all those flowers in that cramped space is getting old. He will move the famous lemon tree greenhouse(a tourist attraction because of the grapefruit sized lemons) and build a proper flower treating/shipping facility. He was asked about insects and such and they do spray in the early evening with mixture of insecticide and fungicide. Spider mites have been a bit more active this year but only a very small percentage of flowers are affected. He is now using a very weak solution of soluble fertilizer in the spray also. The weather has been the biggest challenge this year as it has been much warmer than average. They have an endless supply of water from the oldest water right on the adjoining river and from wells that are used on remote fields. They have had to water more than usual. Nick misses his deceased brother Ted who did 50% of the field work and all of the precision planting. He has had to train others to do that work and there has been a learning curve(straight rows and such things). Cafe Au Lait: He has several hundred plants of Cafe Au Lait and is shipping flowers to florists in bunches of 5 flowers for the same price as 10 other flowers. Orders are brisk. He has listed tubers in the catalog for $29.95 and has sold over 100 tubers so far. And as he has stated previously, he is not enamored with Cafe Au Lait. It is too big for cutflower, does not grow tall and has inconsistent colors. He said he tried it 6 or 7 years ago and grew 5 plants of it and tossed it out. He told stories of Waterlily dahlias being planted in ponds. I am sure there was much more discussed. One more item: Marge Gitts, his mother, had to be put into a nursing home as she is falling down too much. She cut herself rather badly the other day and was found by an employee laying on the ground. |
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| So interesting! Thank you for sharing, Ted! You don't by chance know what they charge for their 10 stem bunches? |
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| I only know the retail price in their little floral sales shed and that is $6.00. I bet the wholesale price is very close to that too. And that is for miniature and very small BB flowers. Prices go up considerably for larger flowers. And all bunches are of the same variety and they also sell statice and gladiolus. |
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| That's really interesting , thanks Ted . Hope Mrs Gitts is better . When are the Test Garden scores normally released ? Excited to see the results. |
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| Mrs. Gitts is very unstable on her feet and needs to be in a nursing facility or have full time nursing assistance. Trial garden scores are published in the December bulletin but may be posted to the ADS website before then. All scores are are sent to the coordinator and verified. This is supposed to be by October 1st but there are always late submissions. |
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I skipped out on work today for a road trip with the princess to Hamilton Dahlia Farm . WOW !!!! What a neat place . It was great to see all the different varieties growing instead of just blooms or photos of blooms online . Cuts ready to go out  Here are some I really liked Windhaven Blush  Windhaven Highlight  Cynthia Louise  Hamilton Lillian - love this one  Wyn's New Pastel  Snoho Doris  There was a row of " Solid Mingus Toni , very cool  I stumbled on to a whole row of HH Black Beauty :-)   Ben Huston  I have a few more photos to review and organize, will post later, they grow a lot of Ben Huston Spartacus Ferncliff Copper Ivanetti Jack Frost and a few others. We talked to a nice lady on the cutting crew for a bit as they were out in force cutting and deadheading , a nice trip for sure .  |
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| Hollyhill Black Beauty is just about everywhere in cut flower gardens. I got an order for a whole bunch of tubers over the phone. |
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| I ordered a couple from Swan Island. I'm pretty sure it will sell well for me so I will start some from cuttings off those. My old HH Black Widows are getting rather decrepit...I think they are going bye-bye at the end of the season. |
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| Benny, that Wyn's New Pastel looks like I remember it. The ones I got from Aztec are rather peculiar. So far they have been twice as big as mine used to grow but an odd greyed mauve with yellow undertones. I hope the color changes on them when the weather cools. They don't really go with anything. I remember them as being lovely soft tones of sunshine yellow, rose pink or peachy pink with different shades dominating at different times. If anyone has a better version I would love to have it. I like odd colors but not greyed mauve with yellow! Probably the ugliest color I have ever seen! And it produces LOTS of them! |
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| Yes Wyn's New Pastel was a multitude of color along the row depending on the age and size of the bloom we both liked that one. Wyn's Pure Magic was quite nice as well. Other notables were Bracken Sarah - very pretty Snoho Sonja- nice Wyn's Cinnabar - nice Camano Buzz - quite nice Drummer Boy - Yuck Cafe Au Lait - is " ok " but I don't see what all the fuss is about , |
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| Margaret and I and several people including fellow Cubits contributor Linda Taylor went to the open house at Park's Dahlias and Clack's Dahlias on Sunday. I took lots of pictures and put together a web page on the Portland Dahlia Society website. I also created another web page with pictures of Christy's cutting gardens for you all that sell cutflowers. Here is a link to the website: http://portlanddahlia.com/Gardens/ParksClackVisit2014.html Be sure to enlarge any of the pictures by clicking on them. I hope you find this interesting. |
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| Wow, wow, wow!! That is amazing! Thank you for sharing! |
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