Dahlia Photos: the sublime to the blurry forum: 2015 Trial and Show Gardens

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teddahlia Aug 25, 2015 10:03 AM PDT Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!

I will be at the Canby Trial garden today and may take few pictures. It is a few weeks behind the Tacoma garden for a couple of reasons: (1)They do not start plants in a greenhouse (2) The weather is much hotter in Canby than Tacoma(a hundred yards from the Puget Sound) and the dahlias were stymied by the heat this year And there are only 25 entries as opposed to 60 at Tacoma.

teddahlia Aug 26, 2015 8:01 AM PDT Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!

Entry #1 at Canby Trial Garden. Giant sized flower.

addicted Sep 1, 2015 4:47 PM PDT Name: Em NY

Thanks Ted. That was a lot of work, but very much appreciated by those of us on the opposite coast. I hope to visit the eastern TG at the National this year, but don't know how many they will have or which ones. Hope to return the favor for all of you to enjoy, and am very much looking forward to a live preview of the new intros!

teddahlia Sep 1, 2015 4:51 PM PDT Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!

Our Canby Trial garden was hit with high winds(record high) on Saturday and numerous healthy plants took a dive. Once they have been horizontal for a day or two, they have to set new flowers. as the current batch has hopelessly crooked stems.

PNWGal Sep 1, 2015 10:32 PM PDT Name: Linda Portland OR, zone 8b

Swan Island has their Dahlia Festival the last weekend in August and Labor Day weekend. During the festival they have their storage rooms filled with displays of every dahlia they sell. That includes the new ones for this season, and that is the main reason I make sure I go. They used to have strips of their new introductions planted near the display garden, but this year I did not see any of the new ones out in the fields, so this was the only chance to see them in person. Maybe at $25-$30 a pop they are growing them somewhere behind barbed wire. There are two big rooms like this full of displays, plus a bunch more in the entry room where they also take orders. Keep in mind that since the festival runs for two weekends, this all has to be done twice!

PNWGal Sep 1, 2015 11:07 PM PDT Name: Linda Portland OR, zone 8b

Here is the display of Swan Island's New Introductions. Einstein - YES IT REALLY IS THAT PURPLE! I will put more pictures in the Purple thread. Andy's Legacy. I don't know who Andy is. This has got to be "Smoky Sunset" out in the Trial Garden. Pixie Garden Time Flip Flop Picasso Frozen Milo, named after the farm's dog, who must be about 78 by now. Hay Day And in another display, Mingus Phillip Sr. More pix in the Blush/Pale Creamy thread.

Islander Sep 2, 2015 9:44 AM PDT Name: Noni Morrison Warren, Oregon retired flower farmer

I credit the birth of my passion for dahlias with attending a Swan Island open house, and the sheer neurological "rush" of all that color in one spot! Your pictures are glorious...They do these displays so well....maybe I will schedule a trip there for next year again

addicted Sep 3, 2015 8:57 AM PDT Name: Em NY

Amazing that they do it once, but TWICE? It must pay off big time!

CCvacation Sep 3, 2015 9:21 AM PDT Name: CC PA

Naming their floppy white 'Frozen' was a good move. I bet it sells well at $30, just like all the movie's merchandise. My girls still ask me to grow Tigger with Pooh, as names mean more then the actual quality of the product. I won't be letting them see the picture of SI's Frozen, to save my ear from aching. (actually, Tigger was a very nice bicolor cactus, but I just didnt' like it. Don't tell the kids. )

honnat Sep 7, 2015 10:32 PM PDT St. Paul, MN

We had our State Fair dahlia show this weekend. After having a great growing year with without much heat, we had the hottest start to September! The week before the show had temps in the 90s with crazy high humidity. I insisted on cutting the morning of the show which didn't allow me time to stage as much as I wanted; but with that heat, I didn't want to cut in the evening or the day before...so head-lamp on I cut at about 4:00 am. I managed to get on court of honor in two categories with the same variety. AC Kira earned "Best New Introduction" and I entered another bloom of the same variety and it won best BB-LC. Our club has a trophy for best BB bloom in show; and mine competed for that. I stood nearby the judges and believe mine was in the top three; but it lost to a very nice Aitara Diadem. Here is the one that won the best new intro category. The other one was slightly larger. I just have two plants of this variety; and have been cutting it for weeks; so I'm glad it had some nice blooms and they held up for the show. The lighting in the room is horrible for photos. It was a very dark shade of purple. It got darker in the hot weather and didn't seem to fade at all.

mandolls Sep 8, 2015 4:34 AM PDT Name: Geof WI

Congrats Honnat! We ended up being unable to participate. My partner woke up sick the morning before the show, and I wasn't about to try dealing with it myself. We will try to do the late show in a couple of weeks. With all of the heat and the rain that we had the week prior, I wondered if the quality was decent. We sure have had a lot of soggy broken blooms in our garden.

Islander Sep 8, 2015 6:43 AM PDT Name: Noni Morrison Warren, Oregon retired flower farmer

Sorry to hear that you weren't able to enter the show, but sick loved ones do kind of change priorities. Better luck on that late show.. I think our early heat toughened up the plants , or they were so dry that they just love our rain still now and it perks them right up Oh, I did loose a few with our windstorm, but just individual blossoms, not whole plants so I consider I got off lightly.

addicted Sep 9, 2015 10:58 AM PDT Name: Em NY

Way to go, Honnat! That's a beautiful bloom and I'll be looking for one at my next show. In-person is always better for me than a photo.

teddahlia Sep 17, 2015 11:09 AM PDT Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!

I will be in New York for the ADS National show. We will be visiting the trial garden there and I hope to take lots of pictures.

drewtheflorist Sep 17, 2015 1:06 PM PDT Name: Drew the Florist 14 miles S E of Pittsburgh

We had every intention ( Hofstra is only an hour 10 from our son) and we ended up with a wedding this weekend... No wedding NEXT week ! @#$%^#^&%$

DarcyD Sep 17, 2015 4:41 PM PDT Name: Darcy D Green Oaks, Illinois

Bummer, Drew!

Islander Sep 17, 2015 8:48 PM PDT Name: Noni Morrison Warren, Oregon retired flower farmer

Reporting in on our trip to Ferncliff Gardens.... OH but we had a good day! Weather was quite rainy during breakfast in bellingham but by the time we got up across the border and to Mission, BC, The rain was just finishing. It was obiviously real near the end of their season, not helped at all by that big windstorm they had a few weeks ago. In their show garden they use the same method Ted has reported from Swan Island where (I am guessing) they may mow the plants back in early summer and they hill up the plants, leaving trenches between rows for the water to to soak in. The plants all had wonderful big thick stems so they were blown down but not obviously broken except for a few very thick stems that had broken off at the base. My sis and I really wanted to dead head, LOL...but I told her they might be collecting seed from them so we better not... ANyhow, enough nice blooms were still on them that we could make informed choices for new varieties. Its a good time to buy from Ferncliff as our money is worth about another third to theirs. And they just opened for 2016 orders, so I was able to turn in my list and pay for them then and there. and catch that good exchange rate. One thing that rather surprised me...their colors were more intense up there then in my garden. I particularly noticed with some of the pastels and actually liked my colors better. But it may also be true that the intensely colored ones my sister and I liked won't be as intense in my garden. What ever the new introductions will be, they were carefully hidden away in an off limits area so we didn't get any clue!

honnat Sep 17, 2015 9:13 PM PDT St. Paul, MN

Sounds fun! Any other variety recommendations based on your visit? I'm getting ready to place that order soon as I want to snag a Camano Retro.

Islander Sep 17, 2015 10:26 PM PDT Name: Noni Morrison Warren, Oregon retired flower farmer

I haven't had tome to download my photos yet...Hope to get up some pics here tomorrow and comment on the ones I liked. Some of them I liked a lot better face to face then the pics in the catalog. Some of the ones I thought I wanted were too faded by sun for my liking. I will comment on them with my photos...

Islander Sep 18, 2015 9:01 AM PDT Name: Noni Morrison Warren, Oregon retired flower farmer

I was AMAZED at the size of these collarettes! Each of them would more then cover the palm of my hand and grow about 5' tall! This is Ferncliff Alpine. (Ordered). I think all of the collarettes in the Ferncliff Catalog were about this big. I think it was April Heather my sis really liked.David Lam was huge and intensely red violet. I liked Ferncliff Lemon Kiss, RaeAnn's Torch, Raspberry Sky and Rock Run Jacob. In fact I would not have bought Raeann's Torch from a catalog pic but seen in person it is amazing! Since he doesn't stake these they were all down on the ground from the 3 hours of 60 MPH winds, but still impressive with long wiry stems.

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