To see the full original newsletter with all the photos click here to get the pdf: December 2024 Newsletter
NEXT MEETING:
December 10 @ 6:30 PM. Program: HOLIDAY PARTY!!!!!
Please bring a dish to share with your fellow DSC members and if you so choose, a wrapped gift (@$10-15) relating to dahlias and gardening for our crazy tradition, Present Predation. We have been known to dress up, sparkle and even twinkle! So feel the festive season and let your true colors show.
Please take lots of pix and send them to Deborah, our editor, who won’t be able to attend. Please help Lucy keep track of all the potluck items and help Jenna with our gift mayhem. Cooperate with Jenn T who will keep track of steals and pronounce certain coveted items “frozen.” In the past, the most sought after gifts included loppers, planted narcissi, dahlia aprons, dahlia coffee mugs, dahlia umbrellas, dividing chisels, anti-fungal potions, and inexplicably a purple Golden State Warriors jersey.
LOU EXPLAINS ALL
With lots of props, Lou explained how he cuts a circle around his clumps straight down to sever all the little roots attaching the clump to the ground. Then he repeats this circumambulation with the same shovel, only jiggling it a little with each thrust. Finally he prizes the root mass up using his pincher technique. He warns NOT to grab the clump by its oh so convenient stalk handle, but rather squat down and remove by lifting from the bottom, so as not to break any necks. He identified the tuber’s 3 parts: crown—where it attaches to the stalk; body—where the pantry with all the nutrients are; and the neck which is in between the crown and the body. The eyes will ONLY be found where the crown and the neck join. Usually eyes are only seen in the first 8-10 hours after rinsing the dirt off the clump. They will reappear in the spring when the tuber germinates. Lou demonstrated how he tapes up his dominant index finger and thumb to protect himself from his very sharp knife. Lou uses a wooden block, 6”x6”x12.” “I see at least 5 eyes on this tuber,” Lou challenges our group to spot them. He encourages sterilizing implements between varieties. A 10% bleach solution works but really eats up most tools. Rubbing alcohol works, too. If you have 2 or more knives, for example, you can use one and let the other dry off after dipping in cleaning solution. Lou recommends soaking divided tubers in 10% bleach solution for 10 or more minutes. Then write on them. They will be wet and take easily to the Bottle of Ink in a Pencil No Blot writers. Or let them dry 1-2 days depending on how large they are before using the cool surgery markers Erik donated to our entire audience. Thank you Erik!! Lou boxes his tuber trove in upside- down cake boxes he gets from Safeway covered in peat moss; he also recommends coarse vermiculite. He leaves his containers open for at least 3 days to allow any excess moisture to evaporate. “After 3 weeks, check all your stored tubers. If they’re going to rot, you should see signs at this stage and be able to remove the bad apples.”
CELEBRATING NON-DAHLIAS?!
Thanks to John D who brought in packets of pink wildflower seeds and a pot of the blooming plant to give to any takers. Kauna blew us away with her sandwich bags of sooooo many ranuncula corms. She also gave away 4×4”s of already growing ranunculi. How wonderful to have something blooming during the mud months.
HIGHER TECH
Mini rigged up her cell phone to catch Lou’s action. Wow! Who would have thought that a small cell phone were a better option than a whole computer? But it surely was able to get in there, follow the action better and zoom into the eyes on tubers. Thank you Mini!
GARDENER FUEL
Our dahlia growers loved Pat’s marble cake and Erik and Jenna’s Pretzel collection. Jenn T thoughtfully arrayed huge blueberries and asian pear slices along with cookies. Anita baked lemon bars, mmmm. Maggie, John, and Annette all brought cookies, too. Jeanie gave us delicious oatmeal raisin cookies and Ken and Kathy blew us away with shortbread crowned by Hersey kisses. Thank you all for feeding our thriving community!
2024 FAVORITE DAHLIAS
Alesandro reports: “Sandia Bertha, HH Serenity, Hamari Gold and KA’s Cinder Rose!” Erik’s hits are: Blomquist Jeff, Eden Lillian and Eden Stasia, of which the first and last are still blooming strongly. “Love my Show ’n Tell dinner plate dahlia, a favorite for many years.” raves Joy in Santa Rosa. Katy in Mill Valley delights, “ My best dahlias this year were KA’s Coral Sea (huge plant and pumped out a ton of blooms and the color was dreamy), Labyrinth (biggest producer, color is so good and ties together a lot of other dahlias in a bouquet), and Honeymoon — won’t win any prizes but is such a great filler dahlia.” Anita just couldn’t limit herself to 3, “Eden Spiderling. Prolific bloomer, Skip to my Lou, my boy’s favorite. Great bloomer as well. Valley Porcupine, another great bloomer. I am loving the more unusual forms. 20th Ave memory, got this tuber as all the others at the tuber sale. What a great plant. It is truly perfect and it bloom early and was last to quit!!! A mystery stellar but I am pretty sure is AC rooster. A perfect red that just wouldn’t quit. In fact, Nov 2nd it’s still going strong. Maki, omg not a great bloomer but when it did bloom it is just such a show stopper!. I love it. Pink embrace, a really sweet flower.” “Labyrinth, Blizzard and Bloomquist Alan were my best performing dahlias this season.” attests Mary. From up on Sutro Heights, Jen proclaims that her two favorites this year have been Pam Howden and Daddy’s Girl.
CANBY TRIAL GARDEN VIDEO
Larry Smith of the Portland Dahlia Society has orchestrated an excellent video of all the dahlias which scored this year in the Canby Trial Garden at Swan Island. https://youtu.be/ xXjoqRjAPFM
VISIONS OF SUGAR PLUMS
From whom should you buy your new dahlias??? Julie L came through with her favorites: Here are many of the dahlia growers I have purchased from in the past 3 years that have good tubers and good service. “Note: Some of these websites have not been updated for the 2025 season yet. It is a good idea to subscribe to their email list to get notifications of their tuber sale dates!
www.dahliasbyjulie.com
www.fraylick.com
www.slyhillflowers.com
www.crazy4dahlias.com
www.microflowerfarm.com
www.chelanbuttedahliary.com
www.triplewrenfarms.com
www.delightfuldahlias.com
www.connells-dahlias.com
www.onlytheprettypetals.com
Anita writes:
-Dahlias by Julie
-Crazy 4 Dahlias
-Triple Wren
-Dahlia Obsession
All of the above were great vendors. But OMG it was nearly impossible to get your wish list. Be ready to wake up so early. Get one tuber and pay for shipping immediately. Shopping for multiple tubers and putting them in your cart slows you down way too much and tubers get taken. I was very selective b/c the costs just get ridiculous when you have to add shipping for each tuber!
We at DSC are soooo spoiled by Lou and his fantastic cutting crew. They provide our society with such a great selection. We hope all of you will be contributing to our sale this upcoming April. BTW, San Leandro and Monterey also throw great Tuber Sales and offer surprisingly different varieties than San Francisco. Put together a consortium and drive over for a search-and-buy expedition.
DAHLIAS IN MEDICAL RESEARCH???
Thank you to both Collette and Steve for sending information about labs in Portland, Oregon’s OHSU on the pigment in yellow and orange dahlias. Chemicals derived from these pigments may be useful in thwarting the spread of certain cancers and even in slowing down Alzheimers. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=2BuTxsWk6mw
HOLIDAY GIFT IDEAS
Here are a few cool ideas for the gardener in your life. #1 an oscillating electric dividing tool. These come in both electric plug in and battery operated varieties. They make precision cuts and DO NOT cut skin unlike sharp knives. Deborah prizes the 14x 20” sifting box. The 1/4” mesh separates rocks, glass, plastic, and other junk out of your potting mixes. Deborah uses the one DJ Eckelbarger made for her 20 years ago almost daily. Tiered whatnot boxes: usually one sees these towers of little drawers full of bolts and nails, but they are splendid for collections of seeds or drip systems pieces. Hori hori knife: this Japanese tool is great for dividing, planting or even dividing dahlias. Splurge for a big bag of Dr. Earth’s Flower Girl fertilizer. Check out the various Max C products. Capital Dahlia Society is still selling 2025 dahlia calendars: AFisherADS@Yahoo.com ’Tis the Season!
DAHLIA DELLIANS
On the hillside, Sarah and Tim have fully cut down. Sue is astounded at her happy plants and how many blooms they have produced in November. She keeps a pocket full of treats for her favorite visiting dogs.
What an amazing month: such warm sunshine and then rain and then suddenly cold and now an atmospheric river! What a roller coaster! Lou has begun lopping off and digging. Lou puts most of his clumps on the cutting bench the beginning of January. If you have any A, AA, ball, mini ball, or pom tubers to donate to the cutting crew, your entire DSC would be oh so grateful! Tim has also promised to make some cuttings of his eclectic varieties for our DSC Sale. Deborah had two bouquets of decent dahlias for a lunch with visiting Alan and Deb Haas, bloomerati from North Carolina. Karen, Sarah, and Brigid have relentlessly attacked weeds and trimmed brown leaves. Ken and Heather learned to take late season cuttings from the lower stalks. They gently prized the sprigs from the stalk, cut off the excessive leaves, and potted them up into 1x1x3” containers of soil and perlite. Of course, they added names on Tara’s venetian blind strips. Steve crunched and consolidated the compost as well as raked the garden. It’s so much fun to enter the manicured garden and read the visitor log: the footprints of all the critters that have roamed the garden between visits. Often raccoon, squirrel, crow, raven, and dogs have signed our dirt guest book.
DECEMBER DECISIONS
When to Dig
I recommend that you lop down leaving 4-5 notches above ground and wait at least 3 weeks before you dig out your clumps. This allows the tubers to toughen up their skin and be less likely to break down during storage. BUT other people lop down and dig the same day. I like to divide immediately after I remove dirt from my clump because I can see the eyes most clearly at that time. I only process one clump at a time so I can make sure the label stays with the tubers through every stage.
What are these stages?
- dig out
- clean off clump
- divide
- clean individual tubers
- soak in 10% bleach solution for at least 10 minutes
- dry over night
- label
- store in vermiculite/peat moss/ sand
Stack storage boxes in cool but not cold dark spot. I usually pull most of my clumps out between the end of January and the end of March. Our well drained area protects the dormant tubers so well for so long. I tend to leave any dahlia that began as a cutting in for a second year before digging up; the tubers are bigger and better. Likewise, I often leave my A and AA’s in a second year because they often make so few tubers the first season.
Late Season Cuttings
There are some dahlias that are just crummy tuber makers, like Jessica, Belle of the Ball and Rolf. The ONLY way to propagate them is to take cuttings in November and cosset them over the winter in a greenhouse under lights. Usually these sprigs are pulled off the lower stalk where new green spouts emerge in one last surge for viability. This time of year my volunteers are on the lookout for potential cutting candidates as they weed. I pop my shoots in 1x1x3” tiny pots. Other people use oasis or rooting plugs. Some people like to dip the ends in a rooting hormone. Little sprouts have NO ROOTS yet, so they need a lot of humidity to maintain turgidity. I like to spritz mine once or twice a day. I add a few drops of anti mildew and liquid fertilizer to my 2 gallon sprayer to keep my greenhouse clean. Some people put a plastic dome over a tray of newly snipped cuttings to hold the humidity in place. Some growers put these atop a warming pad to encourage faster root development. I tried this but ended up frying my wee rootlets. When I see a bunch of roots crawling out the bottom holes, I know it’s time to transfer the tiny plant to a 4×4” container. Lou and his cutting crew begin all their snippets in 4×4’s.
Cover Crop
Cover crops serve two major purposes: to replenish nutrients into the soil and to replace the gloomy brown muck with wavy green during the tough Mud Months. Any member of the pea family nitrogenates; their leaves nab nitrogen from the air and secrete it into the dirt via the roots. Certain strains of mustard yield an antibiotic effect. Simple fava beans can be turned under when you are ready to replant your dahlias. Ted Kennedy of Hollyhill Dahlias writes, “ Go to CONCENTRATES and consult with them. They have many many varieties of cover crop seeds in stock sold by the pound. I just planted some cereal rye mixed with vetch and I added some leftover field pea seeds. I enjoyed the daikon radish a few years ago and it matures a bit late but those huge white radishes are impressive. I have found that fall-planted cover crop did much better than a spring-planted one.”
Yours in dirt,
Deborah
Photo credits: Banta, Capps, Dietz, Ide, Kaiser, Kukens, Lozano, Palumbo, Shepard, Tobiason
Punctilious proofreader: Steve
URL magician: Mini