To see the full original newsletter with all the photos click here to get the pdf: February-March 2014 Newsletter
NEXT MEETING: March 11 @ 7:30 @ 9th and Lincoln
Program: Deborah and Devorah will show us how to take 3 of the 4 kinds of dahlia cuttings: tip, stem, and tuber cuttings. Valeria will show us how she and Sue fabricated their oh so successful gopher cages last year for the hillside. Get hands on info and ask good questions. First cuttings and plants for sale!!! If you have some sprouted tubers already, you might bring a few to tantalize your fellow DCSers. Who will bring treats to share?
What you missed at the February meeting: ADS PHOTO WINNERS and more
Frank projected the winners from the 2013 ADS Photo Contest. We heartily applauded DJ’s rendition of Peg with a BIG dahlia, Frank’s snap of Lou, and Beverly’s capture of Deborah at the Dell. Everyone should enter some pix this year! Just send them in via email. Talk to Frank or DJ about how to do it. DJ recommended a Brother label maker from Costco, the T-Touch. Devorah uses Avery labels and laminates them to defy weather. Mike and Martha recommend that in addition to labels, one also make a map of your dahlias, and update it any time you make a change to your patch. Everyone who got his/her membership form in by Jan. 31 was eligible for the drawing for Marilyn’s pottery. Lola and Valeria swooped up the first two pieces.)
and more from the February meeting: GENEROSITY OF FRIENDS
The Dingwalls shared an entire box of luscious Meyer’s lemons. John Dale donated 3 Alfonsos (Pe R) in coffee cups. Bill brought dumped ventitian blinds which he showed everyone how to recycle into stake labels. Lola brought bags of milk cartons from her local coffee shop. We feasted on Baker Bill’s carrot cake and Pat’s Rasberry-filled cookies. Devorah’s two pizzas disappeared. What a treat: Ron and Joann’s ice cream! Thank you all for sharing with your fellow DSCers. Who will bring treats in March?
TUBER SALE
Our annual Tuber and Cutting Sale will be held at the auditorium April 19. Volunteers will set up from 8-9 am. If you have helped in the Dell, or with DigOut, or in the kitchen at meetings, or at our Floribunda last August, get on the volunteer list to help set up our Tuber sale. If you can’t make the March or April meeting, call Deborah: 415 816 2118. Depending on when we finish sorting tubers, attaching signs, matching pix, and labeling flats, volunteers might get time to “shop” before the public swarms in. Congrats to Devorah for winning the poster picture contest and a $25 gift certificate to our sale.
PSW CONFAB
The John Stowell Dahlia Society hosted a terrific Pacific Southwest Dahlia Conference over Valentine’s weekend at the Biltmore Hotel in Santa Clara. Bloomerati abounded including ADS President, Kevin Larkin, and ADS Classification Chairman, Lou Paradise. We cheered Curtis’s introduction, Verda, being inducted into the Hall of Fame. For this honor, a cultivar must be at least 10 years old and have won Hall of Fame Candidate 5 times. Wow! We also applauded Deborah Dietz’s passing her senior judges’ test. Roy Stier delivered his final culture section about the culture of dahlia growers. Some gardeners grow a bunch of flowers amongst which are also dahlias. Some grow dahlias and attend dahlia society meetings. Some attend, grow and show. Some attend, grow, show, judge and husband seedlings. And then there are people like Roy who do all of that and ALSO mentor and cultivate dahlia growers, sharing his sage advice, his cuttings, his wisdom, and his blessings. We are so very lucky to have him and Betty in our conference! Roy graciously passed his Cultivation Chair toDSC’s own DJ Eckelberg. Go DJ!
Verda’s proud propagator
Dahlia diploma delight
CULTIVATING DAHLIA MEMBERSHIPS
Deborah led a brain-storming session on how to attract new members and even more importantly, how to keep the new members we attract. Everyone agreed that tuber sales and Floribunda Shows provide a wonderful way to impress the public with how glorious dahlias can be; however, only DSC keeps email addresses to re-invite these people to our events. Maintaining spectacular public gardens like Casa Peralta and Root Park in San Leandro, Beresford in San Mateo, the Cabrillo Sidewalk on 39th and the Dell in Golden Gate Park dazzle many. DSC offers a free lecture the meeting AFTER our tuber sale to anyone who wants to learn more about growing dahlias. Therese told the group that it was because people like Pat talked to her at her first meeting that she returned for a second. We praised Frank Schulkin for continuously finding fascinating speakers to educate us month after month. Monterey cited its famous Dine Around as a way that new members visit other gardens, sharing tips, food and conviviality. The bottom line is: People come for the dahlias and stay for the people. So please reach out at meetings and greet people whom you haven’t seen before or haven’t talked with yet.
Mr. and Mrs. Culivation Chair
Vernon E. Rose
Memorial Trophy Winner
Dahlia Dancing Duo
PSW WINNERS
Karen Zydner, our ADS Classification Rep, compiled 3 sheets of show stats from the 7 dahlia competitions in California. (You can download the stats from the links below the show calendar.) These rankings are invaluable for planning what to put in your gardens this year. For example, the PSW 2013 Winners by Size and Type shows the top 6 cultivars for AA through NXO. The top 3 BB’s are: Jessica with 29 wins; Jomanda with 28 wins; and Parkland Rave with 27. Look for these at our sale! The PSDC Top 25 is exactly that: the 25 varieties which won the most prizes across the board. The top 5 are: Mexico, an; Elvira,pe; Verone’s Morning Star, orq; Weston Pirate, m c; and am Howden, wl. The third slice and dice of the stats is PSW Courts of Honor for 2013. This lists each of the 7 dahlia societies’ shows Head Table rosters. Even if you’re not planning to show this year, these lists give you an idea about which cultivars really stand above and beyond their peers. We in the Bay Area have such tiny plots of ground compared to other acres in the rest of the country. Why not grow the proven thrivers? Society Tubersale Show Show LocationFlowerAug. 26Leslie ReneeRoot ParkAlpen PearlApril 19-209th and LincolnHH Cotton Candy9th and LincolnGG ParkPoohAug. 5Aug. 9 orPaul zDeer Park Sh CtrAug. 23K K KatieAptos April 5Valco MallDe AnzaSan JoseFlea MarketTacomaWashingtonTBDNational Dahlia ShowAug. 30-31MontereySoquel HSJohn StowelSept. 6-7San LeandroAug. 2-3SL LibraryDSCAug. 16-17
Annual Form Winners by Size or Type
Top Twenty
Court of Honor Summary Report
DREMMEL LESSONS
Lola brought several sophomore clumps to the Maus Haus to donate to our tuber sale. Catching the hang of the dremmel oscillating blade almost immediately, Lola divided until dark. As sou chef, Deborah bleached, sulphered, and potted up.
Look for her Kelvin Floodlights, Vassio Meggos, Spartacus, I’m So Sexy, and Caribbean Fantasy at our sale.
DIRT PARTY
Once again the Wardens donated more than 50 fine clumps, IF we would dig them out. On Friday, Devorah and Deborah nabbed a dozen to put on the cutting bench including Lakeview Glow, Embrace, and Mexico. Enjoying glorious Saturday, Sue, Pat, and Lola lifted roots from light, fluffy soil, whilst Deborah packed them in boxes to cart off for future dividing. In the middle of the night Deborah woke up to the sound of rain pounding, starting her heart pounding. She leapt out of bed to rush to her deck to protect all those precious clumps. Anything that didn’t fit under her tarp transferred into her living room on towels. So after all this dedicated work by so many people, look for wonderful Pat ‘N Dee, Caproz Jewel of Arlene, Valley Sunbeam, Carmen Alexandra, Kenora Wildfire and CG Nordic and many more.
MINDFULL MARCH
Time to move your tubers from their cool but not cold storage spot to a much warmer one. For me, it’s my loft, since warm air rises. This wakes up your tubers and they germinate little white sprouts which turn green over time. Check out the March/April 2013 newsletter for an excellent step-by-step article on how to start dahlias in milk cartons. Right now my loft has over 800. What will I do when 3 house guests arrive in the middle of the month? I’ll just encourage them to exhale plenty of carbon dioxide! Now is the time after these rains to Weed Weed Weed! The cleaner you keep your patch now, the easier it will be to have it plant-worthy in April. Also, last opportunity to spread some chicken manure around, since it needs a chance to “cool down” before you expose emerging roots to it. Put together your XL list with cultivar names down the side and form, color, size, ADS classification number and source (who or what you got the dahlia from) across the top. This way you know what to buy at the tuber sale to fill your particular “needs.” Come to our March meeting and buy a couple of the early dahlia plants or bring any of your sprouted tubers for sale.
Yours in Dirt,
Dahlia Society of California, Inc., San Francisco, CA — Copyrighted
Editor: Deborah Dietz
Page layout: Mike Willmarth
Photo credits: Dietz, Hart
Originally Organized
In 1917 in San Francisco the Dahlia was adopted as the
Official Flower of San Francisco on October 4, 1926
by its Board of Supervisors