To see the full original newsletter with all the photos click here to get the pdf: January 2024 Newsletter
NEXT MEETING
NO MEETING IN JANUARY! Join your Dahlia Society of California on February 13 at 7:30 at 9th and Lincoln. Program: Tim Wong tells us about growing his Sisterhood Gardens.
WHAT A HOLIDAY PARTY!!
Pat, Sarah and Jenna arrived early to cover our tables and lay out gay garlands so our room sparkled. Jenna set up an opulent BAR with liquid libations for most palates including wine from Joe, Jenn, and Ken and Kathy. Delightfully Cara’s Buddha Hand lemons spiced up our scene. So many people expressed holiday spirit with flashing, blinking, or glittery garb. Lola’s necklace pulsated along with Shelly’s antlers. To further deck our halls, Allison brought 2 hand-wrought wreaths and Tara bestowed 3 festive swags upon our evening. Lola offered our throng a huge box of persimmons for homeward bound. Mini fabricated all sorts of hair ornaments with glittered fabric dahlias which many of us promptly donned. So generous all of you! How nice that so many non-dahlia spouses made an appearance. So much fun!
It is a mystery how our buffet balanced out so sumptuously. Passing Jenna’s sleigh with all the utensil accouterments, people were immediately tempted with such delicious hor d’oeurves: pita and schemer and exquisite stuffed dates and Jennifer’s replete cheese platter. The Gansler clan baked a massive ham. Brigid’s masala chicken and Deborah’s Turkey Enchilada casserole complimented one another and fit in with Karen’s Chille Relleno dish. Tony and Ens covered the beginning, middle and end with fresh shrimp, lumpia AND a cake!! Such salads! Anita’s orzo salad and Teresa’s Brussels sprout treats disappeared fast. Tara’s arugula and persimmon salad was as beautiful as it was delicious. Who would have thought to combine apples and dill? Lisa! John and Annette’s Chinese salad and Allison’s potato salad disappeared in a twinkling as did Lola’s potatoes au gratin. Lola also shared 3 different half gallons of libations. Steve commented on how delicate was the fruit salad. So beladen was our spread, that the desserts sprawled onto a second table! Strawberry Pie from Tenaya, Maria’s brownies, Lequing’s colorful cupcakes were augmented with chocolates and nuts and Almond Roca from Maggie, John, Tara, the Sasakis, and Rose. Erik invited the security guards to partake; they hit our buffet twice! As we neared satiation, Erik urged us to eat more and/or wrap some up to take home. “Priced to move,” he exhorted. Thank you so much to Kathy who tried to track down dinner items with donors’ names—a hopeless task with all the joyful mingling going on. What a dinner!!
And speaking of wrangling around a mingling crowd, thanks to spouse Denis for making sure all the participants in Present Predation had one of Tinnee’s beautiful lottery numbers. And what should appear? Santa Claus banged at the windows and ushered in our gift exchange. Santa reminisced about 21 years ago exactly when he had to leave our party suddenly because Shelly had gone into labor with Nick! That little baby has become a 6’6”bruiser! Jenna draped a special show-and-tell tall dias just so all could witness the unwrapping of each enticing gift. Ringmaster Deborah called out numbers. Ironically, the man keeping track of larceny became the most predated upon; enterprising shoppers looted our Tony 7 times! The first shiny treasure to get “frozen” was Jenn’s set of 4 dahlia mugs. Stunning. Scissors, bulbs, chocolates, dahlia magnets traded hands a lot. Tara scored a shiny compost sifting screen. When Gerry noted that the man who opened a hair ornament proved less than enthusiastic, Gerry stole it for his own shiny pate. So thoughtful. Everyone applauded.
PACIFIC SOUTHWEST CONFERENCE
Saturday, February 24 in San Leandro. Your DSC sponsors this convocation for any dahlia grower in California. Please register as soon as possible so we know how much food and chairs to order. There will be guest speakers, workshops, lunch, swag, and a wonderful RAFFLE. Take this opportunity to hobnob with bloomerati of the Dahlia world. Learn new things. Pick up swag. If you have any items to donate (tangentially related to gardens or dahlias) contact Jenna Jennakaiserw@gmail.com. Special tubers, dahlia art, books, rooted cuttings, vases, show paraphernalia, tools et. al. would be welcomed.
CAVALCADE OF FABULOUS DAHLIAS
Here are photos of amazing dahlias from 2023 to help get us through the mud months and motivate us to plunge into the various on-line commercial dahlia seller sites. You know how you LOVE to look forward to new and glorious and NEW dahlias blooming in your garden. Here’s a few to wonder over.
MORE $PON$OR$!
Allison and Alex love Hollyhill Spider Woman and wanted to promote more cool oddities so they have pleaded $50 towards the Best Novelty. Brigid anted up $20 for the newest photo category People with Dahlias—should be interesting. And utterly generous Peggy ponied up $30 for the Largest Dahlia in the World and another $25 for a category undetermined yet. So generous! Thank you all. We hope to have the 2024 Show Schedule out as soon as possible. Keep your eyes out for our Flowers of the Year: Blomquist Jeff and Lakeview Redeye.
SISTERHOOD GARDENS
Here is an update from Tim: We finally got all of our dahlias dug up and stored! We have mild winters in San Francisco (USDA 10a) so we can leave tubers in the ground provided they have good drainage; but we distribute tubers each spring to share stock with other community organizations.
Our storage substrate we like using is 50/50 Coco coir and vermiculite that’s barely moistened (It feels almost* dry to the touch) in our backyard garden shed. Outside temps are usually 45F- 65F, so our biggest issue is keeping tubers asleep and we always have a few that keep growing all winter long.
HILLSIDE RENOVATION
All the nasty old creasoted timbers and dangerous exposed rebar have been removed. Much dirt has been moved around. The sidewalk and photo op area have been leveled defined with loose gravel. Stone walls rise slowly as pieces are matched and cemented in place. Huge roots from the eucalyptus trees and big bushes run havoc through the erstwhile “soil;” hillside dahlias had such a tough time fighting for nutrients! A couple big white pipes with holes in them have been laid at the bottom of trenches. No one can tell if there will be more or less growing area with this new plan. Exciting.
DAHLIA DELL DOINGS
New member, Renee, visited on one of Deborah’s Saturday mornings and went home with a whole box full of actually pretty decent dahlias. Renee teaches Art in Santa Clara and will use the blooms in a photo project. Steve braved the cold and muck to forfend weeds; every one he pulled up in December is 100 that didn’t infest the garden in January! Tinnee and Jerry have dug out most of their clumps. Lou is all out and getting ready to rev up the Cutting Program by putting most of his masses on the cutting bench for us. Deborah welcomes volunteers to come Saturday mornings to help with weeds and learn about taking late season cuttings.
MORE MERRY MARVELOUS DAHLIAS
More amazing dahlia pix.
JOLLY JANUARY JUST IN TIMES
Have you set up your 2024 Dahlia Journal? Either on line or in a notebook??? Now is the time!
COVER CROP?
Leaves? Have you scoped out the uncomposted weeds in your yard? in your neighborhood? Now is the time to cover your plot in scrumptious deciduous leaves from all over EXCEPT eucalyptus leaves. Eucalyptus leaves are actually slightly poisonous; do NOT include them in your compost or in layering over your plot. Now is also the time to lavish bags of chicken manure on your dahlia section. The rains will gently soak it into your soil. Did you consider a cover crop? Kristi reports that she has sown Casa Peralta with SoilMax Legume Mix with Organic Oats, Bell Beans, Organic Vetch and Organic Peas. Curtis splayed it all over at Lake Merrit. So many healthy nitroginators. Other people use Fava Beans? clover? Sweet Peas? Mustard? Or just gay wild flowers to blot out the brown gloom of the mud months. I’ve sown some poppy seeds in front of the Maus Haus. They always make me smile.
LATE SEASON CUTTINGS
Amazingly, I am still taking late season cuttings from Belle of the Ball, Jessica, Hollyhill Show Time, and AC Abby. They go straight from the Dell to my little greenhouse with 18 hours of light and a happy spritz every day. I just added a couple Blomquist Jeffs and Blomquist Candy Corns; cross your petals that they make roots! I plant in composted Dell soil with about 1/4 perlite. John Ivy writes “I think Root Riot cubes are magical! I had good luck with cuttings in potting mix but almost 100% with Root Riot cubes. Plus no mess and I can gently split open partway and peak every other day to see what’s happening.” Most commercial growers who ship dahlia cuttings through the mail use a version of oasis plugs because they begin sterile and the emergent roots are readily visible. Try it; it’s fun.
TUBER STORAGE
People ask how to store their tubers. If you have dug up the entire clump, you could store it in a 5 gallon bucket with a shovel of soil on the bottom, the clump, and 2 shovels over the top. You can then stack these big buckets in your garage or crawlspace under your house as long as the temperature doesn’t dip below 40 degrees. I have also stored clumps like this in big boxes that can be stacked. This way your dahlias think they are still in the ground and stay dormant and safe.
If you divide your dahlias, do allow at least 1-2 days on a drying rack after their bleach baths. San Francisco is surrounded almost 300 degrees by water; our air is really humid. We have to be constantly on mildew lookout In Idaho where my sister-in-law grows, it’s very arid; she can store hers in paper bags with no medium at all; it’s as though they were in suspended animation. I prefer covering my tubers with vermiculite. I tried the Saran wrap technique and every single one rotted. Humidity? Not sure. Sue covers her tubers in architectural sand. Lou experiments with guinea pig shavings and peat moss. I just divided a sport of Hollyhill Dragon Fire and found several sprouting already! It’s just been so unseasonably warm before Christmas. So after I bleached and dried them, I boxed them up in light soil in milk cartons and tucked them up in my loft. Maybe we’ll have something for sale at our March meeting???? A lot of people use vermiculite and plastic shoe boxes. They can tape labels on the front and stack them up to the ceiling.
On the Hillside and near the picnic table at the Dell, single lavender tree dahlias bloom. Magnificent double whites adorn Phil and Marilyn’s garden. I transplanted four starters from P&M which I hope to bring to our March meeting. If anyone else is growing tree dahlias, might you pot up a few to bring to our meetings or to our tuber sale, please? These bloom as the last of our summer dahlias dwindle.
Hoping you all have major plans for your 2024 Dahlia Garden!
Yours in dirt,
Deborah
Photo Credits: Capps, Demeter, Dietz, Gaensler, Kaiser, Ko, Vainish
Punctilious Proof master: Steve
Url Maven: Mini