To see the full original newsletter with all the photos click here to get the pdf: July 2024 Newsletter
NEXT MEETING: TUESDAY JULY 9 at 7:30 at 9th and Lincoln.
Programs: NOVICE ONLY MINI $HOW! Plus x3 and x5 (2 entries max in any one category) You can set up as early as 6:30. Bring your entry forms; learn to fill them out correctly. Our August meeting is so close to our Floribunda! Show, that this is the best opportunity to practice staging and filling out forms. Sarah will go over our DSC Show Schedule to outline all the various ways and categories you can enter your dahlias besides floating water lily and People’s Choice. Who will bring tasty treats for hungry gardeners???
EARWIGS, THRIPS AND MILDEW, OH MY!
Tim Wong, who grows dahlias both on the Hillside in Golden Gate Park and in Sisterhood Gardens by Lake Merced, admitted that everyone including PESTS love dahlias. Tim favors Max C for fertilizer and powdered nematodes to foil the thrips in the soil. He showed us his Earth Ally anti bug and anti mildew products which he combines with Neem or Stylet Oil for application. He recommends finding a retail store that caters to marijuana growers. There’s real money involved in the THC crop but it has to be green green GREEN and absolutely pesticide-free attested by a mass spectrograph. So these growers have great incentive to use safe and effective care products on their ca$h crop. We all agreed that Sluggo Plus works well combatting marauding slugs, snails and earwigs with one little problem: the birds seem to love eating it. Deborah and Sarah have started using gopher baskets on top of their emerging dahlias so the birds can’t peck up the little white anti-mollusk beads. Some people wind up newspapers in a doobie shape, slightly damp and leave it out over night. In the morning they shake the accumulated earwigs into a bucket of water. Others have put out saucers of soy/water which lure the earwigs to their doom. Saucers of beer would also work, but the raccoons often pre-empt this solution. Of the many products for mildew, the one rule seems to be: use BEFORE there’s a problem, BEFORE you have to strip off all the infected greenery leaving naked stalks to regenerate leafy covering. Many people like to spray just at dusk when the pollinators have left. Deborah and Tim raved about how wonderful an electric sprayer is. The City is rarely plagued by cucumber beetles, which resemble green lady bugs, because they favor warmer weather. Diabrotica: so diabratical! One commercial grower wielded a small vacuum used primarily on computers. He’d suck up the cucumber beetles and dump them in his chicken yard. Tinnee found some “green” products at Target. The label of Captain Jack’s Dead Bug says that it is safe to bees after 3 hours; so obviously spraying just after dusk would be a safer practice than early in the morning. Any spraying should be done with gloves, long sleeves, a mask and caution.
YUMMIES!
What gorgeous flower cookies Anita baked and frosted. So fun and so tasty. Who would have thought of Monju but Ken and Kathy? Alex slated our cravings with chocolate chip cookies and John and Annette overwhelmed us with brownie bites whilst Peggy slaked our thirst with two colors of lemonade. MMMM. Purportedly Maggie brought See’s candies but they disappeared so fast who knows? Thank you all for contributing to our sense of fulfilled community.
SISTERHOOD GARDENS OPEN HOUSE
Tim extends an invitation to all DSC members to his open house at Sisterhood Gardens, 116 Arch St. San Francisco, 94132. 1-3 PM. Trust your GPS advice on how to get there. Take this opportunity to see a wonderful neighborhood garden, 200 pedigreed plantings and 300 seedlings. July 13: mark your calendars!
FUNGUS AMONGUS
For a great article all about mushrooms and how they spread their mycelia check out National Geographic, April 2024, Vol. 245.
YOU BE THE JUDGE
Central Coast Dahlia Society hosts the Pacific Southwest Dahlia Conference 2024 Judging Seminar on Saturday, July 27 at the Marina Community Center, 15301 Wicks Blvd, San Leandro from 9-4. You are requested to bring your ADS Classification Handbook, your ADS Guide to Judging Dahlias and your questions. Our Lou Paradise will take us through the vagaries of hue, tint, fade, blend and bleed. How much to value a long snaky stem over a stubby thick neck? How much to deduct for ratty leaves? Who should attend? EVERYONE! Anyone interested in learning more about our favorite flower should attend. Your benevolent dahlia society will pay your attendance fee—that’s how important it is to have better informed members. Come see some of the new dahlias; meet bloomerati from other societies; share stories. Consider becoming a candidate judge. Attrition has depleted our trove of treasured senior judges; we need new minds learning discerning methods. If not a candidate judge, consider volunteering as a clerk who accompanies our judges. Please RSVP to Heather Jamison, dahliagrowers@yahoo.com or 805-801-3917 so she knows how many chairs and lunches to order.
PRESTO! CELL PHONE JUDGING MAGIC
Here is an abridged version of the article Kristi W. sent to the ADS Bulletin. The dahlia shows in sunny California are getting a tech makeover. Remember the old days when your local library ditched the card catalogs in favor of computer databases? It felt like stepping into the future, didn’t it? Well, a similar tech evolution is about to bloom at dahlia shows across California! Get ready, because 2024 might be the first year we say goodbye to paper and pencil and hello to digital entry for show results. From Paper Trails to Digital Tales 2024: A Digital Dawn. This year, our binders are being shelved, and in their place, clerks will wield their smartphones as they accompany the judges. The master tally file will be updated on the go, with every tap bringing us closer to instantaneous results. Once the judging and data entry are complete, reports are generated with just a click. Voila! Instant results. Automated Reporting: Instant summaries and detailed reports are generated AS SOON AS the judging is finished. Show Reports: From sweepstakes points ranking to an itemized list of cash prizes and winning entries, everything is at your fingertips. Regional and National Reports: The system generates all necessary reports for local, regional, and ADS requirements effortlessly. Training for Success: A week before the show, clerks will participate in a 60-90 minute Zoom training session to: Learn about entry forms and judging details. Set up phones for digital tally. Download the Excel app, log in, and navigate the card view for data entry. Troubleshoot common issues, such as missing blooms from the drop-down list. Embrace the Change! Contact Deborah dahlia.dietz@gmail.com if you are interested in clerking at the SF Floribunda! August 17. You are also eligible to help at the San Leandro, Monterey and San Luis Obispo contests.
SNIP, CLIP, FIT DRIP SYSTEM
The gopher in the Dell utterly foiled Deborah’s 23 yearold gravity-fed PVC irrigation system; accumulated water just vanished into underground tunnel oblivion. So Sarah designed a drip system master plan which Tim vetted. However, the amount of handpiece screwing daunted: 220 dahlia plants, 2 emitters per, with main line transfer tubes and T’s for 5 separate actions per plant!!! A LOT of little twisting jobs. So Sarah threw a drip potluck lunch. In the first hour they blithely assembled 150 emitter sections. Then Jen drove away for more tubing. The delicious lunch interval including a spectacular torte from Lucy (ALWAYS invite Lucy to potluck!) bucked the team up for a second round only to learn that the Urban Gardening black vinyl proved tighter than Amazon’s tubing. The grim girls waxed nostalgic over the good ol’ times until Mini brought out a hair dryer to loosen the ends of each strand. Much Better! Sarah drafted her 3 offspring for one heroic push through to 230 emitter sets. OOOfff! Major work, much fun, good food and great friendship. They loved touring Sarah’s back yard with so many voluptuous dahlias and an apple tree and bearing blue berry bushes. So nice.
PARADE OF BEAUTY
In Europe huge floats are covered with dahlia petals. Wow! How many early orange blooms did these tigers need? Vincent comes to life in dahlia petals. Sooo cool. In other cities, blocks-long carpets are designed with dahlia petals.
DSC’S FLORIBUNDA! SHOW SCHEDULE
Click here for a partial readout of our 2024 show opportunities. Look carefully at sections G, H, and K. These are the $pecial Cla$ $e$. There are still opportunities to sponsor some of these and loads of opportunities to WIN them. Check out the arrangement categories and criteria. Figure out how to fulfill the theme and still maintain an artistic vision. We will go over some of these sections in our July meeting, so print out any pages that cause you questions. Smallest pom? Best Bi-Color? Floating Waterlily? 5-Color B or BB’s? People’s Choice? Nature’s Oddity? Also download the x4 sheet of blank entry forms. You can add your name and official entrant number in advance.
PARTY PRETTY
To celebrate the inauguration of our beautiful new Hillside, Phil and Marilyn wanted to spruce up the faded fence around our Teardrop. Who knew what bureaucratic hoops would have to be surmounted to get permission to touch up the green paint and gold finials. Thanks to Phil and Marilyn’s $ponsor$hip, Erik’s diplomatic skills, and David Zhen’s willingness to lug all his equipment in wheelbarrows, our luscious valley’s fence shines resplendently again. David also tackled the aged defaced metal sign, spiffing it up up almost like new.
SAVE THE DATES!
Judging School July 27 San Leandro Central Coast DS Aug. 10-11 San Luis Obispo Show Skipley Spot of Gold Kelsey Annie Joy DSC FLORIBUNDA! Aug. 17-18 San Francisco Kenora Jubilee Verrone’s Morning Star https://sfdahlias.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/entry-cardsgeneral.doc https://sfdahlias.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/ShowSchedule-2024.doc Monterey DS Show Aug. 24-25 Capitola Mall Nicholas Kelsey Annie Joy San Leandro Show Aug. 31-Sept 1 San Leandro Bloomquist Jean Sandia Summertime ADS National Show Sept. 5-9 Wenatchee WA NWdahlia.org for Show Schedule
ADS NATIONAL SHOW WENATCHEE
Register for the National Show in Wenatchee, Washington: http:// www.nwdahlia.org Special rates at local hotels are filling up fast. Download a show schedule if you want to enter a few categories. The ribbons are phenomenally lovely. The following private gardens will be open on specific days to National Show registered participants:
Walt Jacenko Christine Tareen (Misfit Dahlias) Patty Northman (Soaring Hearts Dahlias) Marryn Mathis (The Farmhouse Flower Farm) Dahlia Demonstration Garden at Hovander Homestead Park – Steve and Sandy Boley (Birch Bay Dahlias) Thomas Bloomquist —yes, THAT Blomquist! Southern Garden Tour (South of Seattle) Eric and Janet Anderson (Sungate’s Dahlias) Penny Armstrong (PAGoldFever Farm) Paul and Teena Kusche (Papa Paul’s Dahlia Farm) Karoline Sly (Sly Hill Flowers) What incredible opportunities!!! There are no tour buses so you’ll need your own wheels. Combine with friends and plot your way around the great state of Washington on the designated days.
DOUBLE OR NOTHING
Larry reports that he has officially registered his lavender anemone form tree dahlia, named Double or Nothing. ‘Lorie Pelz’ 2 H: L. DePuy (2021), REG: L. DePuy (2024) D. tenuicaulis x ‘Double or Nothing’ (D. imperialis hybrid) Fls to 100mm wide; outer florets magenta, mucronate, with margins incurved; inner florets magenta, loosely incurved along the length of the florets. Light, subtle scent. Foliage similar to D. tenuicaulis. Stem dark, growing to around 3.0m. Nomenclatural standard: colour print provided by the registrant (WSY0162892) Major congratulations, Larry!
VOOOOO DOOOO LILY
Remember those odd rhizomes given away last spring purported to be Voodoo or Viagra Lily? They are blooming! Alex and Allison have a spectacularly malevolent looking huge flower mildly stinking up their garden. Wow! The Voodoo lily smells like carrion to attract pollinators.
CERTIFICATE OF INTERNATIONAL REGISTRATION
This is to certify that was officially registered by Date registered Registrar’s signature with the Royal Horticultural Society acting as International Cultivar Registration Authority for
DELL DOINGS
First bloom goes to Tim’s orange water lily Carolina Wageman followed quickly by Skipley Spot o’ Gold Tahoma Curve and Valley Porcupine. Of the many many buds on Sue’s east half of the Hillside, her orange KA’s Coral Sea quickly followed by an exquisite Karma Lagoon. Lou led off with a very early Porcelain. Tinnee and Gerry applied extra chicken manure and blue Miracle Grow to their bush basins. Deborah’s first blooms were Hollyhill Starburst and Elvira, followed by a magnificent Allen’s Purple Rain and Bloomquist Candy Corn. The garden just unfurls better and bigger from now on. Great to have Allison and Alex stop by to pick up a Hollyhill Spider Woman. They have donated $50 for the Best Novelty and have plans……. Karen has transplanted, watered and weeded to perfection. Brigid stripped the unsightly leaves off rows of rowdy plants. Steve and Gerry wrested the rambunctious hoses even though the industrial black snakes seem to have the ability to fight back. On the hottest day of the year so far, the Park chose to turn off the water. Deborah, Sue, Sarah, Tinnie and Gerry despaired. Brawny Lucas manhandled two huge canisters of water down from the Conservatory so we could at least douse the weakest and most vulnerable new plantlettes. TWICE! Plus, Lucas beautified the entire Petting Zoo zone. Wow! Volunteer from yesteryear, Billy, darted in from Portland for a quick tour of our new Hillside and delivery of 14!!! luscious cuttings from Mark Oldenkamp including River’s Purple Pinwheel, CPD Shockwave, Hollyhill Spice it Up, AC Wall, Connie Pei Yang, River Jerry, and Bloomquist Firecracker! Deborah danced her Just Like Christmas dance and promptly planted them. Ho HO HO. Lucy dropped by to disbud and rip off a few unsightly leaves. Geoff dropped by for a little nudge about topping his dahlias. Deborah recommended waiting for the first set of main bud surrounded by 2 budlettes and leaf pair. Snip just below the leaf pair. This way you don’t have to worry about how tall the plant is; take all the energy from the first bud production and reinvest it into good root foundation. What was all the formation marching going on at the Hillside? Police Cadets mastered different scenarios for the whole afternoon. We felt very safe. Sarah brought a whole wagon load of drip system elements and miles of black vinyl tubing. She showed Deborah how to deploy the tubing down her rows, snip and screw the caps on. In a few HOURS, the first 7 rows were laid out. OOOF! There will have to be a party for attaching all the dripper sets made at the assembly party. Such a labor of love.
JUST GLORIOUS JULY
Every day brings the gift of a new dahlia opening up. So much fun. Fireworks shot off with AC Abby and spectacular Allen’s Purple Rain. Skipley Ida Bella looks really promising!!!
Disbudding and Deadheading
For your finest flowers, leave only one bloom per stem. This might mean removing, 1,2,3 or more other little budlets between the main bud and the first leaf pair. This yields a longer and stronger stem as well as a bigger dahlia. The sooner you can safely remove these little buds, the larger your remaining bloom will be. When to deadhead? I like to remove a bloom when its pollen is exposed. This usually means that the flower will still have 3-5 days of regally gracing my table before loosing all its petals. Of course for competition, a fully double dahlia needs to be shown with NO pollen but my dining room table is NOT a competitive arena. Where to cut this deadhead is really important. Take the two leaves of the adjoining leaf pair and hold them over the bloom as though you were covering its ears. Look down the remaining stem until you see new stems shooting off it with new growth emerging. Cut there. If you have questions, come by the Dell on a Tuesday or Saturday morning and practice hands on. If you cut correctly, the dahlia will release a hormone that basically says: you did not make seeds. Quick! you need to make more flowers so you can propagate. Just what you want: more beautiful blooms. If you cut in the wrong place, the plant will not be able to send out more shoots; it will probably be done by mid-September. So sad.
Cocktail du Jour
July challenges us with slug and snail hold outs. I have found earwigs taking daylight shelter in tight buds! Grrr. Butterflies and moths flit dangerously about depositing eggs which become caterpillars. And as the fog rolls in so comes the mildew. So my latest cocktail addresses most of these: Spinosad for bugs, Stylet Oil and Earthy Ally fungicide for mildew, Baking soda to change PH, and liquid dishwashing soap to help all this stick on the leaves. Whenever in doubt, always err on less rather than more of any one item. You can always spray more often. Do remove any mildewed leaves as soon as you spot them. Remove the trashy lower leaves and any leaves still touching the ground. You might hang sticky tape or post a yellow dixie cup covered with Vaseline just to identify which bugs are circulating through your patch presently. Knowledge is ammunition. I use a Scott’s electric 2-gallon pump sprayer. I like the 3 settings for the type of spray. I unscrew the top piece and plug it in overnight to refill the electric battery. It’s so much easier than pumping pumping and more pumping.
Rogue
Does one of your dahlia bushes look weird? Twisty, wrinkled, spavined leaves? Way shorter than others for its age? This could be a virused dahlia. Viruses are acquired at birth, by poor division techniques, and by insects flitting amongst your beauties. Virused plants should be dug up and thrown away in the garbage; NOT COMPOSTED! Sometimes first blooms are a disappointment. They are not fully double; they have popped centers from the get go; they face downward on dangly necks. I give them a second or even third shot, but I like all my dahlias in GG Park to be showworthy; otherwise, I throw them away. I have lots of great dahlias in reserve in gallon pots to substitute. You need to evaluate all your plants for worthiness. We all have different standards.
Label
In the immortal words of our Obi Wan Kenobe, Lou Paradise, a dahlia without a name is just a weed. Use your cell or ADS Classification Book to match your bloom with the name and description of the flower. If in doubt, key it out. Begin with size: is it between 4-6”? Then it’s a BB. What form is it? Do the petals involute half or more? Yes. It’s a cactus. Do the petals point upwards instead of outwards? Yes. It’s an incurved cactus. What color is it? The ADS recognizes 15 specific colors. Red and Yellow? It’s probably Jessica. Do you remember buying Jessica? Did you buy a few of those marvelous surprise tubers at our Tuber Sale? If so, try to key out the blooms; if necessary, bring a bloom to the Dell on a Tuesday or Saturday or to our meeting in July. Senior judges will try to key it out.
Dahlia Bondage
The wind has been vicious at times. This threatens our taller dahlias. A judicious bit of dahlia bondage saves a lot of heartache. In the old days we used laddered nylons. They were soft on the stems and strong for support. Alas—or maybe thankfully—these ruined stockings are in short supply these days. I use a plastic twine—Chernobyl String because it seems indestructible. I eschew the green tape that stretches and causes your ties to sag. Ken and Kathy are using a criss-cross pattern horizontally over their beds like DIY Hortanova, a great technique which Erik also used on the Hillside. Kristine Albrecht and Iris Wallace corral their hedges of dahlias with string around the edges of each row. I attach mine to individual stakes. Word to the wise: the earlier you secure your burgeoning bushes, the less damage you will incur.
Watering
When and how much to water? Dahlias like to be very wet and then very dry. They should have to push their roots deeper for vanishing moisture. In our crazy Bay Area, we can have really HOT days followed by dreary foggy soggy days. So a strict schedule or electric calendar is tricky. Watch your plants: if they start to sag, they want water. If they only sag in the warm afternoons and look great again in the mornings, they can go another day without watering. Pots have great drainage. It’s hard to over water containers. HOWEVER, every time you water a pot and water seeps out the bottom, nutrients also seep out the bottom. Every Time! So pots need to be fertilized more often than dahlias in the ground. Sign up for judging school and let me know if you will Judge or cell phone clerk at our DSC Floribunda! Aug. 17. Congratulations to Alice for her first bloom: Juul’s Buttercup! Yours in dirt, Deborah
Photo Credits: DePuy, Dietz, Gaensler, Glazer, krivoruchko, Smith, Sun, Tobiason, Wong
Punctilious Proof Reader: Steve
URL Mavin: Mini