A dinnerplate dahlia type, with two tone petals. An orange-toned red in the front and a butter yellow on the back side of the petal. In my garden, the blooms are a solid 9-10 inches across. The plant itself is around 4 feet tall. The blooms are mid-season, blooming in mid to late August, providing about a month and a half of flowers before an early October frost.
All seeds grown in the high wind, lower rain prairie, Midwest, in macro-climate zone 5(ish). Average dewpoint in summer is around 60. Soil is a loamy clay. Although my preference is organic, I have used commercial fertilizers from time to time. Growing Days approximately 135. Gardening Personality: Relaxed, experimental, purist about very little. We practice High Intensity gardening.
My personal growing notes for dahlias. I plant the tubers either inside in late March or outside in mid May, once the soil can maintain an average of 50 degrees. Lay the tuber in the soil, eye/sprout pointing up. If you can’t find the eye, or plant it “wrong”, no worries. The sprout will find its sun. I do not water the tubers in, nor water at all until green shoots are a few inches above the soil. Dahlia tubers are just fussy. They do not like to be wet and will rot at even the slightest opportunity. I do not plant the tubers with any fertilizers. The tuber will feed the baby plant. Once the plants are about a foot tall, I will give them some potassium and a balanced NPK fertilizer, as soil tests indicate my soil is K deficient. I mulch the plant with leaves and grass clippings. Dahlia stems are delicate and break at joints and at the soil line, so I recommend staking early, and gently.
Important Note on Dahlias in Bouquets: Dahlias do not open further once cut from the plant. They also do not last very long in bouquets, less than a week. Best practice is to harvest the bloom when 3/4 of the petals have fully unfurled, peak bloom. Check the back of the flower, it should still be green and firm, with no browning petals.
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