The following varieties are sold out for the 2010 growing season, as of March 4:

Big Wow

Cabana Banana

Chimicum Kate

Embrace

Emperor

Gay Princess

Kelvin Floodlight

Melissa M

Mingus Alex

Taratahi Ruby

White Perfection

Sunday May 9, 2010: Charing House Gardens sells tubers at the Rare and Unusual Plant Sale, at the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa, 9 am to 12 noon.

Tuesday April 20, 2010: Presentation to the Stittsville Goulbourn Horticultural Society.

Monday April 19, 2010: Presentation to the Gloucester Horticultural Society.

Thursday April 15, 2010: Presentation to the Ottawa Garden Club (Rockcliffe Park).

Saturday April 10, 2010: Charing House Gardens has a table for tuber sales at the Ontario Horticultural Society’s Annual Meeting, held in 2010 in Kemptville Ontario.

Tuesday March 9, 2010: Presentation to the Champlain Garden Club.

Saturday March 6, 2010:  Charing House Gardens sells dahlia tubers at Seedy Saturday Ottawa sale, Ron Kolbus Lakeside Centre, Britannia Park  (10 am to 3 pm).

Tuesday November 10, 2009: Presentation ‘Growing Dahlias in Ottawa’ to the Old Ottawa South Garden Club.

Friday September 11, 2009: Dahlia Tea at Charing House Gardens. Walk through the gardens to see the dahlias. Enjoy a cup of tea as florist Sue Courtney demonstrates simple dahlia arrangements. 

Tuesday September 8, 2009: Presentation to the UCW at Christ United Church in Lyn Ontario.

Saturday August 29, 2009: The Quebec Dahlia Society visits the gardens. This bus load of dahlia fans is from the Montreal area.

Monday, March 16, 2009: Presentation to the Russell Horticultural Society.

These varieties that are not listed in our catalogue are also available:

Ben Huston     (10″ light orange dinnerplate)                                              

Black Satin     (4″ burgundy)

Bonaventure     (10″ yellow dinnerplate)

Carl Chilson     (4″ white)

Chimicum Kate     (4″ bright pink ball)

Clyde’s Choice     (10″ orange dinnerplate)

Danjo Doc     (4″ – 5″ dark red)

Ferncliff Cameo     (5″ soft pink shades)

Gitts Attention     (4″ white)

Gladiator     (11″ orange & yellow dinnerplate)

Hillcrest Kismet     (6″ salmon ) 

Hy Sockeye     (6″ dark red)

Intrigue     (4″ coral)

Jessy G     (3″ purple ball)

Karma Bon Bini     (5″ orange & yellow)

Marry Me     (6″ soft pink & white)

Ooh La La     (4″ lavender)

September Morn     (6″ pink/orange/yellow)

Verda     (8″ white ball)

Who Dun It     (6″ white with purple tips)

The following varieties are the top recommendations from our collection for the 2010 season. They are listed in order of their success in the very wet growing season of 2009. Cut flower popularity (long strong stems, sought-after colour, and bloom longevity), plant vigor, abundance of bloom, and tuber production have all been considered. Please keep in mind that all our dahlias are grown in Ottawa Valley heavy clay soil with little amendment, and differing soils will impact results. Some of our previous favourites did not perform well in the shortened blooming season in 2009 brought about by an extremely wet July in the Ottawa area.  

1. Mystique
2. Minnesota
3. Garden Festival
4. Karma Naomi
5. Karma Lagoon
6. Maarn
7. Nonette
8. Ferncliff Tango
9. Ferncliff Fuego
10. Mingus Tony
11. Vassio Meggos
12. Ferncliff Copper

Frost will end the blooming season for dahlias. This is usually the first week of October in Ottawa. The first killing frost this fall was Sunday October 11. Plants become droopy and dark, and the blooms ruined when frost hits – a sad day indeed.

- within a week, cut off the foliage and compost it, leaving 4” or 6” of the stalks above ground.

- the same day, or it could be a few days later, dig with a deep shovel about 14” away, all the way around the stalks. Dig deeply, as the tubers may have grown downward, and you don’t want to break them or cut through them. If you dig your tubers after a week or more  from when the frost hit, there may be new sprout nodes visible on the tubers! They are usually pink or whitish. These bumps disappear back into the tuber after the tubers are dug, and aren’t visible again until spring.

- when the stalks with the tubers attached are free from the soil, tip them out of their hole, laying them backward onto the stalks. They may be very heavy depending on how big the plant was, how many tubers have developed, and what your soil is like.

- if the soil falls away easily, and you can lift the system intact, then don’t wash them. The thin film of soil is a good protection through the winter. If you have clay like I do, you will need to take the garden hose and wash away the soil, without breaking the tubers from the clump. After washing, take the clump to your garage or somewhere cool but not freezing, where it can dry well for a day or two.

- if your clump had several stalks, you can separate it somewhat after it is dry to the touch. Take hold of one stalk in each hand and pull to separate them from each other. They will naturally break apart in the best place. Do this for each stalk. It is really important that you don’t break the tubers off the stalk they are connected to, so be gentle.

- you likely planted one tuber, or maybe a small clump in the spring. Find this original ‘mother tuber’,  remove it from the clump and discard (compost) it. It will be a slightly darker colour than the rest, or will have a different root system than the other tubers. It may have a different skin texture, or be soft, or even have started to rot away. By removing it now, you will increase the chance of your tubers surviving winter, as most rot starts in this old tuber during storage. The mother tuber will never grow good blooms again, although it may grow roots and a sprout. Just get rid of it.

- cut the stalks back to a couple inches above the tubers. Don’t cut them too short, as this is where the new sprouts are likely to develop. If the clump is still huge, you may want to further divide it to get it compact enough to store easily. Do this by splitting down into the stalk with your pruners, and keeping a portion of the stalk attached to a section of the tubers. They are something like a clump of bananas, all attached together, but each with a portion of the flesh where they grew on the tree.

- get a box, or bin, or plastic bag that is just a little larger than the clumps of tuber you have now. Buy some vermiculite from a garden supply store, and completely cover your clumps leaving  no air pockets. Leave the box or bin or bag open for air circulation, label the variety, and put it into a root cellar or cold storage or unheated bedroom – anywhere just above freezing. I prefer storing in bags, as I can massage the vermiculite around the tubers, ensuring no air pockets. The vermiculite can be reused the following year, unless mould was found in it. The bag has to be bigger than the tubers, not stretched to cover them. The vermiculite needs to surround the tubers. Because I have so many tubers to harvest and wash, I usually get the clumps small enough that about four original clumps of one variety will fit into a banana box. I leave out the vermiculite for now. I work hard to get the boxes labeled and into storage before the freezing day time temperatures set in, hopefully I’m done by the end of October. In November, December, or January when I can work indoors, I further divide them, and get the vermiculite around them. I lose some to rot by doing this, but with so many plants, it is hard to get them all out of the ground before freeze up. Some varieties (such as Cornell) I have learned, need to have the vermiculite immediately around them or they shrivel too much and aren’t viable.

- in March or early April bring them into room temperature and they will start to sprout in a week or two. Keep the vermiculite around them during this time, but you can check them daily for sprouts. If you take the vermiculite away, they will likely wither, shrivel, and dry out.

- when the sprouts come, they will be along the original stem where they join each other. Take pruning shears or a box cutter and separate the tuber with its sprout, from the clump. Or you can leave a few small tubers joined as a small clump to be planted together. If it is hard to cut through, a good trick is to put one blade of your sheers into the old hollow stem, and cut down through the stem keeping the sprout attached to the tuber. If a sprout breaks off when you are dividing them, don’t worry too much. Chances are good it will grow a new sprout in the same place, in a week or two. Put the newly divided individual tubers back into vermiculite to store until planting time, preferably somewhere cool so they won’t grow too much until you pot them up or get them into the ground where you want them planted after frost danger has passed. You can divide your tubers before they begin to sprout if you recognize the ‘eye’ or node where the sprout will develop.

*You may have half a dozen or more tubers to share or plant yourself, from the one original mother tuber you planted. About three quarters of the tubers you store will be viable and produce sprouts in the spring. Don’t expect them all to grow. A tuber with two sprouts will have two stems on the plant, and be bushier. A mistake many people make in trying to keep their tubers over winter is breaking their necks! Without that connection to the old stalk or stem that joins them together, they won’t sprout, although they will grow roots.

*The prime size for a tuber  is the size of your thumb up to your wrist. This size will have enough food and moisture to feed a sprout, but not so much that the tuber is slow to send out roots. I don’t bother with sulpher powder any more, as I don’t have much problem with mould, and I don’t think the sulpher helped anyway.  Some people use peat moss or wood shavings instead of vermiculite, but my preference is vermiculite.  

*Tubers will freeze in an Ottawa garage, and a heated basement is not cool enough to store tubers. They need 40 to 45 degrees Fahrenheit all winter long. If you go with a cool basement, put something between any cement floor and the tubers, as concrete draws the moisture and they will shrivel. A few inches of newspaper or cardboard, or a board would suffice. 

*Check on the tubers ocassionally through the winter. Throw out any that are moulding. If some are shrivelling, sprinkle a teaspoon of water into the bag, or partially close the plastic bag.

*Someone suggested their attic crawl space works for them to store tubers. Once people get addicted to dahlias, they will try anything to keep them! I own a remote thermometer that will tell the temperature up to 50 meters away – might be a good idea if you are trying out your attic!

*It is amazing when you consider the beauty of a dahlia plant all tucked into a tuber. Such potential in a perfect package – well worth the effort of trying to overwinter your favourites. And there is nothing like the feeling of seeing your old friends starting to bloom again the next summer, having made it through a Canadian winter to celebrate summer the next year!

Email for details about this event, which is planned for September 2010. You can visit the gardens to see the dahlias, and enjoy a cup of tea or lemonade as you watch a professional demonstrate making simple arrangements with dahlias.  Maybe you are interested in growing dahlias yourself next year, and would like to see the plants to help in choosing tuber varieties for your own garden.

Flower Cart sales are finished for the season. Thank you for another great year.

The blooming tip has three buds in a row. If the two side buds are removed, the centre bloom will become much larger and stronger. I try to do this as soon as the buds are large enough to remove without injuring the centre bud. Move back from the tip, removing a few more buds or shoots from where the leaves join the stem. This gives longer, stronger stems for the bigger bloom. I usually remove about five buds for each bloom. If you find your stems are weak despite lots of disbudding, try a fertilizer with a higher potassium (last number) content.

The abundance of rain during July caused earwigs and slugs to be more prolific this year. The use of Neem Oil has proven to be quite successful in dealing with these, and it also has the advantage of preventing aphids! We were late getting going with this treatment as the product is hard to find in concentrate form. Try organic or hydroponic supply stores if looking for this.

Neem works by making the taste of the foliage undesirable to the insects, and it can be reapplied daily if needed. It is not cheap, but is a good investment. I found it could be combined with fertilizers in the same sprayer. It is best to warm the Neem while it is in its own container, as it can clog the sprayer. Just set the Neem into a bucket of hot water for a couple of minutes.

Neem doesn’t appear to stain the blooms if the buds are starting to open.

An interview with Olly about Charing House Gardens aired on June 1st, 2009 on CBC Radio One’s Ontario Today.

Listen to the segment