dahlia, anemone, and monkshood

In a message dated 9/27/01 9:44:28 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
bhayes@catskill.net writes:

<< Can anyone suggest why some dahlias in the ground haven't yet
 bloomed,although they have lots of buds; I had other dahlias both in the
 ground and in pots, which did bloom in time; and the weather is getting
 so cold at night that I think they will freeze before they bloom; 
 
 also, I have one Japanese anemone, which I grew from seed about three
 years ago; it  has a really healthy growth of leaves, but hasn't yet
 blossomed; now it's too late.  How long before such a plant is likely to
 put out blossoms?

Hi Isabelle,

I am your neighbor and can shed some light on your questions, maybe not magic 
answers but my experiences.

On dahlia's, many bloom in response to long, warm seasons.  A few to day 
length.
Start the dahlias in pots in March or early April and get as much top growth 
as you can before putting outdoors.  They are large plants so may not fit 
into your indoor scheme but will grow in an unheated garage that has a south 
facing window.  Start the tubers in the house in a warm spot.  They take 
absolutely forever to break gound in cold soil.  I grow only container 
plants, less than 60 cm., and start in the utility room in my house.  When 
through the soil, I put the pots in the unheated garden shed part of the 
barn. off the floor, in a series of south windows and leave indoors until the 
middle of June.  It is cold in the mountains at night.  I get earlier bloom 
this way.  The many flowered small sorts are the most reliable.

I have no liking for those huge dahlias so have no experience with them.  
Mail order dahlia tubers are sometimes partly rotted as they are grown in the 
Netherlands and imported to us after some kind of phyto-sanitary treatment.  
Be very careful what you plant and insist on a good sized tuber.  Return and 
don't use small ones.  If you order three you usually get one big one and two 
not so big.  This practice is from good companies as well as those considered 
so-so.  If you find a dahlia cultivar that you like, learn to keep over the 
tuber for next year.  In my area dahlias are not a great success unless you 
learn to sort out the late bloomers and take care to get healthy firm tubers.

I have had as good luck from HD dahlias as from mail order companies.  
Healthy dahlia tubers have been a recent discussion on the bulb forum.

Congratulations on the J. anemone from seed, very hard to accomplish.  Most 
books advise semi-shade. We in zone four need full sun and water in the 
spring plus fertilizer in the spring to get a good sized plant.  Some will 
never bloom here.  Robustissima or something like that is good and the single 
flowered pink cultivars are OK.  The double flowered plants are late. These 
plants are very tall so need stakes or a wire cage around them.  They also 
start late in the spring so one needs to mark them, you might cultivate them 
right out of the garden, making them recover and not have sufficient time to 
bloom. Here again is a plant that needs the dichotomy of moist soil but sharp 
drainage.  I have some in shade and they never bloom.
Buy a few small plants and start that way.  Push them along.  A plant from 
seed should bloom some the second year.

Another small advice is that those plants that take warm-cold-warm seed 
treatment may never appear and you maybe growing something else entirely.  
This happens to all seed lovers and is a great letdown when you have nurtured 
some weed for two years.  

Mine are in bloom now and full beautiful bloom now, starting about three 
weeks ago.  Another plant is the Aconitium or fall blooming monkshood.  This 
being always described as a shade plant can take half sun here and will get 
you an earlier bloom.  It is always in a vase on the kitchen worktable as it 
is always too late to enjoy in the garden.  Blooms about two years out of 
three and is not blooming this year.  This plant can take a lot of cold, can 
bloom after frosts.

All three of these plant need a lot of water when forming buds.

Claire Peplowski
NYS z4 

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