SEPTEMBER the nineteenth and the garden looks rather sparse of dahlias, in fact it looks more like the aftermath of world war three. Another two shows still to do and it looks as if I will only manage a token entry at both. Only two articles for the magazine so far and this has prompted me to make a start to my annual diary it is early days yet for input as most growers will be still active showing off their blooms.
Once again I raised all my plants under artificial conditions in our little mist house. The only new idea I tried out was to eliminate the extractor fan and use convection currents instead. The air is changed in the building seven times each hour by natural convection, the stale air is removed via a shaft through the roof. This idea proved to be extremely successful, the cold air enters at ground level and gradually warms eventually passing through the duct to the outside world. At night I reduce the outlet opening by about 60%. No problems were experienced with the result that no spraying was found to be necessary. After throwing an open invitation in last year’s magazine for anyone to visit and see the set up for themselves, I received a constant flow of visitors throughout the spring.
I did notice an interesting phenomena. I have been told by experienced growers within our society that the best cutting material is to be obtained around the middle of March. 1 am not sure as to the reason, I would have thought it could be put down to one of two things. [1] If the tubers are boxed up at the beginning of February then the best material will appear about six weeks later. 12] The optimum light occurs around that time of the year and triggers the tuber into producing more and better cuffing material. I raised this point at the Perth seminar but nobody ventured an opinion. Geffing back to the story, I started my tubers off during the middle of January and lo and behold the best cuffing material was obtained around the 18th March.
The results of this little experiment ruled out the theory in Ill and not only that, it also ruled out the theory in [2] as well. I was using a fixed day length of fourteen hours, the lights were timed to come on at six o’clock in the morning and go off at ten o’clock in the evening. Several people commented on the short day length I was using saying it should be at least sixteen hours. I cannot argue the point, I can only relate my experiences good and bad. I never experienced any problem with my plants on the shorter day length. Obviously I am missing something from the equation, why should my best cuffing material appear at the same time as someone who is propagating in a glasshouse? It is not important to know the reason why, however it is interesting as it would appear that there are other forces at work.
I grew several hundred plants for the Society’s annual sale and for vanous people wishing to contribute to the Society’s funds. The point that will be of most interest is the cost per plant, as mentioned in a previous article it was my intention to oost the production of my plants to ascertain whether or not propagating under these conditions was indeed a practical proposition. The total cost excluding labour to the 1st of June was eleven pence per plant. I don’t have any figures as to cost per plant from other growers, at a guess I would suggest that 35 - 40 pence per plant might be about right.
After last year’s disappointments with new varieties I decided to be content with the ones I knew would perform and forget about growing new varieties in quantity. During mid April and into May we had ground frost every night, the plants were oovered with three layers of fleece, which provided sufficient additional protection. However it was a lot of additional work having to cover them each night and remove the fleece the following morning.
May 23rd severe frost penetrated the glasshouse and fleece giving my pompons a scorching, they recovered but were very late in flowering. About this time I ran out of space, these dahlias don’t half grow at some rate. Need to think up a better plan for next year. I had constructed a tent like arrangement to serve as a cold frame. It was a simple structure covered with white reinforced covers which we purchase from D. T. Horn.
Planted out as usual at the beginning of June, weather still cold, wondering whether or not to put the covers on to get the plants started when on the 12th June we had a ground frost which sent my small cactus into the next world. No wonder my dad gave up growing dahlias, it is a continuous battle against nature or so it would seem. I sprayed the small cactus with Chempak No 3 hoping that would put some life back into them. They looked very sad for some weeks before finally breaking into new growth. At the time it was a depressing sight, there is a saying that every cloud has a silver lining and so it was with the small cactus. They performed very well throughout the short season, in actual fact I had more success with the small cactus than all the others put together.
Actually Paul Chester had better colour this year, many people commented on the striking colour, whether that was due to the battering with frost or the hot summer I don’t know. Probably the hot summer.
Our first outing was to the Glasgow Evergreen, those people certainly have got their act together now compared to the first time we exhibited there, their hospitality is almost as good as at the Scottish National and that is saying something.
What a contrast when we went to Ayr Show, first time for me and it was rather off putting to follow all the show signposts till we reached a T junction only to find we were on our own from then on as far as directions were concerned. The office closed at 10 o’clock, this created a problem as I had to collect my entry package, Ayr is one of those show where you must notify them of your intended exhibits three weeks prior to the show. However I was told later that they waived this ruling to allow a late entry.
I think Harrogate have the right idea when they state they will accept late entries only if there is sufficient staging space available. No tea, pies or bridies at Ayr, hospitality is non existent. The staging is something else, two tier high for the three vase dahlia classes and flat tables for the three vase chrysanthemum classes. An opportunity for our Society to hire our own staging to them for future shows, why don’t we give them a quote for erecting the staging at the same time?
Sunday 3rd September came round and time to head for the Albert Hall with the staging, 15 helpers turned out this year which made a huge difference to the operation. Everyone had tales of gloom and doom about how the extremely hot weather had affected their blooms. It was with some apprehension that we assembled the staging and on looking around it seemed an awful lot of white space to fill with green vases.
My dad tried a few new varieties this year but the weather was not conducive to growing dahlias and so any thoughts on their performance would have to be shelved. Barbarry Gateway (medium dec.) looked promising and so did Amgard Delicate (large dec.). See “New and recent introductions” for further varieties and comments.
I think the main problem this year was to try and grow the blooms up to size, usually the opposite is the case. The judges had been advised to be on the lookout for evidence of clipped blooms. I only saw one vase that had been clipped, unfortunately it had been awarded Best Vase in Show, how a mere novice could spot something an experienced judge missed is beyond my comprehension.
Judging is still a mystery to me and still gives me the impression of being a hit and miss affair, Some judges probably think judging a local show does not matter too much, after all who will take any notice. I expect most exhibitors are like me in that they expend as much effort into staging a vase at a small local show as they would at the National Show.