My sister is having some problems with a few of the dahlia tubers she bought a little while ago- some of the tubers she planted are coming up and have completely white foilage. I'm not sure what the problem could be, besides some sort of odd mutation (never have seen a dahlia with white leaves before!). It (along with a few other oddballs in the garden) have been around for a while now and show no sign of imminent death yet, but if these suckers bloom.. well, that ought to be interesting.. Any ideas would be extremely helpful! -Marpole
If this is the first or even second year she has had them they will probably not bloom yet. And I believe they are spring bloomers(<--not spring bloomers, but I was unsure when hence the question mark...mine are in their second year and are basically pretty foliage at the moment since they were subjected to a great deal of stress the first summer I had them. I lost the packaging when we moved over the winter.)? If in doubt and she still has the packaging it should tell you when they are supposed to bloom. Take lots of pictures if they do! Oddballs are really really fun plants. Also did you guys clip back the first growth when you planted the bulbs (<--not a bulb but a tuber...I still think mine look like bulbs when I have to dig them out over some of the colder winters)? That is usually in the planting/growing instructions. If it is not for these ones or you like the way they look you don't have to - and with the thickness of the stalks judging by the picture you may not want to at this point.
Dahlias do not flower in the spring. They flower from end of July until the first frosts. From tubers,( they are not bulbs) planted after frost,I would expect them to flower in the same year. Even cutting taken from the tubers in late winter/ early spring will flower the same year. However, it is unlikely that these plants will live very long. They are lacking Chlorophyll. The green pigment most plants have in the leaves. Without it they cannot make any food.( Photosynthesis) See wiki... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorophyll
Yeah, I've already told her that they probably won't survive, although they are quite curious. She's still hoping they'll survive though. -Marpole
Hey there Silver Surfer! Personally, I always appreciate a "teaching post" which explains small details. Lots of growers have no idea there is a major difference in a bulb, tuber, corm or other forms of underground or sub terrestrial starch storage units. In truth, they are easily recognizable if a grower only takes a look and has a good reference to the differences in all of these. This is just such a reference and for those that want to improve their gardening skills. It is a short but great read: http://urbanext.illinois.edu/bulbs/bulbbasics.html Just about everyone on this forum knows I specialize in aroids ("Elephant ears" (I don't like the term because there are narly 1000 plants that get the same common name), Colocasia, Alocasia, Philodendron, Anthurium and some of the other 3500 genera). I often do searches for the terms bulb, tuber and corm to see what is being said. Read this short page and look at the drawings. Great info that also helps to improve discussions on boards like UBC. No aroid with an underground starch storage unit grows from any form other than a tuber (and I realize that is a totally inappropriate discussion for this thread)! Read it then go cut open an onion You will quickly see what the inside of a bulb looks like. Corms and tubers don't have layers or look anything like a bulb. A potato is a great example of a tuber and a Gladiolus is a corm. Steve
