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Post by Tel on Aug 25, 2014 18:47:17 GMT
This is on my wish list for next year.  Askwith Roger medium dec, best in show, at the Darlington C&D society show.  image hoster |
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Post by Raymond on Aug 25, 2014 18:47:34 GMT
Raymond I think you read my comments wrong ? This forum is not here to slate members dahlias whether they grow for garden or show or both. Our views are to encourage, help and give valuable advise. We also share our knowledge and realtime experience for all to benefit. Some growers choose to keep their trade secrets hush hush, others cherp up to aid others who have problems. Like I previously said I learnt from a guy who knew how to grow miniatures to a good standard, this coupled with joining a specialist society helped me progress. Most of all you will learn as with anything in life from your own mistakes and we all make them. 5 years ago I was still getting my bum kicked in the novices. My stock wasn't good enough. I had insect damage galore and mildew that made my plants look like it was xmas. I knew I had to change and through help from these same people my growing methods improved. Scrumpy is quite right, a well grown lesser quality variety will always excell over a poorly grown top class variety. Miniatures, poms and a few smalls can be grown without the aid of covers. No point relying on the UK weather to be kind as it isn't. Look at today, wet windy and complete death on dahlias. With an abundance of shows coming thick and fast that prize giant is history without protection. Like you and sweetpea I work, 46 hr nights with a 3 hr roundtrip every day before I even started my job. This is on top of my elderly inlaws one who cant speak through stroke and suffering from advanced dimentia and the other who has 20% vision in one eye and blind in the other through degenerative eye disease. Life can be cruel, but nature is designed to adapt and we are no different. No offense taken. I was being sarcastic about poundworld. I have high expectations and will get there when one of your best friends is the wife of the former owner of Thompson and Morgan you can imagine her garden and borders ! If you saw my garden in March it was an overgrown neglected mess moved in last July and had to sort the house first, but I am getting there .Masses to do this year and next sorting the shrubs beds and lawns are a disaster front and back. Will need a skip this winter for the pruning alone. Also a 6month old puppy who likes to dig does not help !>:Dbut he is getting better. Will inform myself of all I need going forward and I have gained a great deal of knowledge already I appreciate all the info everyone on here has given. I was a keen gardener in Scotland in my youth under my mother's guidance. Sadly that went to rack and ruin as she got I'll and then terminal cancer and living in London does not make it easy to sort things. Every holiday up there weeding pruning trying to make it presentable. Made gardening a Labour rather than a joy I was all in a flat at the time so just window boxes and pots. My father lost heart after my mother past and he was the lawn man that is also heartbreaking plus he has had a stroke and a heart attack in the last year. But new start new house lots of work so we will see. Might look into allotments in my local area in the future if I decide to go the competition route, but I doubt I will unless they have novice novice complete crap at growing dahlias category ! I could put covers up in areas in my garden but the other half needs to approve with I doubt would happen. But I will improve my stock for next year. All is going except 1 sir Alf and one collarette maybe a couple of others that I like and some bedding ones can stay. Gonna be an expensive next 6 months and very tiring as well. Best regards Raymond |
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Post by scrumpy on Aug 25, 2014 18:57:44 GMT
This is on my wish list for next year. Askwith Roger medium dec, best in show, at the Darlington C&D society show. image hosterlooks a cracker, but isn't it a large? |
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Post by Tel on Aug 25, 2014 19:02:39 GMT
This is on my wish list for next year. Askwith Roger medium dec, best in show, at the Darlington C&D society show. image hosterlooks a cracker, but isn't it a large? It was grown has a large in the trials, maybe it was tried as a medium in this show, just going by what Phil Orley posted on facebook. He told me last week that Halls may be releasing it in 2015 I have just asked Phil on facebook, if it was shown as a Medium or Large in case he made a mistake, will let you know if he gets back to me. |
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Post by Moonlight on Aug 26, 2014 0:26:53 GMT
Totally agree with scrumpy, what looks in a novices eyes good in the garden wont have a hope in hell on the showbench, border dahlias except selective star and collerettes are ones for the local shows and then and only then if the entries are crap. Aim high, be selective, join a specialist society. Most of all obtain good stock. Forum member 'Ian' didn't win two National indervidual championships from tubers bought at wilko's. Showing is a reality check, in five years time you will look back at your old bed of in your eyes prize winning dahlias and think what on earth did I grow them for. Only grow what you can look after, 50 well grown dahlias with the time put in will always beat 200 that have been neglected. Every 100 plants grown equates to an hour a day every day, not when you feel like it. I work on mine 3 hrs a day Monday - Friday. Then 10 hrs on Saturday and a further 10 hrs on Sunday, much more during show season. Hens the reason my wife Marie packed her bags and buggered off in May and I didn't notice she had gone till the end of June. No, seriously she didn't and being a dahlia widdow isn't for all good wife's, husbands, G'friends or like. I'm lucky she moans a lot but she is the first to give me hug if I do well or if I'm down and need a bit of encouragement. Sorry to be blunt, but I was lucky I latched onto my mentor John Digweed, who after a few f's and preverbial slaps got me moving in the right direction. Even at Saturdays midlands main show he gave me a couple of b*******'s and quite rightly so. You will have them too. Competative showing in the dahlia world has it's high and low's, many walk away those who stay enjoy growing these fab flowers and meet great friends in the process. What more could you want ? Please excuse me my dahlias are not tubors from Wilkos ! They are from Poundworld !  Never grown dahlias ever first time bought at a whim in a garden centre. Also new house with VERY old garden did not know just how good or bad the soil was got a huge amount of work ahead of me. Firstly I want a nice garden. If I get any blooms competition standard great but that's at least one to two years away. I will only be entering the Kent show anyway or local hortictural shows. I am changing my entire stock anyway for next year. I was planning to order form halls and Euro dahlia and some other recommended growers. No plans to go further than that as I work very long hours in retail in central London. So most weekends I work. I am typing this on my lunch break as also working the bank holiday. My borders will be much better next year. Joining Kent dahlia sociey and also going to their show in September to look at everything ! I will also join the national dahlia society . I know my blooms are not good enough but they look nice to me anyway for a dahlia virgin ! Cheers Raymond Ps when I have worked out how many I can grow PROPERLY IN the beds. I will post my short list of varieties and see if people think it's any good.
There has been a lot of common sense advice from people with much more of an understanding that I can have as this is only my 2nd year of growing dahlias.And that's the whole point. You grow things in the garden that you like and you stop growing things that you don't like. It wouldn't matter if you had the most hideous dahlia in the world, if you like it and it makes you happy then grow it.
If you do want to join your local horticultural society, county dahlia society or National Dahlia society then that's great but it doesn't mean that you have to compete, nor are you obliged to go their shows but it is a good way to meet other people that grow dahlias and it is a really good way to find out about different dahlias.
If you are thinking about picking blooms with an eye to participating in shows and you want to have your best chance of success you will need to take that in consideration of future blooms that you may wish to order in the future.
I hope that you enjoy the Kent dahlia show, I think that you'll find it highly competitive. County shows and local shows are a big deal to the people that exhibit. You only have to read other dahlia members updates of which shows they are going for to realise, that even the people that compete at the highest level, go to a range of shows. Otherwise it would be a bit of a dull season if they only competed in the 2 big shows National or Harrogate.
It doesn't matter what else you do if you like dahlias grow the ones that you like. If you want to compete, pick varieties that do well at shows, lots of people take photos of their show entries. Take a note of the varieties that you like the look of for the future but ultimately grow the varieties that you like.
Have fun, don't stretch yourself too thin or it will stop being fun. |
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Post by Tel on Aug 26, 2014 6:18:18 GMT
looks a cracker, but isn't it a large? It was grown has a large in the trials, maybe it was tried as a medium in this show, just going by what Phil Orley posted on facebook. He told me last week that Halls may be releasing it in 2015 I have just asked Phil on facebook, if it was shown as a Medium or Large in case he made a mistake, will let you know if he gets back to me. Scrumpy, Phil say's it is been grown as a medium, it doe's not make a good large. |
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Post by markb on Aug 26, 2014 9:40:21 GMT
Unfortunetly between the race to get vases on the bench and stewarding for Robin Pierce time hindered this a bit. I do have a few of mine that did OK !!   Two vases of five miniature dec's that one me the miniature dec championship. The 2nd pic is a close up of one of the vases.   Single vase of 5 miniature balls 'Members Class' which eventually took best vase of balls in show. Final cut of 3 for the best overall in the members division.  1st Single vase of 5 waterlilies - 'Members Division'   1st single vase of miniature decs - 'Members Division'. One dodgy bloom bottom left, but still strong enough to win !!  1st, single vase of 6 poms - 'Members Division' which later took best vase of poms in show. Not great as they were a little young but bloom angle, size and being a reasonably balanced exhibit helped. Yes a good show for me. From 11 entries: 6 x Firsts 3 x Seconds. 2 x Thirds. Miniature Dec Championship. Best vase of poms in show. Best vase of balls in show. Most points in the members classes. Lovely entries there Mark. Congratulations on your success  |
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Post by markb on Aug 26, 2014 9:42:46 GMT
This is on my wish list for next year. Askwith Roger medium dec, best in show, at the Darlington C&D society show. image hosterLooks like a good one, Tel. In this week's Garden News Halls are advertising it as new for next year. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 26, 2014 12:01:20 GMT
Unfortunetly between the race to get vases on the bench and stewarding for Robin Pierce time hindered this a bit. I do have a few of mine that did OK !! Two vases of five miniature dec's that one me the miniature dec championship. The 2nd pic is a close up of one of the vases. Single vase of 5 miniature balls 'Members Class' which eventually took best vase of balls in show. Final cut of 3 for the best overall in the members division. 1st Single vase of 5 waterlilies - 'Members Division' 1st single vase of miniature decs - 'Members Division'. One dodgy bloom bottom left, but still strong enough to win !! 1st, single vase of 6 poms - 'Members Division' which later took best vase of poms in show. Not great as they were a little young but bloom angle, size and being a reasonably balanced exhibit helped. Yes a good show for me. From 11 entries: 6 x Firsts 3 x Seconds. 2 x Thirds. Miniature Dec Championship. Best vase of poms in show. Best vase of balls in show. Most points in the members classes. Lovely entries there Mark. Congratulations on your success Thanks Mark, its always nice to have a bit of success especially when the weather and growing conditions are not in your favour. A think it would have been a different story if the show had been this weekend. Wind and heavy rain yesterday has hit my uncovered ones hard. Oh well thats the way the mop flops. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 26, 2014 12:04:16 GMT
This is on my wish list for next year. Askwith Roger medium dec, best in show, at the Darlington C&D society show. image hosterLooks like a good one, Tel. In this week's Garden News Halls are advertising it as new for next year. Looks pretty good, still plenty of center left on all 3 blooms, definitly one for covers and most definitly a medium, dont think it has enough petal for a large. |
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Post by markb on Aug 26, 2014 12:38:18 GMT
Yes, the weather here was bad - yesterday steady rain all day then overnight it was like monsoon season.
Certainly no showable flowers for me in the near future so I think I can call a close to this dahlia season.
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Post by scrumpy on Aug 26, 2014 12:48:49 GMT
will have to try and get that one. How many up is it grown?
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Post by Tel on Aug 26, 2014 13:00:08 GMT
will have to try and get that one. How many up is it grown? No idea scrumpy, I saw your post so I have left Phil a message on facebook, to see if he knows. |
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Post by Tel on Aug 26, 2014 18:07:30 GMT
scrumpy, Phil said at least 8 up, he said there were plenty of breaks on it, when it was in the trials.
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Post by Raymond on Aug 27, 2014 19:12:58 GMT
This is think is a better bloom especially considering the rain ! Been non stop and a little damaged on the fringe. But small steps forward I hope. A little uneven as well but better. Good luck to all competing in nationals and other competitions.  |
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