June 2016 KCDS Newsletter - Kitsap County Dahlia Society

June 2016
KITSAP COUNTY DAHLIA SOCIETY
P. O. Box 502, Silverdale, WA 98383-0502
www.kitsapdahlias.org
Inside this Issue
KCDS Officers
2
KCDS Board Notes 2
Meeting Schedules
2
Mayhem in the
Garden
3
KCDS Plant Auction 4
2016 Dates to Remember
·
June 16, 6:30 PM
General Meeting
·
July 7, 6:30 PM
Board Meeting
·
July 18, 9 AM—3 PM
Summer Federation
Workshop in Seattle
·
July 21, 5:30 PM
Club Picnic, Brownsville
Marina
·
July 25, 9 AM—3 PM
Judge’s Workshop
Burlington, WA
·
July 25, 9 AM—3 PM
Judge’s Workshop
Olympia, WA
·
Aug 4, 7 PM
Board Meeting
·
August 6 & 7
***KCDS SHOW***
Chimacum Sam, ST BR
General Meeting
Drew Brant will give a tutorial on using the ADS Classification Guide at our upcoming June
meeting. At first glance, these booklets may look a bit confusing, but when they are “deciphered”
they are an invaluable resource to understand how the classification system works and how you
can use the information for a variety of purposes. Bring your classification guides to use at this
month’s meeting, together with any older copies you would be willing to share with new members
who may not have guides to use during Drew’s discussion.
Included in this month’s newsletter is a reprint of an article Dave Smith previously wrote for the
newsletter. Now that the tubers are planted (for the most part), we feel this very informative article
is timely for those striving for the perfect show flower—whether it be for show in the garden or
entered in one of the many ADS shows this season. Have fun experimenting with disbudding and
disbranching to see what works best for you.
At last month’s meeting Leone encouraged us to harvest seeds this fall. She gave a description of
how bees travel through the garden gathering and distributing pollen, and encouraged us to think
about that as we select mother plants this summer from which to capture seed. She wrote an
article last year on the process to harvest seeds from dahlia plants and that information will be
featured in a newsletter later in the fall. HAPPY GARDENING!
Dave and Leone brought in an example of a dahlia that has a virus and should be culled (pictured
below). Leone reminded us to check our tubers and discard any that look suspicious. Dr. Hanu R.
Pappu’s article, Dahlia Mosaic Virus, a pictorial guide to symptoms and diagnosis, can be found at
http://plantpath.wsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Binder11.pdf, and has more examples of
diseased dahlias.
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June 2016
KCDS 2015 OFFICERS:
President
Dan Van Natta
360-908-8054
Vice President
(programs)
Drew Brant
360-473-3131
Treasurer
Bill Jones
360-297-2134
Recording
Secretary
(minutes)
Kim Van Natta
360-692-7231
Corresponding
Co-Secretaries
(newsletter)
Allyn Arnold
360-621-0699
Debra Kurre
360-373-8346
Regular Board Meetings
Held on the first Thursday of each
Month at 6:30 PM
LOCATION:
All Star Lanes, Silverdale, WA
Sunshine Committee
Carol Derrick
360-782-0802
Contact any of these people
regarding club events.
kcdsnewsletter@comcast.net
7 July
4 August
General Meetings
Held on the third Thursday of each
month at 6:30 PM
EXCEPT FOR:
July (Club Picnic)
August (Club Show)
LOCATION:
Crystal Grange
2160 NE Paulson Rd
Poulsbo, WA 98370
BOTH meetings are open to all. If you
have an item for discussion, contact
Dan Van Natta by the Tuesday before
the meeting and he will put you on the
agenda.
REFRESHMENT SIGN-UP
June—Bob and Donna Overly
July—Picnic
August-Show
September—Dave and Leone?
Email or call Allyn or Debra to
sign up for 2016
kcdsnewsletter@comcast.net
REMEMBER: Snacks for monthly
meetings are reimbursable up to
$15.00 per month. Provide the
completed KCDS reimbursement form,
KCDS BOARD NOTES
·
ADS Representative
Leone Smith
Federation
Representative
Drew Brant
Please forward all comments & suggestions
to:
Board Meeting Dates
kcdsnewsletter@comcast.net
Trustees
Steffany Mootry
360-731-7114
Pat Paulsen
360-698-0123
Bob Overly
360-377-4531
KCDS NEWSLETTER E-MAIL
ADDRESS
·
·
·
The KCDS show in August is the next big event for the club. Member
support will be needed to make the show a success. Dan is reviewing
show procedure books and has submitted the information for the reader
board at the fairgrounds. The Board will use Wanda’s show spreadsheet
as a guide for this year. Drew provided the spreadsheet to the Board
and volunteered to update status and maintain the master. The club
trailer is at Bob’s house. Bob will inventory the show items to determine
what needs to be replenished for this year’s show.
Bob will host a show staging discussion at his home the Tuesday before
the show, August 2nd.
Drew advised that there is a new form required for the club insurance.
He will prepare it and send off. The insurance has been paid.
Watering systems have been installed at Pt. Gamble and Silverdale
gardens. National Avenue gardens will be watered by hand again this
year. The tubers are coming up !
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June 2016
MAHEM IN THE GARDEN
By David Smith
This may be considered a test of your mental competency. If any of this makes sense to you
psychoanalysis is in order. About this time of year those of us who have nothing better to do start
breaking off pieces of perfectly good dahlia plants in order to make them better and maybe win
something at a dahlia show, or just to show what “with it gardeners” we are. Maybe this has more to
do with being a control freak. Anyway here is what I do.
The point of this is to get big perfect blooms and it starts about this time of year with STOPPING.
This means breaking out the topmost part of the plant, maybe about 1/2 inch, so that the strength of
the plant will flow into the lower part of the bush. Now, there are all sorts of little rules about how to do
this, but for plants with large blooms leave fewer sets of leaves. If you are crazy enough to do this,
experiment with different plants and see what they produce. If you want a REALLY EARLY BLOOM
don’t break off the leader, but do remove the side branches further down, not the leaves, the side
branches.
All of this is about funneling the strength of the plant where you want it. A word about timing (in a
normal year) for the Kitsap show disbranching is in order at about 60 to 80 days after topping for the
perfect bloom. This depends on the weather so top some earlier, some later and some not at all.
Because it has been so cold and wet this spring I would expect to see a lot of terminal blooms
brought to the show. (Note, this article was written a couple of years ago, so this may not apply)
The next step in insanity is called DISBRANCHING. This has to do with limiting the number of side
branches. Even if you don’t stop your plants until they get many sets of leaves you can still limit the
number of side branches to any number you please by breaking off the ones you don’t want. In
general for big blooms leave four side branches. Leave more for smaller blooms and maybe only stop
poms and miniatures, but don’t disbranch them. A good question is when to disbranch. Keep in mind
that the larger the branch you break off the less of the plant’s strength is flowing to make great
blooms, so disbranch earlier rather than later.
The third part of this is DISBUDDING. Later in the season this gets to be an obsession and you
will find visitors to your garden disbudding flowers without even knowing it. Most blooms come in
triples, a larger center bloom and two side blooms. The center bloom matures a little earlier than the
side blooms. Most of us disbud the two side buds and go with the center bud. For a later bloom,
maybe a week, go with one of the side buds and remove the other two. There are more potential
buds further down the branch that can also be removed, rubbed out. In general the more buds you
remove the larger the remaining flower will be. The rule for me is that for large blooms remove every
bud on the branch except one. For smaller blooms remove fewer buds, and when you get to poms no
buds are removed. Some people do remove the side buds from poms, but others only take them off
after cutting the bloom. This is another area that calls for experimentation. Nothing is written in
3
stone. ~
June 2016
KCDS ANNUAL PLANT AUCTION
KCDS club members’ gardening interests are not limited to dahlias! This year’s plant auction
was a huge success, with proceeds adding to the club treasury. Thank you to those members
who donated beautiful plants and vegetables, together with the members who participated in
the auction.
Dan prepared auction cards this year so each
participant would have a unique number. This
turned out to be especially helpful as the bidding
action ramped up.
Eric and his “ladle gavel” kept the auction moving
along smartly. Aurora kept her eyes out for bidders,
and tirelessly ran plants to the winners. Wendy
volunteered for the hectic job of accountant, and
kept track of purchases and payments. A big thanks
goes to our auction team!
Lucky winners — specimen trees and amazing vegetables were a few of the
items available for auction.
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