Sleep Tight...

     On Saturday, November 24 we had a record for members coming out to help with the demonstration garden tuber dig.  Mark led the charge with Steve, Megan, Karen, Cheri, Sandy, Spencer, Janet, Elizabeth, Dave and Dick making a tough job easy.  With many hands at work we were able to dig, wash and divide the tubers in unseasonably nice weather.  
     On Tuesday, November 27 we labeled all the tubers and wrapped them in plastic wrap for their winter's sleep.  We have high hopes that we will have lots of tubers in the spring.
     Good luck to everyone for successful tuber storage!

*Even though we had lots of tubers there were fewer than in years past.  We are having soil tests done to make sure we don't have a problem.

Dogs Love Dahlias Too

Just when we are getting ready to say goodbye to our dahlias for the season we discover we have another 

Utah Dahlia Society member.

Honorary member, 

Bentley and Lovely Lana, 

a match made in heaven.

(Phone photos usually don't have enough pixels for the blog but we had to make an exception for this one;)

2012 AWARDS BANQUET

The Utah Dahlia Society Awards Banquet 

was held on October 10th at the Granger Christian Church which is the home to our 

Demonstration Garden.

We had frost in most of the Salt Lake Valley recently but luckily most of our garden was saved for this special event.

Thanks to Bill Hughes for most of the photos in this post and for his presentation of

 The National Show and Swan Island's Dahlia Festival.

Also, thanks to Megan Badger for arranging for the delicious Chinese Food, tablecloths, and the great trophies that were awarded.

 Steve LeCheminant and David Ross had time before the dinner and awards to check out the garden.

 Coral Gypsy

 Just Married

 The Williams and LeCheminants

 Spencer Mortensen, ADS representative with one of our big winners in this year's show, David Ross

Jan Litster and Elizabeth Palmer

 Dee and Elaine Davis

 Karen Crook and UDS Judge, Becky Hansen

 Dick Taylor

 Larry Stevens

 The heart and soul of the UDS, Megan Badger

 Our demonstration garden is still going strong even after some frost.  

Thanks to Mark Hurst, UDS President for heading up the volunteers who have taken care of this garden all season: Steve LeCheminant, David Ross, Dick Taylor, Megan Badger, Karen Crook, Lumpy Grayson, Sandy Burgess and Cheri Schultzke.

 Thanks again to Bill Hughes for his photos and presentation.

Best in Class winners Steve LeCheminant, Mark Hurst, Karen Crook, David Ross, and Julie and Ryan Williams.  Mark Hurst also won Best in Show.  

Not pictured is Art and Barbara Wuerth 

from Olympia, Washington.

4th Annual Exhibition Show

Our 4th Annual Exhibition Show

 was held on September 29th and 30th at 

the Sugarhouse Garden Center.

We had wonderful participation from our members

 and the public.

Megan Badger did a fantastic job as usual putting the show together.  She works tirelessly for the UDS and we all appreciate her efforts. 

 Nick Spencer also did a great job as our Show Chairperson and we appreciate his efforts as well.  

Thanks to everyone that participated and helped to make the show a success.

A highlight for us was entries from 

Art and Barbara Wuerth from Olympia, Washington. 

They drove 1760 miles round trip to be a part of our show.  

Art even helped judge.

Thanks to them for making the trip and making our show part of their fall line up.

We had 153 entries

Mark Hurst wins BEST OF SHOW with his Spartacus which was also the Best A

Thanks again to Spence Mortensen for donating his many blooms for our fund raiser.  Thanks too to Megan Badger, Cheri Schultzke and Karen Crook for cutting and arranging them.

Friends of the Utah Dahlia Society

 including Karen and Megan.  Karen's arrangement,
"Jessi's Wedding" won the People's Choice Award

We appreciated the support of Brian and his Doodles

Our photo contest for our 2013 Calendar

Art and Barbara Wuerth from Olympia, Washington

Bev Sudbury came to support the UDS

Best Arrangement by Julie and Ryan Williams

Best B- Citron De Capp-Ryan and Julie Williams

Best BB- Victoria Ann- Karen Crook

Best 3 Blooms- Jessie G- David Ross

Best AA- Hana Hitosuji- Stephen LeCheminant

Best Club Flower - Miss Delilah - Karen Crook

Best Exotic- Hollyhill Spiderwoman- Ryan and Julie Williams

Best Ball- Ivanette-David Ross

Best M- Martina- Art and Barbara Wuerth

Dee Davis admiring Nick Spencer's "Walter Hardisty"

If you would like a full list of our winners in each category let us know.  There is a PDF file available or we can send you a copy in the mail.

August Meeting

This is out of order but before posting all the news from our recent Exhibition Show

 I could not forget to mention our August meeting.

Our very generous and gracious hosts were 

Rich and Patty Tueller.  

 Their lovely back garden was a perfect place to showcase the blooms each of us brought to show off our early successes.

Many thanks to Rich and Patty for their hospitality and to Steve LeCheminant for giving us tips for staging our entries to the show.  Karen Crook gave a demonstration of how to arrange our dahlias for gifts or special occasions.

4th Annual Dahlia Show

Please Come 

to our

4th Annual Dahlia Exhibition Show

Saturday, September 29th

and 

Sunday, September 30th

1:00 until 5:00 each day

Sugarhouse Garden Center

1620 East 2100 South

FREE ADMISSION

There will be cut dahlias for sale

If you would like to enter flowers 

bring them between 7:00 am and 10:00 am
 on
 Saturday the 29th

You do not need to be a Utah Dahlia Society member to enter.

Demonstration Garden Update 7-23-2012

First of all, my sincere apologies for not posting on our blog for so long.  I have updated with 3 new posts about the planting of our demonstration garden, our June meeting and now this peak at the progress of the demonstration garden.  

Please be sure to scroll down to catch up.

 What a beauty!!!  I still love her even if I can't remember her name.....Doris something I think.

 Mark tenderly disbuds one of our many dahlias getting ready to burst with more color.

 Our Miss Delilah bed is amazing.  I have decided this hard working variety is a must for any garden, maybe that is why we named her our Club Flower this year!    She is a low grower, blooms early and often until frost.  What's not to love?

 This is a new variety named Harvey Koop that Megan bought as a cutting.  It is unusual and gorgeous!

This is a new variety named Bert Pitt, yes Bert, 

not Brad but just as handsome;)

This year we did an experiment with tubers from out Best of Show plant, Wanda's Aurora.   The plant gave us many tubers; some small and others very large.  We planted one small tuber and one very large tuber side by side to see if there will be any difference in plant size and most importantly the quality and quantity of blooms.  So far (darn, wish I would have taken a photo) the plants are exactly like the tubers, the small tuber has given us a smaller plant compared to the much larger plant from the larger tuber.   It is proving to be interesting to track these plants through the season.  We may find out what others may already know.....SIZE DOES MATTER:))


If anyone has some photos of their dahlias they would like to show off here please e-mail me large file photos to my e-mail address at garykarencrook@comcast.net  (phone photos are not a large enough file....sorry)

JUNE MEETING

    Our June meeting was held at 42nd Street Greenhouse.   It was a lovely evening in the garden which gave us a chance to discuss our financials, ideas for our grant and other details the Dahlia Society needed to address.   We had ice cream treats that hit the spot on a warm evening.


    42nd Street Greenhouse is a ground up business started by Diane and Roy Angus.  It is a wonderful nursery and they were kind enough to host the Dahlia Society.  Besides growing beautiful annuals, vegetables, herbs and perennials they buy dahlia tubers from us each year and start them in pots.  It is great to have this backup just in case one of our precious tubers is a no show.  We all hate to have spaces empty when a beautiful dahlia could be growing.  The greenhouse is located at 4221 South 700 East and is open from 9:00 am until 6:00 pm Monday through Saturday, May through October.  You can check out their website at www.42ndstreetgreenhouse.com   
   
Please support them and let them know how much we appreciate their support for us.

Planting the Demonstration Garden

May 1, 2012 was the perfect day to plant the demonstration garden.  We had lots of volunteers to prepare the soil, install the drip system and finally to dig holes and deposit our hopes and dreams for the coming dahlia season.   This year we had funds to buy several new varieties of dahlias along with new cuttings.   It will be exciting to see how the new varieties will do and look forward to those new tubers being available for next year's tuber sale.

 Mark, Steve, Dave and Lumpy do the final touches of the drip system.

 Megan and Lumpy hard at work....

 Sandy's huge contribution was mapping the garden and making sure we knew exactly where each and every tuber was planted with name and other important information.  Each plant is mapped and tagged because remember, Mark can't love it unless he knows it's name!

 Dave Ross has many talents and thankfully willing to share them with the Dahlia Society.

Thanks to all our volunteers and the weather for cooperating this year.  

We will be tending the garden Monday evenings if you would like to help.

Tuber Sale 2012

Our 2012 Tuber Sale was held today, April 28 at Millcreek Gardens.

We are happy to report that it was a huge success!  In fact, we only have miscellaneous tubers left so we are going to cancel the sale dates of May 5th and 12th.

If anyone still needs tubers get in touch with us through this blog or a Dahlia Society Member and we will be happy to let you browse through our remaining stock.

Thanks to Megan Badger as always for all she does,  everyone else that helped and to all the members that so generously donated their tubers for our annual sale.

A special thanks to Millcreek Gardens for hosting our event.

Good Luck Everyone and enjoy the Dahlia Season!