Thanks goes to Spence and Emily for their gorgeous yard and hospitality!

We met at 4:00 PM at Spence and Emily Mortensen's home for our outdoor, mask-a-raid of their garden.  Seriously, those who were able to eat the Joan J raspberries truly did enjoy the raid and had to remove their masks!  The beauty of their yard with a buck running though it makes us appreciate them and the amount of work to maintain it.  The view of their garden with Little Cottonwood Canyon behind is breath taking (amplified with wearing a mask).   

The food was provided by the Dahlia Society and social distance tables were setup throughout the yard. 

Our President Julie Williams gets pointers from her 3 darling girls.  

Highlights of Julie's discussion:

• Misconception that you have to wait for a freeze to dig your dahlias.  You don't have to wait!
• Chop with lopers to the ground.
• Dig them up when you can.  Hopefully, before frost.
• For those who want to learn how to store your dahlias, there will be a date at Dick Taylor's home sometime early November where experts will show you how to cut the dahlias and ready them for winter.  Check your email for this date.  
• Methods of storing were discussed by Julie and others as follows:
• Dig, wash and dry and store entire clump over the winter and separate in spring or separate in the fall.  The choice of when is yours.  Note:  It is easier to see the eyes in the spring.
• Sandy says she splits the dahlia in two and puts into separate bags incase she looses one in hopes the other is good.
• Dig, blow with compressed air.
• Get as much of the stem off of the tubers to prevent rot.
• Store in gallon bags, with poked holes with 1 cup vermiculite and 1/2 tsp sulfur to prevent rot.
• Store in wood chips in bins
• Wrap individual tubers in plastic wrap.
• The decision was made that our club flower in 2021 will be a repeat of Ken's Choice.
• Megan Badger will send an email for voting on pictures for our annual calendar. 

Megan takes picture of Dick Taylor and his daughter in front of our display table.  

 Dick Taylor and his daughter.

Elfin

Let's hope for 2021 that:

1.  Covid19 is a memory.

3.  Your dahlia picture makes it on our 2021 calendar.

4.  You and your dahlias visit us in the spring for our Annual Tuber sale.

 Our annual Dahlia Exhibition is cancelled for 2020 due to the pandemic.

Annual Tuber Sale - Covid-19 - Zoom Get-togethers - Facebook Posts

Blue Skies, Masks and Friends at our Annual Tuber Sale!

 Bet you can't guess who these people are!

The Dahlia Society made the decision to give away the tubers this year.  The tuber exchange was in the parking lot of the Sugarhouse Garden Center and gained a bit of interest from the community.  We gained additional members at this exchange.  We gave each member a choice of 10 dahlias each.  As you can see from the picture above, our members are 6 feet apart, all have masks and are still healthy.  Gardening is a stress reliever.

Zoom Meeting - July 9th

1.  Our Utah Dahlia Exhibition Show is tentatively being held on Sept 19th.  Place and decision to have a show this year are still under consideration. 

2. Please post any pictures of dahlias you would like to show on our Utah Dahlia Society Facebook page each Friday.  This is one way we can be joyful during these crazy times with the beauty of dahlias.  Be safe everyone.

Utah Dahlia Society Annual Tuber Sale 

 Saturday April 25, 2020 

Due to Covid-19 our sale will be different this year.  Here are the guidelines.

Date:  Saturday April 25th.

Time:  Sale will start at 10:00 and end at Noon.

Location: Parking lot of Sugarhouse Garden Center (1610 East 2100 South) SLC.

Special Instructions:

1.  Bring your own mask and gloves.

2.  Bring your own container to take them home in.

3.  Bring your own marker to mark your tubers since we won't be bagging them.

4.  We will enforce social distancing and only one person at a time will go through the tubers.

For those of you who have tubers to donate, you can bring them to the sale.  If you choose to post the types of tubers you have, please do so on our Facebook page.  

Julie and Ryan Williams will bring the members of the Utah Dahlia Society the club flower Ken's Choice and plants you ordered to this sale.  The club flower this year is Ken's Choice.  

Please join us for this tuber sale.  Most gardeners love to hug and so this will be a new experience this year with social distancing.   Let's make this work.