Mark's Seedling

Kathy Young took these photos 

of Mark and his Seedling 

at the Salt Lake County Fair.

Congratulations Mark and thanks to Kathy.

It looks like a winner to me.

Utah Dahlia Society Summer Party

The Utah Dahlia Society's summer get-together  was held on July 16, 2015.  We had a wonderful time at Jan and Allen Litster's lovely home.  What a fantastic array of plants and flowers.  Their dahlias are thriving and we were able to see some of the early bloomers.  Thanks to all who were able to come and bring such scrumptious dishes.  Most of all a huge thank you to Jan and Allen for hosting... What a fun night!

Aside from our Saturday work days at the demonstration garden, our next event is the high-light of the year.  Our annual Dahlia Show will be held on September 26th and 27th.  Congratulations to our new show chairman, Sandy Burgess.  

 Our generous hosts Jan and Allen

 Flowers, food and wonderful friends made for a fabulous evening.

 Our Dahlia Society Girls are always the highlight of our get-togethers.

Thank you Megan for the text and most of the 

photos. 

We hope to see everyone at the show.  

Look for details in September.

Get 'em When They are Young

The Utah Dahlia Society 

kicked off the season's work day this week

at the demo garden with an honorary new member.  

He is Megan's grandson Calvin and was a great help getting replacements in the ground.

The garden was planted on Wednesday, May 13th and is well on its way to becoming another great dahlia year.

 So that's a tuber!

 Dig a hole.....

 .....cover it up.  Give it a pat and a wish for good luck. 

 Got it!

 Calvin was joined by his Grandma Megan,

Jan, Stephan, Sandy, Mark and Karen behind the camera.

Workdays at the demo garden will be 
Saturdays at 9:00 am.  

We hope to see you there!

Last but not least for this post is Cheri Schulzke's first bloom.  

She sent this photo on JUNE 3RD!!!!!

Congratulation Cheri for having the first bloom and the earliest ever!

2015 TUBER SALE

UTAH DAHLIA SOCIETY'S 2015 TUBER SALE

SATURDAY, MAY 2, 2015

SUGARHOUSE GARDEN CENTER
1620 East 2100 South
Salt Lake City

MEMBERS ONLY:  9:00 am until Noon

OPEN TO THE PUBLICE FROM NOON UNTIL 2:00 or UNTIL SOLD OUT.

It is not too late to become a member to take advantage of the early sale.  Send me an e-mail at garykarencrook@comcast.net if you are interested.

One Last Look at our Demo Garden

Now that December is here these lovely flowers from our Demonstration Garden are a wonderful memory.  

The garden was a success this year with some fantastic blooms and some great times for those of us that had the pleasure of working there.

Utah weather is a surprise most of the time.  

This year was really a surprise because the temperatures dropped below freezing with no warning. 

That was a problem because we had not dug the tubers yet. 

 Mark, Steve and Dave cut down the plants and put the drip system away and then on November 17th Mark, Steve, Megan, Carrie and I dug the tubers.  Even though the weather had turned we still had a pleasant day with sunshine to get the job done.

The frost had gotten to some of the tubers but we are hopeful that many will still survive.

We are trying another method this year:  Instead of putting "all our eggs in one basket" we are hoping we will have more success by storing them in 3 different places.  Megan, Mark and Steve took the tubers after they were dug and washed to process and store.  

 We are hopeful that this will give us a better chance of having more viable tubers for our garden and tuber sale.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

See you next spring.

 Orange Seedling

Cheri, Ryan and Julie & Karen's Gardens

Karen's Garden or should I say my Garden;)

I am happy to report that my Burpee Heavy Duty tomato cages were a success!  They held a 7 foot Penhill Watermelon to a small Swan's Gold Medal perfectly through wind and rain.  The only small issue was that for the smaller plants they made it a little harder to disbud and cut the blooms.

 Lovely Lana remains one of my favorites.

 Mixing dahlias and roses makes me happy.

 Wanda's Aurora originally was planted in honor of my dear Aunt Wanda a few years back and continues to have a special place in my garden each year.

 I love Castle Drive.  I love it even more since one of my three plants produced the Best of Show flower.  

I wish I would have paid more attention that morning when I was cutting for the show so I would know just which plant it was;)

 These photos were taken in August.  By the time September came these were all much taller.  

They have full sun so I'm guessing that they were just showing off.

Penhill Watermelon literally stopped traffic this year. 

 It was near our street and had people stopping to take a look.

Cheri's Garden

(Look close....Cheri is in this photo;)

 Cheri is one of the hardest working people I know.  I met her when we were both active in the Salt Lake Master Gardener program. I had the pleasure of working on many projects with her and was thrilled when she joined the Utah Dahlia Society.  

She is always there when needed from working

 the demo garden to setting up our show. 

 Oh, and she also grows a fantastic garden!

 Cheri's award winning zinnias 

welcomed me to her front garden.

 The many varieties she chose to grow 

like this spot next to her roses.

 Thanks Cheri for the tour!

Ryan and Julie's Garden

 A drive to Logan to see their garden in person is something many of us want to do but I didn't make it again this year. 

  Ryan was kind enough to supply us with a glimpse into their garden.

 They recently moved into this wonderful, historical home.  They quickly established their dahlia gardens 

to satisfy their hobby and "budding" floral business.

Beautiful Julie lost in their beautiful dahlias.

Thanks for sharing Ryan and Julie!

My dahlias froze over a week ago but at last report Megan's were still going strong this late in the year

 (11-8-14).  

The last post of the year will be a report on the 

Demo Garden and digging the tubers.

Nick's Camera Photos

Just for fun....

Here are some of the photos from Nick's camera from our awards banquet:

Thanks for sharing Nick!