November 9, 2019 Tuber Dividing and Annual Awards Banquet

Dahlia Society meets at Dick Taylor's garden at 1:00 pm to a warm November 9th day to help divide the tubers.  The tubers were designated the green ones on the floor of the garage that were positively identified and the red ones in wheel barrow's on his side yard where their identify was uncertain.  What a variety he shares of healthy looking tubers.

Dick Taylor smiles as he holds up the longest tuber ever seen in Utah!

Garage floor with a cover of neatly labeled dahlias.  We had our work cut out for us (pun intended)

Dick's Daughters help after they dug up all the dahlias and arranged the garage floor.

Check out the highlights of our 2 some odd hours spent cutting, visiting, packaging and storing.   I frankly learned allot about dividing from these experts.  Dick has so graciously donated his dahlias to our Spring Tuber sale for 2020.  He has a tremendous selection and if they store well we will have some great choices.  Thanks Dick and Marilyn for making this a fun event for all of us.

Spence Mortensen expert cutter

Megan Badger and Marilyn Taylor label and bag.

Ryan & Julie Williams and Karen Crook are pros at cutting.

Megan and Ryan load up for storage up North.

Awards Banquet is held at Joe Morley's Barbecue in Midvale.  We were lucky to have an excellent wait staff with Jan Lister's granddaughter.  Julie Williams spoke to the 23 in attendance.  Winner at the head table receive an absolutely beautiful book about DAHLIAS.   Of course Megan didn't highlight her best of show award and all the others.  We all know how beautiful Doris was that day.  Thanks to Spence and Emily Mortensen for their donation of cut flowers to our fall show.  Once again Clea Hurst for her work as show chairman.

This brings 2019 to a close.  See you all in the spring.  

Award for making the head table

Megan Badger, Jan Lister, Dan and Elizabeth Palmer

Julie and Ryan Williams and their girls. Karen Crook, Sandy Allred, Dick and Marilyn Taylor & Barbara and Bill Hughes

Chris and Becky Swalberg, Clea and Linda Hurst, Dave and Marie Ross and Emily and Spence Mortensen

Megan Badger and Karen Crook Present to Clea Hurst

2019 Utah Dahlia Society Show Results

It takes a wonderful President like Julie Williams to communicate to us throughout the year and many committed dahlia growers to put on a beautiful show as this one.  Many people take on multiple roles and we pulled it off again on September 21, 2019.

Many Thanks go to:

• Show Co-Chairman Clea Hurst & Daniel Hsiao
• Show setup by Megan Badger, Karen Crook, Clea Hurst and Becky Swalberg.  
• Flowers Donated by Spence and Emily Mortensen.  
• Judges, Ryan Williams, Stephan Lecheminant, Bill Hughes and Becky Swalberg.  
• Clerks, Julie Williams, Clea Hurst and Jan Lister.  
• Daniel Hsiao for organizing the cleanup crew. 

Many beautiful entries this year!   Thanks to all who participated.  

Small Flower Arrangements

Large Flower Arrangements

Spence and Emily Mortensen's Cut Flowers for Sale.

Here is the lineup and winners in our show. 

Karen Crook - Best AA - AC Ben

Megan Badger - Best A - Doris B

Ryan and Julie Williams - Best B - Francesca Evangelista

Stephen Lecheminant - Best BB - Hollyhill Angela

Megan Badger - Best Ball-Blyton Softer Gleam & Miniture-Jack Frost

Julie & Ryan Williams - Best Pom-Elfin & Exotic-Midnight Star

Karen Crook - Best 3 Blooms with B FD Thomas Edison

Becky Swalberg - Best Arrangement

Best of Show goes to Megan Badger!

Congratulations Megan Badger for Doris B - Best of Show stunning flower.  Doris's head is bigger than Megans!

Megan and Karen battle for the largest bloom.  Megan Badger wins with Maki on the left.  Let's just say the judges were divided on this one.

Utah Dahlia Society Exhibition Sept 21, 2019

It's Show and Tell Time for Utah Dahlia Society!!!  

Our Annual Utah Dahlia Society Exhibition Show is ONE Day Only, on Saturday  September 21st at the Sugarhouse Garden Center (1610 East 2100 South) from 1:00 to 5:00 PM

To enter your dahlias bring them staged or come to the center between 8:00 and 9:45 am.  Be ready because judging starts at 10:00 am sharp.

We hope to see you this year!

Annual Tuber Sale - Friday April 26th

Utah Dahlia Society Annual Tuber Sale Friday, April 26th

Brief Meeting: 5:30 pm for UDS Members
Tuber Sale for UDS Members only: starts at 6:00 pm
Location:  Sugarhouse Garden Center (1610 East 2100 South) SLC
Membership Details:  If you're not yet a member, but would like to join, you're welcome to come at 5:30 and sign up. The cost of membership is $28 for an individual, $32 for a family. This includes a membership to both the Utah Dahlia Society and the American Dahlia Society.

Sale Opens to the Public: 7:00 to 8:00 PM

NOTE FROM JULIE WILLIAMS:  

We think we'll have a great variety at the sale this year, with donations and all of the demonstration garden tubers.

It's not quite time to pull tubers out of storage yet - usually we do this about 3 weeks or so before planting. But if any of you think you may be able to donate tubers, please take a look at what you have and let JULIE WILLIAMS know how many and which varieties in the next couple of weeks so we can prepare labels and plan ahead.

• Our Club Flower this year is Hollyhill Angela (which Stephen grew so beautifully last year and donated - thank you!) We will have one plant that night for all members.

Awards Dinner and Farewell to our Demo Garden

October 20, 2018 was a big day for the Utah Dahlia Society. 

We dug our tubers and had our awards dinner.

Karen and Megan at the demo garden

Thanks to Ryan, Julie, Alice, Daniel, Jan and Megan for processing the dahlia tubers. Also, Steve, Karen and Gary that are not in the photo.

We are saying farewell to our demo garden after several years and thank 

the Granger Community Church for their hospitality and support.

Our annual awards dinner was held at Joe Morely BBQ.  We had a smaller group this year because many of our members were out of town or not feeling well enough to attend.

 Head Table Winners

Steve was our big winner this year with 4 wins on the head table including best of show.

Sandy Allred is a new UDS member and won a head table spot her first year entering.

We missed our dear, Mark Hurst and his daughter Clea who were unable to attend.

Best of luck to everyone for a good year storing our dahlia tubers and look forward to seeing you all next spring.

How to Store Dahlia Tubers

We often have requests for information of how to store dahlia tubers.  Over the past 10 years we have tried many methods and have decided the following works best for us:


We no longer buy into the need for them to freeze before we dig the tubers out.  We dig them the best possible days the last week or so of October.   It is easiest to leave about a foot of the stem when you cut the plants down just so you have a handle to help lift them.  Many of us spray them with the hose to get the dirt off or use an air compressor to blow them clean.   If using water let them sit on newspaper on a bench or table (not cement) in a garage for about 2 days to dry.  After that, you should see "eyes" to divide them (lots of You Tube videos to show you how) then put them in zip lock 1 gallon freezer bags with about a cup of coarse vermiculite to cover them mixed with a scant teaspoon of sulfur. We use a metal knitting needle to poke the bag for ventilation.  We write the variety on the tuber and the bag with a sharpie and only put the same variety in the bag.  Then, we buy moving boxes from Lowes and store them in a dry place that is ideally around 42 degrees until mid April for our area.  If using a refrigerator line the boxes with several layers of newspaper on all sides because the side touching the inside of the fridge may freeze the tubers.  Loosely pack the boxes with the bags of tubers.  More newspapers on top, close the box and put them in the refrigerator with a thermometer to monitor the temperature.

We have had good luck with this method and hope you do too.  

2018 Annual Dahlia Society Show

Another spectacular show on Sept 29th for the Utah Dahlia Society.  Thanks to everyone's entries it was quite the competition.
 

1.  Best of Show President's Award - Holly Hill Angela - grown with loving care by Stephen LeCheminant.

2.  Best AA - AC Ben - another by Stephen LeCheminant.

3.  Best A - Spartacus  - Raised and loved by the Utah Dahlia Society Demonstration Garden.

4. Best BB - Holly Hill Angela - for Stephen LeCheminant.  Also won Best of Show.  

5.  Best M - Outta Da Blue - Thanks to Megan Badger for this lovely.

6.  Best Ball - Mirella - This makes 3 or is it 4 for Stephen LeCheminant.  Who is counting?

7.  Best Pompon - Stolz Von Berlin - This beauty was brought in by Sandy Allred.

8.  Best Exotic - Holly Hill Spider Woman - Mark & Clea Hurst grew this wild looking flower.

9.  Best Three Blooms - Blyton Softer Gleam - Megan Badger for another one.

10.  Best Arrangement - Karen Crook's beautiful small arrangement dedicated to Sandy.

There were beautiful photographs to choose from, beautiful people and well deserved winners.  Here are a few pictures from the event.

We hope you all enjoyed the show and can join us for the fall social.  This year it will be held at Joe Morely's 100 West Center Street in Midvale.  An invitation will be sent shortly, but save the date, Saturday October 20th at 5:30 p.m.. Cost $20 a person.