March 2026 Newsletter

See the full original newsletter pdf with photos here: March 2026 Newsletter

NEXT MEETING:

March 10 at 7:30 PM at The Hall of Flowers at 9th and Lincoln, parking at 10th and Lincoln. Program: How To Use the ADS Classification Book. Bring one or share one at our meeting so you can walk through the exercises. If you have sprouted tubers or young plants to share, please bring them! Remember, any plant or tuber brought into our meeting room is FOR SALE. All trades, swaps and donations should be generously accomplished outside. Please! Who will bring delicacies for our hearty crew?

DSC’S SEPIA HISTORY

From Florida, Erik took us on a Google deep dive into hoary historical records. The original plats from the Inner Lands covered the civilized, built up SF; whereas Outer Lands indicated the rolling sand dunes of what would become The Sunset. (Check out outlands.org) In 1879, the Kew Gardens homage, our Conservatory of Flowers, stood on a hill surrounded by sand dunes and palm trees. After the 1906 earthquake, huge refugee tents scabbed the area around the Dell; Erik displayed a humongous hand wrought stake he’d discovered while digging at the Dell: archeology whilst planting. Several world famous hybridizers like Jesse Seal shipped tubers all over from tracts inside the Richmond and from vast sites in the outer Sunset. Tubers sold for upwards of $15 dollars in the 19teens, twenties and depression’s 30’s—quite a munificent sum equal to a working person’s 3-day wages! By crawling through Cornel’s digitized Bulletins, Erik discovered the instigation behind our dahlia becoming the official flower of San Francisco. It seems that Anita Day Hubbard felt The City needed “dolling up.” She convinced the mayor to enact his famous pose and instituted the official Dahlia Seal on exhibit at the SF International Airport. “Anita Day Hubbard has been reincarnated into our own Jenna Kaiser,” Erik stated because of the messianic zeal with which our Jenna is promoting the 100th anniversary of this momentous act.

100TH ANNIVERSARY OFFICIAL SEAL

Mini and Jenna designed this wonderfully inclusive official logo to use for all our Anniversary occasions. Please download and use whenever you are touting our Anniversary Year. Mini incorporated Alamo Square’s Painted Ladies, our Golden Gate Bridge, and a cable car as well as Skip to My Lou and Elvira all in a soft patina harkening of historical passage. Thank you, creative Jenna and Mini!

STROLL THROUGH THE ADS WEBSITE

With Sarah’s brilliant technical acumen, Deborah highlighted some of the public areas of the American Dahlia Association dahlia.com official site. She reminded us that the complete, searchable Classification Book is on file with links to thedahliaaddict full of vendors. The Fabulous Fifty illuminates those top cultivars from the shows last year. Elvira sits on the #1 throne with 214 Blue ribbons and 110 higher than blue. Deborah explained that initial blue ribbons go for the Best of Color, so Elvira won 214 blue ribbons for being the best pink micro peony. When she won the Best Novice Micro Peony by beating out the Best yellow, orange or red micro peonies, she earned a “higher than blue” point etc. Deborah tantalized us with The Best of 2025, a cavalcade of highest scoring new cultivars from last year. Sooo stunning! When you are feeling glum in the clutches of foggy, drizzling days, delight yourself by scrolling through past years of photo contest winners! So fun. Lastly, Deborah encouraged us all to commit to the 16 Judging Tutorials. Take one a week until planting time, and spruce up your skills—free to ADS members.

VALENTINES TREATS FOR DAHLIA SWEETIES

Thank you, Anita, for your chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies and to Ken and Kathy for backing us brownies. Jon and Francis donated Girl Scout cookies and water bottles. Katey invited us to graze her pimento cheese and cheddar platter Jenna, Maggie and Pat stoked our chocolate jones with multiple forms of wonderful cacao products. Who brought that darling “book” full of 70-80% designer chocolates??? But OH! WOW! Alex and Allison’s berry custard short bread bars! Such heaven! Thank you to all who contribute to the well being (and waistlines) of your fellow dahlianeers. BTW: did anyone leave some glasses behind? Let Deborah know.

MEMORIES OF BEAUTY FROM 2025

EV My Quill Fern cliff Thunder Grenidor Pastelle

GREENHOUSE GROWERS

Brigid reports “There is amazing work going on in the GGP Dahlia Greenhouse. I have just started to help with the process that yields so many lovely plants for our Dahlia Sale in April. Lou, Tinnee and Jerry have already selected and planted hundreds of tubers in labeled trays of soil. Those tubers have been dormant in the temperature and humiditycontrolled hot house in GG Park. For the past month, the tubers have just begun sprouting and getting ready for “harvest.” The pace is measured now, but will pick up as the plants grow. Twice a week, with a master’s eye, Lou assesses the progress of the tuber sprouts and determines which are ready for cutting. Then with surgical precision, Lou removes a stem or two, calls out their name and places them in a numbered tray filled with clean water. Under Tinnee’s tutelage, Karen or I record the name of the tuber harvested on a spreadsheet, make (or find) the color coded label for each stem and place the label in the numbered tray in the label receptacle. Jerry takes the tray and carefully plants the sprout in a 4x4 with the appropriate label. The process goes smoothly, quickly and with great care making sure the proper name is attached to the sprout and we have an accurate recording of the harvest. To date we have 192 new dahlias in 4x4s. With 9 weeks to go, we may have 1,000 plants by the April 25 th Dahlia Sale. “ Thank you, Brigid, for this promising update,

DAHLIAS WITH TRAINING WHEELS

Dahlias with training wheels are those varieties that can take a little too much sun or not quite enough sun; a little too much water, or not quite so much water; enjoy staking but don’t NEED staking; perform splendidly with disbudding but still produces fine blooms without assiduous plucking of extra buds; and lastly, a dahlia with training wheels should produce nice tubers without too much fuss. In short, ideal behavior for a dahlia. A few leap to mind. Lakeview Glow is a BB ic y. Good color, sturdy, wins prizes, makes tubers. Check check. Ditto Hollyhill ShowTime a BB sc or. Vernon Rose, BB fd var r/pr —really catches your eye. Named for a DSC grower of yesteryear and still wins special prizes. Blomquist Jeff, BB sc db pr/wh/r who WANTS to grow! Easy to build multiples and roots cuttings easily. Lastly a huge AA sc lb Pennhill Watermellon. Warning, Pennhill Watermelon is a bully and a monster! It will crawl over the top of unsuspecting dahlias who were planted too close. But KaPOW! what a payoff! For a big AA, Pennhill Watermelon puts out A LOT of massive blooms. My surprise last season was a glorious Hollyhill Day Dreamer. I almost turned it down because c’mon, another orange waterlily???? But so glad I kept her. Wow!! So many blooms lasting well nigh into Thanksgiving. Adequate tuber production. Last nomination for dahlia with training wheels is Trooper Dan, also a big A sc yellow. Trooper Dan is such a trooper; it just grows and grows, year after year, producing many fine BIG blooms. Anita suggests, “I am not being biased but Skip to My Lou is really a great plant, blooms profusely and gives tons of tubers. I have also loved growing Holly Huston. I originally got this from Costco and it's a great fire engine red with very long stems and big flowers. Clearview Peachy is an easy and rewarding ball variety. The color is like a sunset and a great tuber producer. Verrone's Morning Star is a prolific orchette bloomer that adds a lot of interest in the garden and the bees love it.” BTW, Verrone’s Morning Star and other orchettes and open centered dahlias grow easily in big pots. The #1 Winner in US shows, Elvira, loves to grow anywhere—pots, ground, grow bags, cracks in the sidewalk, wherever.

DAHLIA CALENDER

C. Coast DS Tuber Sale April 12 United Meth. Church 1-4 PM 1515 Frederick St. SLO

DSC TUBER SALE April 25 9th and Lincoln GG Park

SF Flower of the Year Skip to My Lou $100!

San Leandro Tuber Sale April 25 Judging Seminar July 25 East Bay TBA

Central Coast Show Aug. 8-9 United Methodist Church 1515 Frederick St. SLO

Flowers of the Year Misfit Kaleidoscope Reann’s Tiger’s Eye

DSC Floribunda! Aug. 15-16 9th and Lincoln GG Park SF

SLDC Show Sept 5-6

DSC Anniversary Picnic Sept. 13 Dahlia Dell

National Show Aug. 27-30 Grand Rapids, Michigan

DAHLIAS OF TODAY PUBLICATION

“We’re pleased to announce that the 2026 edition of Dahlias of Today is now available for purchase on our website.This new edition features updated content, fresh photography, and the latest selections of varieties from the trial gardens, making it an essential resource for dahlia enthusiasts and growers alike. You can view details and place your order directly on our website at your convenience. Link is below: https://puget-sound-dahlia-association.myshopify.com/ Roe Shands, PSDA Publication Sales Manager”

DAHLIA AWARD DEFINITIONS

Lynn B. Dudley Medal: Awarded to the cultivar that has the highest average SEEDLING BENCH EVALUATION SCORE as an AA/A; B; BB; M; Ball/Miniature Ball/ Pompon; ST/NX; and Waterlily

Drill W. Hart Medal: Awarded to the cultivar that has the highest AVERAGE TRIAL GARDEN scores in AA/A, B, BB; M; Ball/Miniature Ball/Pompon; ST/NX and Waterlily.

Evie Gulikson Medal: Awarded to the cultivar that has the highest average Seedling Bench Evaluation score and the cultivar with the highest average Trial Garden score as an open center or disc center.

Stanley Johnson Medal: awarded to the cultivar that has the most Higher Awards per growing season. It may only be won once. If the same cultivar wins a second year, the #2 most higher awards cultivar will be awarded the Stanley Johnson medal.

Les Connell Medal: awarded to the cultivar that has the most TOTAL awards in its first 5 YEARS since introduction.

As you can discern, all these awards celebrate different kinds of hybridization success. Photos of all the award winners for 2025 are posted on the ADS website, dahlia.com

SEEDLING CUTTING BED AT EDNA MAGGOIRE ELEMENTARY

by Anita Castro-Sparks

After digging up and dividing over 150 plants during November and early December, we set up a cutting bed. The tubers have been placed in dishwashing tubs and large aluminum foil trays. We used Fox Farm Ocean Forest Potting mix and bought Barrina Full Spectrum grow lights from Amazon (this is not a sales pitch; we bought these because the reviews and prices were good). At least two tubers per variety, we planted a few days before Christmas and set under 14hrs of daylight. The cutting bed rack is located in an indoor classroom and temperatures hover around 68F all day. All other tubers are being stored and if all goes well, they can be used for direct planting and fundraising in April. By early January, many tubers had eyes waking up. By mid-January we were able to take our first cutting. We use the same potting mix for the cuttings. We dip the snippet in rooting hormones and place them in covered domes in the same set up as cutting bed. And like clock work, by day 12 we begin to see roots!! As cuttings get a bit bigger, we will pot them up into 4” pots and move them to our greenhouse. Our goal for the cuttings is multi fold: We would love to have blooms earlier in the year. We sell cut flowers to support the school garden. We also want to sell seedlings at our yearly plant sale which is also a fundraiser for our school garden. Additionally, we plant to use some as part of instruction for our 5th graders so they can learn about different ways plants are propagated. And finally, and just as important, we want to be able to share some with our fellow dahlia societies and events so they can use them in their fundraising events.

Mill Valley Bounty Jennifer shares her dahlia story. “I start every morning with a cup of ginger tea from Yogi, and the little message on the tag always feels like a quiet nudge in the right direction. Today’s quote was especially fitting: “Making someone else happy will bring you happiness.” That simple sentiment perfectly captures how I feel about my dahlias. Dahlias bring so much joy to people—and I absolutely love giving them away. Birthdays, anniversaries, bridal showers, baby showers, someone facing illness, or simply “just because”—over the past five years, I’ve probably given away hundreds of dahlias. People often tell me I should turn it into a business, but that would defeat the purpose. The joy for me is in the giving. My dahlia journey began with a single bright pink cactus variety in my garden. Growing up on the East Coast, I fell in love with the look of an English garden. When I moved west, I quickly learned that recreating that lush style wasn’t realistic because of water restrictions. Over time, I adapted, using droughtresistant plants to create a similar feel. Somewhere in that process, I bought one pink cactus dahlia. One turned into three, and three eventually became thirty vibrant pink “happy flowers.” Since then, I’ve added more varieties, and they’ve all multiplied. For a while, I delivered 100 pink cactus dahlias to a local restaurant every week—free of charge—just to make people smile. It’s labor-intensive to pick flowers every morning and deliver them, but it never felt like work. These days, I text my fellow dahlia lovers when my porch is overflowing to come help themselves.

Two years after my son left for college, I took over his old baseball and golf cage and planted five rows of dahlias—two rows of red varieties and three rows of pink cactus. A gift certificate to Swan Island inspired me to add five more, and now I grow eighteen varieties. I’ve recently divided tubers to share with about thirty people in Marin and will donate my extras to the Dahlia Society for their sale.

My love of gardening comes from my father, whose favorite flower was the dahlia. We always had vegetables growing, living farm-to-table long before it was trendy; I carried that tradition on with my own children. Gardening is a luxury, a responsibility, and one of my greatest joys. Dahlias, especially, keep me connected to my father, and now others in my community.

I set dahlias out on my porch for regulars to pick up, and I bring flowers to the people I encounter in my daily life—my Pilates instructor, our tennis club, local restaurants, and small businesses. Watching people’s faces light up is the best part. It’s always fun to learn which varieties are their favorites. It doesn’t take much— something so simple—to bring joy to others. In truth, I’m the one who receives the greatest gift.

Gardening has always been woven into my life, rooted in summers on a farm and my father’s steady guidance. In a world of AI and constant acceleration, tending a garden keeps me connected to the earth—literally grounded. Gardening forces me to slow down, something I find challenging in this fast-paced world. But gardens have a way of connecting people—neighbors, old friends, new friends—ephemeral and timeless.”

OVER HILL AND DELL

Lou has cut his pasture and left all the chopped grass in place. He’s put most of his tubers on the cutting bench. Tinnee and Gerry weeded their section and have begun extracting clumps for the cutting bench, too. They promise to make as many Skip to My Lou’s as possible The fickle weather sprouted literary allusions. First Carol said that weeding proved Herculean. Then Deborah suggested, “Sisyphusian?” because of its never-ending aspect. When Antoinette wrestled with a deeply jammed shovel, we called over King Arthur (Gerry) to wrest our spade Excalibur from the soil. Gallantly (and one-handily) our knight in dirty jeans obliged. Longtime DSC member, Bonnie, using an upright walker, hiked all the way to the Dell to deliver a bagful of milk cartons. A hard fought oddessy and so appreciated! Pat and Nancy trekked to the Dell and checked out the two stands of single lavender tree dahlias blooming nearby. Pat reminisced about all her years caring for the eastern quarter of the teardrop.

CAVALCADE OF DISTINGUISHED DAHLIAS

Hiller Tanunda, Hapet Ruth, Hapet Pastel, Hilltop Mimi, Irish Lil Red, KA’s Creme Brûlée

OFFICIAL TUBER SALE POSTERS

MARCHING INTO MARCH

Field Dressing

I did a photo essay a couple springs ago for our newsletter about field dressing and was recently asked for clarification.

Field dressing is where you dig up part or all of a clump right in your patch. Keep the best section for yourself. Add plenty of amendments and either leave the untouched section in or replant your favorite chunk. The idea is to reduce the amount of tubers competing for dwindling nutrients. I sometimes sprinkle sulphur around the piece I leave just because I can't leave it in 10% bleach as I usually do with the tubers. Sulfur cuts down on immediate bugs and infection. I usually bring home the section I've removed and process the tubers with the whole production line including bleach and sulphur dips.  

Waking Up Tubers—All Hung Up

Check out how some people are using baggies, a drying rack and clothespins to wake multiple tubers up. Ingenious.

Mini Greenhouses

Look how these little cuttings thrive in these teeny weeny greenhouses devised to maintain humidity under lights.

Hardening Off—Dahlia Sunburn?

Abrupt transition from warm indoors to stark outdoors can traumatize your young plant. Dahlias can even suffer sunburn if they’ve never been exposed to direct sunlight before. I have been germinating dahlias in my loft and cosseting cuttings in my greenhouse. When they get 6-10” tall I move them to my downstairs greenhouse window to get them used to lower temperatures and more—albeit indirect—sunlight. Next they transition to a sheltered spot on my front deck where they receive direct sunshine (if we have any) a couple hours a day and learn to endure the overnight temperatures. Finally they matriculate to open deck space and they are Hardened Off—meaning they will survive being put in the ground. Some people have rolling racks so they can roll their young plants out during the daytime and back inside at night. Others use big black flats and transport them in and out for a week or so. Find the process that works for you so that you do not suddenly expose your beautiful young dahlias to direct sunlight or to colder temperatures.

Cuttings OR Seedlings

Let’s get our terms clear. A CUTTING either comes from a tuber sprout or off a growing plant. It is cut off. It is put in a light soil +perlite mixture to root under lights. Genetically speaking, a cutting is a clone—an exact genetic copy of the plant or tuber it came from. A SEEDLING is a new combination of chromosomes coming from a dried seed head. No one knows what it looks like until it blooms for the first time. A seed planted this April will bloom this season and produce tubers at the end of 2026. It will be an entirely new genetic entity. A cutting will also bloom this season and produce small tubers this season. A cutting should look EXACTLY like its parent plant. Good luck with your cuttings and seedlings.

Checking Tubers

Now is the time to bring your tubers in from their cool dormancy into a warmer area to germinate. In the mild Bay Area we can often plant in March. I NEVER plant a tuber in the ground and hope for the best. I can’t control the weather or the critters. Instead, I pot up tubers in milk cartons and germinate them in my loft. I can control the moisture and heat upstairs; I can’t control the rain and the temperatures outside. When I have hardened off my 6-10” dahlias, they have filled their milk carton completely with roots. When I peal off the milk carton, I am left with a “brick” of healthy roots looking for a home filled with nutrients. These “bricks” can be planted any time from March through June. Because these “bricks” have so many roots, a surprise rain storm will not turn them into soggy disappointments; they will survive and thrive. I think of planting tubers directly into the ground as gambling; milk cartons are the sure thing.

February has been sooo rainy and blustery; let’s hope for a milder, kinder March.

Yours in Dirt,
Deborah

Photo Credits: Capps, Castro-Sparks, Chou, Debrie, Dietz, Dibner, Harms, Hartwell, Ide, K&B, Kenyon, Lamb, Rodman, Trew, Tiff, Tobiasson, Yoki

Punctilious Proofreader: Steve

Webmaster and designer: Mini

Highlights from the Santa Cruz Pacific Southwest Conference coming in DSC’s April newsletter