KITSAP COUNTY DAHLIA SOCIETY

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1 KITSAP COUNTY DAHLIA SOCIETY Inside this issue: KCDS Officers 2 KCDS Board Notes 2 ADS News 3 FNWDG News 3 Garden Tours 4 Celebration of Life for Keri West Mahem in the Garden 5 Dates to Remember: June 18, 7:00 PM General Meeting June 28, 1:00 PM Celebration of Life for Keri West July 2, 7:00 PM Board Meeting July 16, 5 PM to 9 PM Club Picnic, Brownsville Pavillion July 18 Federation Summer Workshop July 22, 5:30 PM Silverdale Gardens Work Party July 25 Judging Workshop July 28 or 29 Time TBD Bob s garden party/ Staging demo August 1-2 KCDS Show August 11, 4:00-7:00 PM Penny s Garden Tour 4 P. O. Box 502, Silverdale, WA GENERAL MEETING AGENDA Notes and Reminders Wyoming Wedding, BB ID DP Pt. Gamble 2014 You won t want to miss the June 18th general meeting. Art Wuerth will be giving a presentation on growing dahlias in containers. Art is a well respected judge and an experienced dahlia grower and it will be a treat to have him share his tips on raising dahlias in pots. Our May meeting was a lively affair, with spirited bidding on plants members brought in for the auction. Cuttings of Seabeck Hilda were exceptionally well received and the high bidders were Pat and Mike. Congratulations to them and to the Brants for hybridizing such a beautiful dahlia. We look forward to seeing Hilda at the upcoming dahlia shows. This will be the last year for our current KCDS show committee. Wanda, Sally and Joan are stepping down, and have prepared an excellent process and procedure book to make the transition as seamless as possible. They are looking for volunteers who would be willing to shadow them in the 2015 show season, and lead the 2016 KCDS show. If you are interested in this opportunity, please let Wanda know. (Our club by laws specify that we put on an annual show) 1

2 KCDS 2015 OFFICERS: President Dan Van Natta Vice President (programs) Drew Brant Regular Board Meetings Held on the first Thursday of each Month at 7:00 PM LOCATION: All Star Lanes, Silverdale, WA Board Meeting Dates July 2 August 6 KCDS NEWSLETTER ADDRESS Please forward all comments & suggestions to: Treasurer Bill Jones Recording Secretary (minutes) Kim Van Natta Corresponding Co-Secretaries (newsletter) Allyn Arnold Debra Kurre Trustees Steffany Mootry Gary Johnson Bob Overly ADS Representative Leone Smith Federation Representative Drew Brant Sunshine Committee Carol Derrick Contact any of these people regarding club events. General Meetings Held on the third Thursday of each month at 7 PM EXCEPT FOR: April (held on 4th Thursday) July (Club Picnic) August (Club Show) LOCATION: Crystal Grange 2160 NE Paulson Rd Poulsbo, WA BOTH meetings are open to all. If you have an item for discussion, contact Dan Van Natta by the Tuesday before the meeting and he will put you on the agenda. REFRESHMENT SIGN-UP June Dave & Leone Smith or call Allyn or Debra to sign up for 2015! REMEMBER: Snacks for monthly meetings are reimbursable up to $15.00 per month. Provide the completed KCDS reimbursement form, together with receipts, to our Treasurer. BOARD NOTES The trailer title transfer is still in process. The tarp for the trailer will be okay for another year. Drew will get the insurance forms filled out after getting current info from Bill Jones. The KCDS picnic/potluck will be 7/16/15 at the Brownsville Pavillion. Bob Overly will host a garden party and staging demo at his home on either July 28th or 29th. Time TBD. Wanda, Sally and Joan attended the meeting and presented their KCDS Dahlia Show checklist to the Board. This comprehensive checklist identifies the tasks, timing, comments and budget details for all items required to put on our annual show. They emphasized to the board that this is their last year, and are hopeful that members will volunteer now, so they can shadow the current show committee through this season. Bill provided the Treasurer s Report and the KCDS 2015 Budget. Our club expenditures are on track with our 2015 budget, and the Treasurer s Report shows our highest club balance to date. Mylar tape has been put out at the Silverdale gardens and is working to keep the crows from pulling out the tubers. The tubers were replanted and will require identify verification once they start blooming. Fabric has been relaid around the bench and beauty bark applied. Bob and Drew will work on the watering system to repair leaks in the piping. Work party will be held at the Silverdale gardens Wednesday, 22nd July at 5:30 PM. Sandwiches and drinks will be provided by the club. Timing will support viewing during the August show period. Club insurance will be paid June 5th. Bill will contact Tom to have him sign off on the trailer title before July. New business: Bill would like to build raised beds for the 2016 Pt. Gamble gardens. Bill will get costs and address at the next Board meeting. 2

3 AMERICAN DAHLIA SOCIETY (ADS) NEWS KCDS Representative: Leone Smith ADS BULLETIN Articles for the September edition of the ADS Bulletin are due by/before July 15th. Write about anything to do with dahlias, especially: staking dahlias for show, fertilizing & pesticides, show experiences, growing tips for the summer time, about your Society, or funny dahlia stories. Send your article to: FEDERATION OF NORTHWEST DAHLIA GROWERS (FNWDG) KCDS Representative: Drew Brant The Federation Summer Workshop will be on July 18, at Mt. Vernon Senior Center, Mt Vernon, WA, 9:00 am 3 pm. The Judging Workshops will be on July 25, 2015 at the Mt. Vernon Senior Center, Mt. Vernon, WA and Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, Olympia, WA, 9:00 am 3:00 pm. Trial Garden Judging will be on August 2, 2015 at Pt. Defiance Park, Tacoma, WA, 11:00 am KITSAP COUNTY DAHLIA SOCIETY NOMINATION FOR THE FEDERATION HALL OF FAME ANDY BABB We want to thank the following people for helping us with information and writing our nomination: Wanda Novak, Leone Smith, Les Connell, David Smith, Steffany Mootry and Roger Walker ZING In 1976 Andy Babb was named Director of the ADS Pacific Northwest Trial Garden-Tacoma. At that time the trial garden was situated in Port Defiance Park on a hill overlooking Commencement Bay. He held the position until In the early 1920 s Andy was instrumental in promoting the Kitsap County Dahlia Society through its infancy. Over the years he shared his knowledge of growing and exhibiting dahlias with many new members. In 1996 he introduced his origination, Zing (A SC LB W/PK), which was popular for many years. During the early years of the Federation of Northwest Dahlia Growers Andy continued to share his knowledge of the dahlia at workshops and judging classes. Those who knew and worked with him remember him as being dignified, patient and a true gentleman. Andy passed away in September 2001 at the age of 92. Kitsap County Dahlia Society members would like to honor Andy Babb for his 60 years of gentle and supportive promotion of dahlia and dahlia growers by nominating him for inclusion in the Federation Hall of Fame 3

4 Yippee! Our annual KCDS Barbecue is right around the corner July 16th at the Brownsville Marina Pavilion. Drew has volunteered to be our Grill Master for this year s event. As he points out, the club will provide hot dogs, hamburgers and drinks. Bring your favorite dish and join in the fun! GARDEN TOURS You ALL are invited to share your garden with other KCDS members, family & friends. You don't have to have the (Bush Gardens). Big or small, fancy or plain, it will be fun to see your individual interests, how you do your dahlias and the different garden designs. Please choose a date during a weekday, in August, September or October. me ( pagoldfeverfarm@hotmail.com ) and I will let you know if that date is available. This is a fun time and we will need a 2 to 3 hour time slot so we can come see your pretties!!! We used to have these tours every year. I had great fun and learned so much from them all. We have many new members and as dahlia lovers we all have a like interest, so PLEASE share. My tour will be August 11th from 4-7 PM. Happy gardening, Penny Celebration of Life for Keri Melinda West (Colby) June 28, 2015, Saturday, 1 PM Crosby Community Hall, 2135 Christopher Rd., Seabeck, WA Info: Madeline West, , or (cell) Thank you, all, for the uplifting cards, prayers and thoughts in our time of sorrow. They have meant so much. Thank you to the friends and members who contributed and sent monies. I have put this to a garden marker stone (of granite). Our deepest appreciation. Madeline, Larry, Lym (Bob), Taryn, Karleen, Karla (Jimmy), Ty (Kimi), Trevor 4

5 MAHEM IN THE GARDEN By David Smith This may be considered a test of your mental competency. If any of this makes sense to you psychoanalysis is in order. About this time of year those of us who have nothing better to do start breaking off pieces of perfectly good dahlia plants in order to make them better and maybe win something at a dahlia show, or just to show what with it gardeners we are. Maybe this has more to do with being a control freak. Anyway here is what I do. The point of this is to get big perfect blooms and it starts about this time of year with STOPPING. This means breaking out the topmost part of the plant, maybe about 1/2 inch, so that the strength of the plant will flow into the lower part of the bush. Now, there are all sorts of little rules about how to do this, but for plants with large blooms leave fewer sets of leaves. If you are crazy enough to do this, experiment with different plants and see what they produce. If you want a REALLY EARLY BLOOM don t break off the leader, but do remove the side branches further down, not the leaves, the side branches. All of this is about funneling the strength of the plant where you want it. A word about timing (in a normal year) for the Kitsap show disbranching is in order at about 60 to 80 days after topping for the perfect bloom. This depends on the weather so top some earlier, some later and some not at all. Because it has been so cold and wet this spring I would expect to see a lot of terminal blooms brought to the show. (Note, this article was written a couple of years ago, so this may not apply) The next step in insanity is called DISBRANCHING. This has to do with limiting the number of side branches. Even if you don t stop your plants until they get many sets of leaves you can still limit the number of side branches to any number you please by breaking off the ones you don t want. In general for big blooms leave four side branches. Leave more for smaller blooms and maybe only stop poms and miniatures, but don t disbranch them. A good question is when to disbranch. Keep in mind that the larger the branch you break off the less of the plant s strength is flowing to make great blooms, so disbranch earlier rather than later. The third part of this is DISBUDDING. Later in the season this gets to be an obsession and you will find visitors to your garden disbudding flowers without even knowing it. Most blooms come in triples, a larger center bloom and two side blooms. The center bloom matures a little earlier than the side blooms. Most of us disbud the two side buds and go with the center bud. For a later bloom, maybe a week, go with one of the side buds and remove the other two. There are more potential buds further down the branch that can also be removed, rubbed out. In general the more buds you remove the larger the remaining flower will be. The rule for me is that for large blooms remove every bud on the branch except one. For smaller blooms remove fewer buds, and when you get to poms no buds are removed. Some people do remove the side buds from poms, but others only take them off after cutting the bloom. This is another area that calls for experimentation. Nothing is written in stone. ~ 5