Nice colour. Thanks.

Thanks here is another view.
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Just for laughs- here I am with an Emory Paul we grew a few years ago. We entered it in the "People's Choice" at a dahlia show & won. We put it in a BIG pot of water!
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A new classification of size, not Dinner Plate, but Dinner Platter! Wow!!

Cheers,
Russ

I have been teasing the neighbors about there punny little flowers. I have been humbled plantlady. Any suggestions on how to make mine bigger?

To start with, vikingcraftsman-- grow AA sized dahlias. If you get good tubers from someone who specializes in the big ones then you'll grow AA sized blooms with just some fertilizer at planting & once again in July. You have to disbud & sometimes disbranch as well, though we don't do much of the latter. Some hard-core growers only grow the AA's 4 up. We usually grow them 6-10 up & still get big blooms. You can't make a small dahlia get more than about a half size bigger so you have to start with the ones that are big to begin with- like Emory Paul, Zorro, Wyn's Conquistador, Sir Alfred Ramsey, Ivory Palaces, etc.
How about this one-- it's still a seedling- we haven't introduced it yet so it goes by it's number-- 06-01 one of it's blooms was 17" across & 14" deep! It went on to get 8 more blooms on this plant & they were all HUGE.
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PlantLady2008
Please tell me what you mean EXACTLY by the terms
4 Up and 6-10 Up. I have seen the term used by
people selling dahlias from abroad. I inquired
but never received an answer. Your help is app-
reciated. I am told that it takes a long time
for Emory Paul to develop. In my zone I would
probably have to start it early indoors.

Vikingcraftsman,

To get an Emory Paul at the date you had your bloom is, well, amazing. Clearly it was started early. I started Lemon Tarts early (e.g. Jan 15) and they still didn't bloom until last week. To get something that big to bloom at this time means you put some effort.

So, you wanna share? When did you take the tubers out, what kind of light, etc...

I'm convinced my lighting sucked, so I'm looking for some validation...;-] I know you put them into full sun early in your greenhouse, but Emory Paul (and any AA) needed more than just that??

Cheers,
Russ

PlantLady2008,

What does one have to do to qualify for your beta program? I'd love such a flower, even if it didn't bloom until September!

Cheers,
Russ

I will comfirm it is a light problem. In the past I had a hard time getting things going. I went on the growing under lights forum and read new bulbs in the set up. I went to home depoe and bought a case of floresent bulbs. It worked well to get the tubers started.

Plantlady2008,
How do you keep the Emory Paul(EP) from wilting? I have an EP also, but it is not as huge as yours. Mine is in a pot and this year flowered in early June. If you ever introduce your seedling 0601 I would like to obtain one.
I also have a Big Wow which flowered more early this year. I don't have pictures because I don't know how to download from my cellphone, lol.

fleur guy-- 6 up or 10 up or however-up means that's the number of blooms you allow on a plant for the whole season. In England the hard-core growers keep the AA's- or Giants as they're known over there to 4-up... 4 blooms per plant per year. They grow upwards of a hundred of a single cultivar so they can get blooms enough for a show. We have found that with some of our giants we can grow them 10 or so up & still have a giant bloom, but some of the older cultivars don't reach size unless you force them to by disbudding & debranching.

Sturgeonguy- that Emory Paul pict. was taken about 13 years ago. The tuber was just planted in the garden in full sun. It had to have been about the middle of Sept. when we got the bloom as we entered it in the Whatcom Dahlia Society show which is pretty much always the 2nd weekend in Sept. It wasn't started indoors or anything like that-- we didn't even have a greenhouse at that time. The problem we had with Emory Paul was that it got later & later in the season before we got a bloom or 2 off of it & it's a mule-- can't get seed from it at all -- so we stopped growing it when we got really serious about hybridizing dahlias. Wish it had co-operated more as it would have been great it get some of that size into our breeding program!
As for getting into our program-- you have to be an AA sized dahlia >:) We grow all our own for 5 years before introducing them-- with one other friend of 35 years that we let grow for the last year or so before introducing just to see what they will do in another garden. We also put some of them into the ADS trial gardens all over the US in the last year before introducing- that's how Wyn's Sensation won the Darrill Hart medal in 2006- highest scoring A sized dahlia in the trials. Some of our cultivars will hit the trials in England next year- we'll see how they do over there.

amaryllis- we put the Emory Paul bloom into a bucket full of water & floral foam to enter it in the show. They don't wilt in the garden if you keep them well watered.

I am growing one this year. Here are some progress pictures..
June 19th-

As of today-

Ha ha ha

That was a good one...

New here. Beautiful blossoms. Alas, most of the big ones are also fairly late bloomers and I have a fairly short season. I plant mid-may and may get heavy frost in mid-October. Any suggestions for big blossoms that perform well in short seasons?

Mine now has several bud at the top

Inspite of what might be virus affecting the plant, there is hope to see a flower...

Anticipation of the first bloom is like Christmas morning. May it be glorious for you!

Not fully open yet..

Just wanted to update -
I am disappointed with the Emory Paul and wont be growing it again. The flower buds are large, but the flowers dont open fully and the plant overall is plagued with disease - leaves dying, blackening. Just not worth the effort.

So sorry to hear that.

A master grower I know has said Emory Paul stock has declined over the last several years, and getting clean stock is getting harder and harder to find.

I'm trying to remember if the plants were decent when I grew it... that was before I knew what to look for, so plants had to be pretty bad for me to notice.

Personally, I don't care for how the petals lay on the bloom, and the overall form is fairly shallow. The size is a wowzer, but I prefer others in my garden better.