A Week of Extreme Weather In October
Hello friends,
October is usually a tumultuous month for us here in Dunedin, with the weather swinging in extremes from hot north westerly gales, to cold southerly fronts, including the threat of possible snow and frost, and this October was definitely no different from previous years regarding this.
In the third week of October we were warned of a spring north westerly wind storm approaching, and the resulting weather watches and orange wind warnings from Metservice had me worried.
In preparing for the north westerly wind storm, it first meant picking up anything outside that could go airborne, including my frost protection buckets (I lost one in the wind, but I eventually found it days later), taking down our bird feeders, moving our patio furniture to a more protected spot, putting our wheelie bins into the woodshed, and tying the glasshouse doors shut as they face the North West.
I also took the precaution of moving my most precious plants out of the glasshouse and into the garage for extra protection. I just couldn't risk losing our tomato plants, and dahlias in pots due to something unforeseen happening, like our glasshouse blowing away.
The big north westerly wind storm itself was frightening, and our house shook and shuddered for hours, first with the North Westerly gales, and then the Southerly front behind it, which took out our grid power for 8 hours. Luckily, we have solar panels on our roof, and a solar battery in our garage, and this system kept our house powered during the blackout (our battery has a storm watch function, and as soon as Metservice sent out the orange wind warning, the system began charging the battery to 100%). We are now very glad we invested in a solar system a couple of years ago.
All around Dunedin mature trees were blown over, trampolines went flying, fences were blown over, and the roofs of houses were lifted off. Many people in the lower South Island lost power for hours, and some for days, and even weeks.
Unfortunately, there were two casualties in my garden from the north westerly wind storm. My Avalanche camellia in the backyard garden snapped off at its base, killing the plant. It was only a year old, and didn't have a thick trunk yet, and it looks like it bent over in the wind until it just snapped. The only good thing about this happening is that it has given me one extra spot to plant a dahlia in this summer, but I am sad that I lost a beloved plant...
And the second casualty, was that my quince tree lost two north west facing tree limbs. They snapped partially off, so I had to trim them back to the nearest healthy branch on the tree. My quince tree is only 3 years old, so it won't suffer from losing a couple of young tree limbs. Thankfully the quince fruit forming on the tree didn't fall off during the storm.
With the north westerly wind storm over, it was time to clean up the garden of plant debris, reinstate our garden furniture to the patio, return the bird feeders to their rightful places, and transfer my precious plants sheltering in our garage back to the glasshouse.
The weekend after the north westerly wind storm was Labour Weekend, the traditional time to plant everything out in the vegetable and main gardens, but I was wary of doing this because Metservice forecast a cold southerly system occurring, with the potential of snow to low levels, and a frost afterward. I refused to risk planting out all my plants into the garden that weekend, only to have to frost cloth them for nights afterward.
So instead of spending the entire Labour weekend out in the garden planting out everything, my plants stayed safely inside the glasshouse where it was definitely warmer than outside, and I watched as the cold weather arrived...
And thank goodness I listened to the Metservice forecast, because the predicted low level snow fell, and settled to about 200 m above sea level in the hills surrounding us, and our temperature dropped to 1.1˚C overnight.
The dahlias growing outside were protected by their frost protection buckets, and all the plants in the glasshouse was protected by a number of layers of frost cloth. After a couple of days the weather warmed up back to early November temperatures, and it was time to plant stuff out in the garden, but it adds to my growing evidence that late October/early November is a risk to my Labour weekend gardening plans.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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Dahlia Experiments 2025 - Growing Dahlia Seedlings
Hello friends,
As part of my dahlia growing experiments this year, one of my goals is to grow my own dahlia plants from seed. I have a stash of dahlia seed available, including the Bee's Choice dahlia variety from Floret in the USA (which I bought from Emerden last year), Beeline I and II dahlia seeds from the breeder Doctor Keith Hammett in New Zealand, dahlia seeds from Susie Ripley's garden in Dunedin, and also open pollinated seeds from my own garden.
At the end of August, once I was able to garden again after my second cataract surgery, I sowed my dahlia seeds into two covered seed trays, and sprinkled them with enough seed raising mix to cover them.
With them watered, and kept moist in the trays, the dahlia seeds stayed in our dining room in the warmth while they germinated. To my surprise, most of the dahlia seeds I planted germinated, at a rate of about 95%, which is way more dahlias than I expected to plant in my garden this year.
They grew nice and strong, and soon they were ready to transplant out into bigger pots with potting mix. They've been growing safe and sound in my glasshouse since then, growing bigger each week. My plan is to plant them in the garden after the last frost, but for now I have to figure out where I'm going to put 43 dahlia seedlings...
I can't wait to see what dahlia flowers appear from these seedlings over the summer. My plan is to be quite harsh with them, and I'll pull out any flowering plant that I'm not happy with, to give other dahlias room to grow. I'll give you updates as I go...
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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How To Keep My Outdoor Dahlias Alive During Spring Frosts
Hello friends,
We're at the time of the year when the days are getting longer and warmer, and my dahlias in the ground are starting to wake up and poke their heads above ground. This is a good thing, but it is also very stressful because spring weather in Dunedin can be quite fickle.
It used to be that you could plant temperature sensitive crops of all types in Dunedin at Labour weekend, which is in the third weekend of October. But for the last three years we either have had a snowfall in the last week of October, or we have a very late frost in the first week of November. As this is a death sentence for any dahlia growing in the garden, I've had to come up with a frost protection method which will work for all my dahlia plants.
Over the last couple of years I've tried frost clothing my dahlias, but this method is prone to the wind blowing the frost cloth off overnight before the frost at dawn. So I've had to resort to a more brute force method of protecting my dahlias. After many trials, I finally settled on using a lot of small, cheap buckets, placing them on top of the dahlias on risky nights, and holding them in place with a spare piece of firewood.
It's not a very pretty method, but it does the trick. It does take a lot of work though, going around each night putting buckets on dahlias, and then the next morning removing them when the temperature rises. Larger buckets are needed to protect the dahlias as they get bigger. Then there is the problem of running out of buckets if too many dahlias are above ground, and I'm not proud to admit this, but that's when I resort to raiding the kitchen cupboards for ice cream containers and mixing bowls...
I used to go around with a wheel barrow collecting up all the buckets and firewood each day, and then redepositing them each night, but now I've gotten lazy, and leave them sitting beside each dahlia all the time for easier distribution. It may make the garden ugly looking for about a month, but I can totally live with that.
The whole process is a giant pain in the ass, but it's completely worth it in summer when my garden is filled with flowering dahlias.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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Dahlia Experiments 2025 - Source Books For Dahlia Growing and Hybridising
Hello friends,
As you've probably already figured it out by now, I love doing gardening experiments. Whether it be growing my own wheat, and then harvesting that flour to bake into my own bread, or growing my own linen plants so I can spin and then weave the fibre from it, I'm curious about how the world works, and especially how plants work. This mostly comes from the fact that I'm a trained scientist, I have a PhD in Plant Biochemistry, and also a certificate in Horticulture. From a very young age, while gardening with my grandfather and aunt in their backyard, I fell in love with plants, and I decided I wanted to work with them.
Even though I am no longer in these fields of work, I still love learning about plants, and I use my garden as an experimental testing ground to do this on a very small scale. This, combined with my obsession and love of dahlias, I've decided that this growing season is going to be the one where I hone my dahlia skills including growing hybridised seeds from scratch, taking my own cuttings, and also breeding new dahlias from dahlias I already have growing in my garden.
To do this my first job has been to find good source material to work from. Even though there is a tonne of information about dahlia growing and hybridising on the internet, it's hard to know what information is accurate, and what information is incorrect. Luckily there are some very good source books available from growers and hybridisers I trust, and I now have three books from them at my disposal.
First up is Erin Benzakein from Floret Flower Farm, her work with dahlias and other plants like zinnias is legendary, and her book "Discovering Dahlias" has been my go to dahlia book for years. It includes understanding dahlia types, how to grow, store, and divide dahlias, and also advanced techniques including propagating and hybridising dahlias. Her book also includes a great section on floral designing with dahlias, along with a visual section of her favorite dahlias sorted by colour. I really recommend this book to any new dahlia grower.
The last two dahlia source books I now own are by Kristine Albrecht, the owner of Santa Cruiz Dahlias. Her long term work on dahlia breeding, and her deep dive into dahlia genetics (which she is willing to share), makes her a fountain of knowledge about dahlias. Her book "Dahlias: Seed to Bloom" is an in depth guide to dahlia growing from seed to bloom. This is a great companion book to "Discovering Dahlias", and I now use them both side by side.
Kristine Albrecht's second book "Dahlia Breeding for the Farmer-Florist and the Home Gardener", is a small, but dense step by step guide to hybridising new dahlia varieties by seed. Its sections on dahlia genetics, traits to target in dahlia breeding, and growing dahlia seedlings, is perfect for the dahlia enthusiast interested in dahlia breeding. It was also really great to see her record keeping set up as well, as detailed notes are needed to decide whether a dahlia seedling has the traits you are looking for in the first year, and in the continuing years, if you decide to keep growing it.
With spring now sprinting towards summer with each passing day, and the first of my garden dahlias are popping their leaves above ground, I can't wait to dive into all things dahlias this growing season.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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