Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => General Gardening => Topic started by: garddwr on September 01, 2008, 11:25
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Could I store my summer bedding (bussy lizzie,begonia,dahlia and petunia) in a greenhouse(whenI get one) over winter ? If I life them beofre the first frosts ? Any other instrucitons ?
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Here's what we do with our dahlias :
After we finish showing ( in a couple of weeks ) we cut them down to about knee high, sideshoot them and feed sulphate of potash for a few weeks. They will regrow! So we cut them down again a few weeks later to about the same height.
Towards the end of oct beginning of nov we cut them down to ground level and dig up the tubers that we want for next year. These we roughly cleaned and label ( they all look pretty much the same as tubers ). We then store the tubers in a cool dry place ( usually one of the garages ) upside down so that any water that's collected in the neck drains away ;)
Next year ( we start in january because we have heated beds .. you'd usually be looking at end of march to mid april ) we pop the tubers in a tray and roughly cover with soil ( they don't have to be completely covered ) and water them. Not long later they start producing shoots like mad which we then take as cuttings ( make a cut directly below a leaf joint and remove all but top few leaves, dip in rooting powder and slap in some nice new potting compost, water and stand well back ).
You can easily get 15 -> 30 decent cuttings off each tuber ... bonus :D
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