Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => General Gardening => Topic started by: fatbelly on October 27, 2014, 18:31
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Hi All,
Next season I intend o give Dahlias a go on my allotment. Ive never grown them before so would appreciate any advice that you have about growing, propagation, feeding etc of Dahlias. Also I've read that I should pinch out the growing tip? Why do this to a healthy plant
They will all be for the Vase and the pleasure of growing them, none for the show-bench.
Any advise please as a I'm a complete Dahlia novice.
Thnaks
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There's 4 pages of advice if you use the search facility, but for the absolute tops in advice, do an advanced search for posts by Yabba.
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Yabba was the dahlia meister alright :)
My old plot neighbour used to grow beautiful dahlias every year. He used to make sure the ground was well prepared with homemade compost and would drive in a good sized stake to tie the plants to, but then he let them just grow and would take home a trug full of blooms for his wife every few days.
He dug his tubers up every year and overwintered them in a cold greenhouse at home, but it is easy to take cuttings as they start sprouting in the spring.
Even as he got older and did less on the plot, his dahlias stood proud every year. They are a very forgiving plant and as long as they are well fed and watered, they will provide you with lots of cut flowers :)
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Thanks for the replies Guys, they are much appreciated.
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I wanted a range of specific colours / types and I bought one or two rooted cuttings, of each variety, from
http://www.national-dahlia-collection.co.uk/en/
which were a couple of quid each, from memory. Kept the ones I liked for future years and propagated them up [following Spring] to get the number of plants I wanted and I've got a fair few of each variety now :)
(http://kgarden.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/img_4978_dahliabishopllandaff_sep2014.jpg)
(http://kgarden.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/img_4979_dahliaacapulco_sep2014.jpg)
(http://kgarden.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/img_4980_dahlia.jpg)
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Kristen - which varieties did you choose to keep? they are stunning!
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One point a lot of gardeners don't realise is dahlias can be grown very easily from seed,and will flower in the same year. You can get some very good forms growing this way.
Bish
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which varieties did you choose to keep?
Those are:
Bishop of Llandaff
Acapulco (which I am not mad about, but it is by far the easiest to propagate that I have ...)
Karma Choc
This year I've been trialling some Red ones - I like them all and can't decide between them - all are a nice red, which is what I really was trialling, some have larger flowers, which I also want, but the smaller flowered ones are more floriferous ... hard to decide - and I have no opinion between Cactus flowering types and pom-pom etc.
Close up of Acapulco:
(http://kgarden.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/img_4416_dahlia_acapulco.jpg)
I think the petals look a bit scruffy, the rest of the family disagrees ...
Rebecca's World is nice too, the flowers change from a purple colour to white [as they mature]:
(http://kgarden.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/img_3854_dahlia_rebeccasworld.jpg)
(http://kgarden.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/img_3855_dahlia_rebeccasworld.jpg)
For size :) most of the ones I have trialled have flowers about 7-9cm, but these two were bigger:
(http://kgarden.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/img_5115_dahlia_winkiecolonel.jpg)
Dahlia Winkie Colonel - 17cm diameter
(http://kgarden.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/img_5121_dahlia_zorro_openingbud.jpg?w=800&h=600)
Dahlia Zorro - 20cm diameter - opens to a nice red colour
Biggest I have grown is Emory Paul
(http://kgarden.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/img_4088_dahlia_emorypaul.jpg?w=800&h=600)
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A good variety to grow from seed is "Bishop's Children" which I believe originated from Bishop of Landaff. They form tubers and can be left in the ground, but you can save the seed of favourite colours, take cuttings or treat them as annuals.
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Yabba did give excellent advice and thanks to him I can (usually) keep tuber successfully from season to season. Bless than man for sharing his knowledge and experience.
I dig them up once the stems have been blackened down by the first frosts and cut back the stems to about six inches.
Get off as much surplus soil as possible without damaging the tubers. Label them!!!!
Turn them upside down to drain out surplus sap from the hollow stems and then put them the right way up
Keep them somewhere cool and out of the way, with a bit of dry compost around them, until Spring
Now Yabba wanted cutting so he started watering his early, but I never do so I wait until early April to start them back into growth with a sprinkle or two of water.
Small ones are potted up but some are quite large so I just pack compost around them in a washing up bowl, and plant them out when frosts are over. Manure, compost, BFB all help them grow, as does tomato fertiliser during the season I have found this year!!!
If the tubers are huge, you can cut them into sections that each have at least one shoot. I shall be attempting this next Spring with one of my maroon pompoms as it did not flower quite so well this year.
I have also bought some seeds so will be trying this out come next Spring - they are Dwarf varieties which I hope will be suitable for pots at the plot
Kirsten, I do like that Rebecca's World: it is just gorgeous :D
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I have been growing dahlias a few years now. Dwarf cactus and dinner plate. I live in Berkshire so ground tubers stay in the ground and they pop up every year. I think around the 3 year mark I dig up and divide them. I've also rook cuttings in spring and just put them in soil in a pot in sun and they will root fine for me. I've also experimented with growing giants in containers also. That can be different. Stakes I put in before the tubers. Erm trying to think. I put rabbit poo on mine for fertilizer. And compared to previous years of me doing it. They have looked their best since. They won't over winter in containers