Dahlias 2017

Had a look last night at cutting off tubers with eyes . Definitely not as easy as it looks on the video ! I'll just plant full tubers as previous . I also pinch the dahlias out a couple of weeks before planting in the garden.

 

Um... bit early

 

Mine have just stated flowering there north facing but flower well every year, please excuse the dead conifers I was told not to move them mid summer .

 

Thought I would update ...



Nothing "Mixed" about them, they are all the same ... but they have grown without any fuss or bother, so I'm happy with the result.

 

Hi Martin, if they're dead why does it make a difference when you move them ? I'd have had them out. I never leave anything that's dead in case it affects other plants.

 

I read your Dahlias have only just started flowering @martin-f . Being north facing won't speed the process up but the middle of August is very late for them to only begin to flower.
To get them going quickly you can start them off a bit like chitting Potatoes. Even if you don't have a greenhouse plant the corms in flowerpots in about beginning of April and put them somewhere which has the maximum light and is reasonably warm in you home and they will start to come into growth.
I start my Dahlias off in the soil borders in my greenhouse in about 2nd week of April and then dig them up and plant them outside roughly a month later. Despite living in Scotland my Dahlia will start to flower roughly by the end of June by getting them going early. Mine will keep flowering continuously until we get a really proper frost which is usually around the middle to end of October.

 

Sorry Silu,
Martins are flowering at their normal time not late at all. Yours flower early because you are forcing them, much the same way Hyacinths are forced for Christmas , you wouldn't say that Hyacinths flowering in the garden in March are late would you ?

 

Here's a couple from my garden

 

Hyacinths flowering in the garden in March here would be a miracle Mine don't flower until well into April. @KFF if I didn't get mine going early they would hardly have time to flower before the bad weather arrives and not be worth the hassle of growing them. Unlike many herbaceous perennials of which I grow 100s of different ones which flower and then stop Dahlias keep on going until the frost gets them provided you keep dead heading. It seems a good idea to get them to flower for as long as possible. The longer the growing period the bigger the resulting corms. I have enormous ones which are nearly 25 years old and have been able to give lots away. Indeed I gave a great load to a GC member at the beginning of this season.
That said I used to live down in the south of England and my father grew many Dahlias. He didn't have a greenhouse to force his and yet I can remember my mother always picking Dahlias to have in the house during Wimbledon (last week in June -1st week July) as she had a crowd of pals round to watch the matches on the TV...oh the noise was historic about a dozen women all whooping and hollering plus booze taken to celebrate their favourites winning or drowning sorrows if not.
I can also remember the odd Earwig scampering across the carpet that had come in with the flowers. My father used dried grass in a flowerpot upturned on a bamboo cane as a trap for them. It was pretty effective but the odd 1 did escape the being squashed under foot having been shaken out of the trap method

 

Everything flowers early down here and carries on late so it means full value for flowers. I agree Silu, an early start for dahlias is essential.

I grow quite a few dahlias..maybe 20 different varieties...and I too give some away every year.
I remember visiting a guy who only grew dahlias in his front garden and I did not like them then. Tall canes sticking up everywhere and colour to blind you. In winter he had nothing there!! No! Dahlias were not for me
However, they have grown on me and would not be without them now. Strategic splashes of colour for weeks on end (but well spaced apart) give so much pleasure

 

Mine have been cack this year.. and I'm putting it down to not forcing them (and being occupied with the allotment/cack August weather). Usually, they are started end of Feb in the house, I didn't do anything until end of March/April this year and I bitterly regret it, masses of green and hardly any flowers. Ones I have put in the ground (in the garden) have been in bud for about a week.. still no sign of opening up either.. could friggin cry over them. Even my neighbours have said "your dahlias are poor this year"

 

Linz, try extra potash feed on them.
To get one or two of my shy to flower astrantias to flower I dosed them three times a week with tomato feed. Worked a treat. I think they had plenty of nitrogen etc. so just wanted to grow

 

Hi KFF, I moved them in the summer to where they are now, I was advised not to move them in the middle of summer, there's no disease on them just died in the move probably through lack of water,

Hi silu, they flower at this time every year I don't take them out just leave them be, I am aware being north facing wont speed them up it does the opposite, they will continue to flower now for a few months

 

We're gardeners, not Superhuman

 

you must be a lot warmer/have great drainage in Sheffield . If Dahlia corms get frozen that's the end of them. Perhaps you haven't had them long/been through some bad winters. If I left mine in the ground they would have gone west years ago far less being 25 years old! Lucky you not having the bother of lifting and storing them, however just like verdun said they do give a huge boost to perhaps slightly flagging other things in the garden and well worth the effort to keep them going for many seasons. I have a "hedge" about 10 ft long of them (red medium height, told 1 of the forebears of The Bishop with slightly bigger flowers, very good green foliage but not the great foliage colour of The Bishop). I grow some pompom and cacti types too but it's the red flowering hedge which is the star performer which never fails to groan with flowers whatever the weather throws at it.