Dahlias

I've got a few more in flower now, my pound shop ones have been the best this year. All last year's tubers have been slow to get going- despite being started off early in the GH!
Im going to have a proper dahlia bed (2m x 2m though) next year a la @Paullypaul . Ordered some cuttings from the national collection too.

 

Hi Charlie,

Where are the pics then ? ? ?

 

Just wondering for next year, from tubers, are you supposed to let multiple shoots grow or just one?

I had cuttings this year, so they only had one shoot, which I pinched to develop a number of stems. But for tubers, do you allow 3 - 5 shoots, and then pinch to have a number of main stems, each with branching stems off of them?

 

also a lover of dahlias,have the miniature variety and a giant type not sure what kind just that it grows huge like 2m high and very heavy,staking is a problem as the plant gets so big,im trying nipping the growing shoots this year to try keep it a more manageable size,otherwise they take over the whole bed.

 

That's interesting to hear. I'm glad I'm not the only one. They're suddenly uncontrollable. I need some tips for smaller ones this year (but more adventuruous than normal bedding/dwarf ones).

Hillcrest Royal in particular is turning into a wild beast! Amazing flowers but it's swamping everything in its path.

I actually stopped mine about June time, I think this had the opposite of the desired effect and made them grow taller before they flowered rather than shorter.

 

im going to try and control them this year but if cant going to have to reconsider them in the garden.

 

Yes. I'm looking into small to medium cultivars for next year.


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I'm going to add a few more into my garden next year, mainly in the back boarder

 

thing is we don't get such a wide variety to choose from here.

 

Where are you based?


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south africa

 

Oh right. I was thinking of online shops but might not help :(


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I think you regard the plant as something you can mould to the way you want it Jack. You can keep more stems and have a more bushy shape and pinch out the growing tip to control height and further bushiness if you keep it low. I tend to find that out of five stems there will be a couple that never really take off so I end up removing them later anyway.

I tend to use the excess stems for cuttings and keep the strongest couple of stems. When you get a strong growing plant its amazing what you can get away with. You can virtually cut the things down and start again, (within reason), so you should get away with a bit of fine tuning here and there.

 

Does anyone else live in a really mild area? Our garden temp is still in the 8 -12C and frosts probably won't happen until early Dec earliest.

But I have a problem. The Dahlias are taking up a lot of space in my bed and pots, which I need for tulips.

Does anyone else have this succession problem? I need the Dahlia tubers out, but they won't get blackened by frost until past tulip bulb planting time. I intend on planting as many tulips as I can around them of course.

 

I am no expert, but I don't think that it is absolutely necessary to wait for a frost. I cut mine down a couple of weeks ago and then dug the Tubers up yesterday. They are now upside down in the greenhouse to allow them to drain and dry off. In another week or so I will store them in boxes of old potting compost in which they will hopefully survive the winter.