Hello, Dahlia Queen here

I am a passionate gardener who will garden from dawn till dusk if I can. I love dahlias and grow as may as I can, especially those for the pollinators. I have a large greenhouse and I sow seeds all year round. Almost all the flowers I grow are for the bees and butterflies. I'm starting a blog soon which will be about helping wildlife and gardening for our wellbeing. Gardening is the best thing on the planet I think!

 

Hi @Dahlia Queen and welcome to Gardeners Corner.
When I was growing up the people next door to us had a garden full of Dahlias, you would have loved it. They always had one row of kidney beans and the rest consisted of beautiful Dahlias, all different shapes and colours. In the winter they stored them under the spare bed !

 

Welcome to the forum @Dahlia Queen !

I started some from seeds last year and lucky me was able to dig up lots of tubers come fall. I've potted some a week ago and am looking forward to them "waking" up. Mine are dwarf.

 

Hi Michael, thanks for the welcome. Dahlias under the bed! How amusing. I have 5 boxes of new tubers ready to start off in my greenhouse if I can squeeze them in. The older ones have to stay in the ground with a lovely cozy mulch.

 

Hello CanadianLori, thanks for the welcome.

Your dahlias sound fab. I have also sown seeds again this year, Bishops Children and a new one called Black Beauty. You just cannot have enough dahlias. Bet we share loads and loads of photos.

 

Hi & Welcome @Dahlia Queen

Yes Dahlias are making quiet a come back after falling out of favour with some folk these last couple of decades.

We have been growing Dahlias for a few years, generally the single Dwarf types, already got about 40 Mignon potted on into cell trays.

Also got a couple of Bishop of Llandaff tubers pushing out lots of new shoots that we will use as cuttings when they get a bit bigger.
Followed a bit of advice this year, and left a good bit of the tubers above comost level than you would expect, but seems to have worked well.

Was just looking in a gardening mag at an offer for a Tree Dahlia Imperiallis, up to 3 mtr high and with large pink flowers, looks good but no idea what its really like in the garden or how long they flower for.

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner, @Dahlia Queen Good to meet someone who has such a great interest in Dahlias!

I had some Dahlias 'Bishops Children' that came as seeds from Gardeners World mag a few years ago. They have never performed very well for me & last year they were very bad - hardly a flower on them! It could be that because I garden on a balcony the pots I used for them were too small, after all they are 5ft tall plants when they flower. I got rid of them as with a small balcony I can't afford the space to be taken up with plants that are not going to perform.

Looking forward to seeing pictures of your Dahlias later in the year - unless you have some photos you can upload now from previous years.

 

Hi there @Dahlia Queen and welcome.



I absolutely love Dahlias and have loads too. All of mine stay well mulched in the ground during the winter as well.

 

@ricky101

I have had Dahlia imperalis for a number of years; I planted it out about 4 years ago, keeping a spare in a pot in the greenhouse over winter. Does better in the ground than in a pot.
It flowered for the first time with me last autumn, big plant, nice foliage. The problem is that it is November/December before it flowers, most years I get flower buds but either there is a frost or cold wind that finishes them off.

 

I grew D. imperialis for more than 10 yrs and never saw one flower bud open, they always got killed by frost before they could open.

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner Dahlia Queen.

 

Gosh, some lovely responses! Hello everyone. Super to meet you all. I have loads of dahlia photos and will upload some, later or in the week. Potted loads of them on today as they are shooting. 60 potted so far this morning and loads more to do. 20 foot greenhouse but there is never enough room in any greenhouse we have is there? 8 trays of cosmos in there too and loads of other stuff. D Imperialis looks fabulous but seems to be a tricky one and we are all used to having flowers for months on a dahlia. I thank Sarah Raven for nudging them back into fashion. Popped in for breakfast and a quick look at the forum. Have a good day everyone, I'm racing back out there!

 

Thanks @NigelJ @pete

Glad I mentioned that Imperialis, if it hardly flowers for you down South then little chance of it doing anything up 'ere in the Pennines !