Dahlias
Mon, 2009-09-28 19:06 — sarahlouise
The wrong time of year I guess to be talking about dahlias, but I saw some this weekend at a garden I visited, a georgous burgundy colour and am determined to grow some myself next year. Have been reading up about them........would I really have to lift them every year after flowering? Or could I be lucky if I treated them like bulbs and just left them in the ground? It's not that I'm a lazy gardener, just a bit busy being a working mum.
I'd certainly appreciate some advice
well funny i`ve lost some
well funny i`ve lost some digging them up and the same left in the ground , but what i`ve found is that it seems to make a difference once the tubers have got a fair size?ie when theyre pretty big the seem to survive being left in, i live in the Cheltenham area of the Cotswolds and they come back every yr without fail.... But we`ll see after this hard snowy winter ?
My problem with dahlias is
My problem with dahlias is that when they start coming up through my poppies and aquilegias which are amazing(I leave them in to overwinter) the slugs have a feast! This year I tried copper rings which helped, but the slugs still abseiled in from above in places. Once the dahlias get established it seems so late in the season, that it isn't long before the first frost zaps them.
Should I try something else, or has anyone any bright ideas?
Last year i dug up all my
Last year i dug up all my dahlias, put them in big pots with compost in the greenhouse and only about half of them survived but it was below freezing for several weeks! This year I'm going to try wraping them in garden fleece as well, and if I can I may sneak them into the garage. The tubers that did survive last winter flowered well during the summer. Good luck.
Sarahlouise - here is a bit
Sarahlouise - here is a bit more detail about storing dahlia tubers...
Dig all around the dahlia clump and lift the tubers with a fork, taking great care not to damage them with the spikes. Shake off as much soil as you can.
Rinse off the soil, then stand the tubers upside down to dry.
Pack the tubers in a box or pot and cover them with dry compost. Store them in a frost-free place, such as under the greenhouse staging or a dry shed.
As for slugs and snails - I plant my tubers in fairly big pots and get them started and then put them in the garden when they are big enough to deal with a few hungry munching things. Earwigs can be a pain too.
Dahlia bulbs should be stored
Dahlia bulbs should be stored somewhere dry and away from any risk of frost. Some folk dust them with a powder which is supposed to stop them going mouldy - can't think of what it's called at the moment. You can bury them in a bit of dry compost.
Emma - dahlia seeds germinate easily and just need sowing in spring when you start any other sowing. The plants can go out after the risk of frost has passed. I guess if you have collected seed and you have several dahlias in your garden the seedlings may not be true to the parent plant you got the seed from due to cross pollenation but you might grow something new and exciting!! The seeds are tiny scrappy things and yet by the end of the summer you have a dahlia with a tuber - I think it's amazing!
Oh hells bells.............
Oh hells bells............. someone on one of the other forums just mentioned slugs and snails.........apparently they love dahlias.......is that true? I don't stand a chance then, I've loads of the fat hungary things, despite my garden hens and rescued hedgehog.
Thank you all for your advice
Thank you all for your advice again, another question (you can tell I'm new to all this gardening stuff) ............if you do lift the tubers in the autumn, how do they need to be stored?
Hi, we lost a few dahlia
Hi, we lost a few dahlia tubers whilst they were stored because they were not dry enough before we packed them away in shavings. Seems like you have to remove all soil and air-dry before packing. We thought we had all points covered: mouse-proof, but not air tight metal box, in a cool place, but guaranteed to stay above 0 degrees! We also added antifungal - sulphurous powder. I think they are worth it! Good luck. PS we are in wilts/Dorset border, quite good loam soil.
I've collected some dahlia
I've collected some dahlia seeds. Does anyone know if they germinate easily and what conditions do you need?
Sarahlouise, I didn't have
Sarahlouise, I didn't have much luck with my dahlias this year and bought more tubers after the first lot didn't come up. They caught up with the only successful first one I planted.
They are easy to collect seed from, just cut off a spent flower head and allow to dry on a window sill, as the old flower head dries the long thin seeds drop out. I grew my first ones ever from seed this year and they have done much better than the tubers I bought.
I've always left mine in the
I've always left mine in the ground without any problem, but then we are generally quite mild here and don't have penetrating frosts.
Our cool springs does mean that they are late risers. I found that the cool wet summer this year meant were very slow to get into full swing. Had I stored them under cover and gave them an early start under glass they would have been much more advanced, but lack of space and laziness means that this rarely happens.
Conrad
I left mine in last year
I left mine in last year after mulching and lost some but not all. It was a particularly cold/wet winter though! New shoots appear around April.
One problem I have found is a tripod of garden canes tied around the dahlias does not support some of the larger plants - I think I will have to resort to stakes next year, not unless anbody has got any other (more elegant) ideas?!
Helen
Thank you all for your
Thank you all for your advice, I think I'll try small scale planting next year as I've not grown before, mulch really well and leave them in the ground to see how I get on.
If I leave them in, when do the new shoots start to show? and if at that time nothing is happening, is it too late to plant some more new tubers?
SarahL
I left mine in last winter
I left mine in last winter and lost most of them, although they were covered with a foot of hay. The ones that survived were in the most freely draining soil. the ones in less improved clay all got frost bitten, and don't they pong when they rot!
Now many are smitten with dahlia smut, are the tubers still OK to be kept for next year, in or out of the ground?
I lost all of mine last year
I lost all of mine last year and I had dug them up and stored them in the shed - they went mouldy. I am going to give my this year's plants a good mulch and leave them in the ground and see if that works better.
Hi I normally leave mine in
Hi
I normally leave mine in the ground, quite frosty in Wiltshire, with a good mulch, but lost all last year, so I won't do that again. Although it was the coldest, snowiest winter we've had for a while. i
where in the country are you
where in the country are you based SarahLouise?
Some lift, some leave in the ground - I leave in the ground and I'm in a frost pocket in Oxfordshire but I do mulch the area well to help them through the winter, seems to work fine here