Dahlias: Planting And Care

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Large multi-colored blossoming dahlia buds adorn the gardens of amateur flower growers from July until the arrival of stable autumn cold weather. Summer residents in love with these flowers create whole dahlia gardens on their plots. At the same time, they do not look boring and monotonous, because the perennial has more than a dozen species, and its varieties differ both in the shape and color of the flower petal and in height. Many are accustomed to medium-sized varieties, but some varieties reach 2 m or more. Therefore, it is a suitable flower for participating in complex flower bed schemes and multi-level plots

Conditions for growing dahlias in the garden

Dahlia is a rather demanding flower. This perennial is thermophilic, prefers areas in a well-sunlit area. Suitable soil types are sandy loam and loam. The land should be rich in humus. Quick drying, acidic, swampy areas are not the most suitable conditions for them. Those who want to acquire a beautiful flower bed with dahlias need to prepare the area with high quality and cultivate the soil deeply - at least 30 cm deep.

Dahlias are good not only for growing in flower beds. They are very suitable for making bouquet arrangements. You just need to remember that in dry hot weather, the flowers will not stand for long in the cut. But in August-September, they can stand in a vase for a week or more.

Dahlia breeding

Perennials are propagated in different ways: by sowing seeds, cuttings, dividing tubers and even grafting. Each method has its own advantages. The seed method is used to propagate simple non-double varieties. Tubers are taken out of storage for germination in the second half of winter. They are left in a warm room at a temperature of about + 15 … + 20? С. The cuttings that appear are cut under the knot. In this case, the length of the planting material should be approximately 8-10 cm. For rooting, planting is carried out in boxes or a special rack. The latter is convenient in that it is convenient to equip it with heating from below. This technique significantly speeds up the rooting process. The advantage of propagation by cuttings is that such plants are less sick. However, they bloom one and a half to two weeks later than their tuberous relatives.

Those who want to quickly acquire a blooming garden are recommended to propagate dahlias by dividing the tubers. It is worth noting that for these purposes it is necessary to select only the best, healthier tubers. It's good if before that they are given time to germinate. To do this, they are left in boxes, sprinkled with fertile soil, but in such a way that the neck remains open.

It is necessary to divide the planting material in such a way that on each division there is a part of the root collar with a bud. The operation is started when the shoots are about 1-2 cm long.

Further care for rooted cuttings and cuttings of tubers is the same. They are seated in separate pots and moved to greenhouses. During this period of plant development, you can cheat and make your perennials bloom faster. This can be achieved by reducing daylight hours to 10 hours or less during the month. To do this, from 6 pm to 8 am, the frames of the greenhouses are covered with mats or other suitable materials.

Dahlia planting in open ground

Flowers are moved to open ground to a permanent place when the spring frosts are already behind. But the planting of plants obtained from cuttings will differ from tuberous ones. The first ones are buried in the soil up to cuttings of a pair of developed leaves. The latter are planted so that the neck is hidden 4-5 cm underground.

The placement of dahlias in a flower bed depends on the characteristics of the variety. Tall ones need a distance of about 100 cm from each other, between medium-sized ones they maintain a distance of 80 cm, for low flowers it is enough to leave 60 cm between plantings.