Dahlias, with their summer explosion of colors, range of flower types and varied heights are a blessing to your landscape. Blooming in autumn, these various plants give you the choice of a low border plants to stately background plants that can reach 6 feet. With blossoms 2 to 12 inches, and in all colors, but blues, these flowers are garden favorites.
Dahlias can be started from seed, but most are grown from tubers. Because dahlias are hybrids, they do not come true when grown from seed. The tender tubers must be dug up each fall in USDA zones below 7, and stored, divided and replanted every spring. But the work is worth the beautiful color your garden will have.
Color ranges for dahlias vary from white to yellow, orange, pink, red, purple and maroon. Some flowers are striped, others tipped with another color. Others will have a color as they open and fade to a pastel shade as the flowers mature. With the thousands of cultivars available, you will have no trouble finding the ones that appeal to you.
Classification of dahlias by flower shape and arrangement of the petals. Single-flowered dahlias have a row of petals, and are generally smaller, with smaller flowers. Double-flowering types have multiple rows of petals, and in general the longer, larger flowering varieties.
Double flowers are also classified by flower shape. Cactus dahlias have tubular shape of petals that curve backwards for most of their length. Curved cactus species have petals that curve toward the center of the flower. Formal decorative dahlias have wide petals arranged regularly that tend to bend back to the tribe, while the informal Decoratives long irregularly arranged and shaped petals. There are ball dahlias, pompon dahlias, both aptly named.
In planting dahlia tubers, select a sunny location, away from wind. Growing best in deep fertile and well drained soil, dahlias should be planted in frost danger has passed. The tubers space depending on the size of the full-grown plant. Large plants may be necessary to 3 to 4 meters between the plants, while the smaller can be 2 meters apart.
Dig a hole 10 centimeters deep, wide enough to fit the knol. Replace the loosened soil in the hole and secure the top of the root, with the eyes facing up. If your dahlias are great, this is the time to add interest for future support. Cover the tuber with 2 to 3 inches of the soil, adding more land to level up the soil as the stems grow. Dahlias are heavy feeders and need regular watering.
When the weather gets warmer, apply a layer of mulch around the plant to retain water to help. Each root produces a number of shoots, and thinning of the shoots have a higher-quality flowers. If the plant is about one meter high, pinch out the terminal shoot to encourage branching. Supporting the long-steal types of high to prevent the heavy flowers bending and breakage of the plant. Remove the side buttons to enlarge the flower, or leave them for more smaller flowers. Remove spent flowers to encourage continuous bloom.
After the first killing frost, cut back the foliage to about 4 inches. Allow the plant about a week or ten days to new buds to form, and then individually lift each clump, dig a few feet away from the center of the plant to cut or to avoid spearing the tubers. Brush off the loose soil and the clog was careful to get rid of all the soil. Let the masses to cure in a well ventilated, shady place for a few days.
Prior to storage of the tubers, tubers divide the mass in an individual, each with at least one eye. Wrap them in a ventilated box with moist vermiculite or peat moss. Keep the roots in a place that does not freeze, or not warmer that about 50F. Check them out in winter, and as they begin to shrivel, moisten the material they are stored in.
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