Topic: Dahlias - what have I done???

[antipodes]

To help a friend with some fund raising, I have just bought 5 Dahlia (cactus type) bulbs. MY plot neighbour grows them and I admit in the summer they are beautiful, they always go home with big bunches of them.
I had assumed that they are just grown like any type of bulb i.e. get it in about now, it will flower, take care of it, and cover it well over in winter (which is what my neighbour does, he covers that bed in mulch and straw and a tarp. ) However after doing a quick search on A4A, it sounds absolutely incredibly complicated! All I want are a few flowers!

Do I just plant them out, like other bulbs, knowing that we are a few degrees warmer here than Britain, and when?  Will they last more than one year?  And what's the best spot?

I have also bought 2 Arum lily bulbs which I am thinking of planting near my raspberries, down in the corner of the plot, and the other one near the centre, next to the purple Irises. Does that sound OK?

I admit that I have little luck with flowers usually (last year I just had pot marigolds and a few straggly roses) but this year I have got seeds for sweet peas and Nigellas so maybe we will have some cut flowers this year for a change!).

[Pescador]

Dahlias are not that complicated.
I normally start the tubers in pots under cover, just to get them going a bit earlier.
Plant them out when the risk of frost is over. They're fairly hungry and thirsty during the growing season.
Then protect again from frost during the winter.
Simples!!

[sunloving]

Agreed and since you are starting them off in pots its good time to take cuttings and give yourself a few spares just in case they get frosted.

For the first time select stems around 10-15cm long that have not gone hollow, cut them from the tuber with a fleck of tuber still attached dip in hormone rooting and pot into a gritty compost. Take out the leaf bud at the top and any very large leaves. We will be putting ours in a heated greenhouse bed at the weekend to start them off and will be taking cuttings early march for planting out in late april.

Youll have a whole bed in no time - just to note that each tuber doesnt have a growing point and so splitting them wont make more plants unless you make sure that each has a point that came from the central stem area with a bud on it.

Good luck for a dahlia filled summer
x sunloving

[Squash64]

I agree with the previous posts, but they are also incredibly easy to grow from seed and will flower the first year.  Start them off indoors as you would tomatoes and plant out when the weather is warmer.

[Duke Ellington]

I agree with Squash. this is a photo of one of my favourites that I grew from seed last year.



Duke

[antipodes]

I had no idea that you could grow them from seed!!!
What is this story about cuttings? Is that a way of multiplying them? I am not very good with that type of manoeuvre  :-\

How long do the bulbs last? I have some white daffs that I put in 3 years ago and they are just coming up again now, they seem pretty indestructible.
Those pics are gorgeous, the ones I have bought look like the cut ones that sunloving posted. My hubby likes cut flowers, more than me, so he will be pleased that I am bringing home something else than oversized courgettes  ;D

[Mrs Ava]

Where you are in France, I am sure they will be fine just left on your plot to get bigger and bigger every year.  You can take cuttings in early spring from emerging shoots if you want to multiply your plants, I have never bothered as like Duke and Squash64, I grow loads from seed every year and have 2 tray fulls just germinated already for this year.  Once the foliage has been blacked by the first hard frost, cut them down, cover them with a good layer of compost or manure or shredded newspaper or whatever you have to hand and wait for them to re-emerge next spring.  You can dig them up in the winter, clean them and store in a frost free place over winter if you like, however, there is a lady on my allotment here in Essex and she has a bank of stunning dahlias which have been in the ground for at least 8 years, and all she does is tuck them up with some rotted manure every winter.  Another one of my customers has a lot and I cover them with grass cuttings and every year, up they pop.  Easy peasy and amazing cut flowers.

[sunloving]

In general the showy doubles dont produce much or any seed and so are propagated by cuttings the daisy centred do and so can be raised to flower in the first year.

Either will give you some wonderful cut flowers - however the pompoms tend not to be as good in a vase but from something like a tarahiti ruby you would get a good 7 days.

Good luck with them look forward to some photos in july!
x sUNLOVING

[antipodes]

Ok for the photos there!  I must admit my neighbour's are absolute whoppers, over 5 feet high. He seems to have straw on that bed so they must stay in the ground.
Now I just have to decide where to put them, if they will be taking up that space for a long while to come!!