The Dahlia , also called a Farmer's Flower. ( part 1 ).
A while ago some people asked me if I could write something about
Dahlias .
That wasn't such a bad idea, because the
Dahlia is a flower that traditionally appeared a lot in the vegetable garden, and for years you saw that the
Dahlia appeared in farmers' gardens and farmers' vegetable gardens. Hence the name 'Farmer's flower'.
When I was a boy of about 16 I already had a vegetable garden and I got to know the
Dahlia at a nursery in the countryside. There were various beautiful colours at the nursery, but one stood out clearly, a large yellow one with a diameter of 30 cm. You put such a flower on a breakfast plate that was completely covered. In the autumn the nursery dug up the tubers and I was able to buy some. Since he was an acquaintance of mine, I was able to buy a few tubers for little money.
The following year I planted them in the garden and enjoyed the beautiful blooming of the flowers, now 40 years later I still have
Dahlias , what started with 10 tubers, was 200 plants last year, next year there will be a maximum of 50….
Species:
Of course you have different types
of Dahlias , decorative, pompon, single-flowered, cactus and cactus-like, anemone-like, etc…
Then you have low and high varieties, in my case I am a fan of the varieties that grow to about 1m high, but I also have some of 60cm (Red Star) and some low individuals to try, for example in
containers and
pots .
I have also had some with dark leaves, very decorative in the garden, but this single-flowered
Dahlia does less well as a cut flower. I also find that the
Dahlias last longer in the vase towards the end of the season than in the first months.
Tip: If you put
Dahlias in a vase, add a few drops of chlorine = bleach to the water, then they will last at least a day longer and the water will also stay cleaner.
Planting time:
When do you plant the tubers, well if you want to put them outside in the garden, you can plant them outside from the end of April/beginning of May, not too deep, that is not necessary, I make a hole of about 30 cm with the bats and plant the tuber in it. In the vegetable garden I plant them in rows. Previously I put a tuber every 60 cm, but later I was taught that this was not necessary, just put them in rows close to each other, the space between the rows does not have to be large either, the advantage of this is that they support each other in this way. If you put them further apart, they can fall over more easily or collapse in strong winds and that is a shame.
Please note that
Dahlias do not tolerate frost well, if they emerge above ground and a late night frost occurs, it is best to place some flower
pots over the plant.
As for fertilization… you don't need to fertilize the
Dahlias heavily, the vegetable garden soil contains sufficient nutrients, I sometimes read that
bone meal is used, the normal fertilizer when digging and some
compost makes growing easy.
Please note that snails really like the
Dahlia shoots.
Propagation:
How do you propagate
dahlias ?
Well, the easiest thing is to divide a tuber, then you have the same plant as the rest of the tuber, that's the easiest thing.
When you take the
Dahlias out of the ground at the end of the season, the tubers often fall into more parts and so you have more of them.
You can also sow them. You can buy
seeds in the seed shop. You can also take
seeds from the plant yourself, but not every species produces
seeds so easily. I have never succeeded in getting seeds from my decorative and pompon
Dahlias . I have succeeded from a purchased
Dahlia tuber, the Lady Darlene, a red and yellow magnificent flower. I have also succeeded from the single-flowered species.
I sowed these in the greenhouse in March, immediately placing the
seeds about 5 cm apart.
After about 18 days you see the plants emerge, when they are about 7cm high I cut the head out of the plant, also called topping, this gives you branches and therefore a fuller plant. At the end of May I plant these outside. The funny thing about
Dahlias is that you never know what color you will get back, so it is always a surprise. From the Lady Darlene, a beautiful large full red-yellow flower I got 7 different colors from 7
seeds . 1 was just like the mother plant red-yellow, 2 yellow of which 1 double and 1 single, the others were singles in the colors red and orange. From the single-flowered seedlings of
Dahlias with fairly dark leaves I got from a pink: white, pink, burgundy, carmine red and various shades of yellow back.
You can also cut the
Dahlia , in the spring when they come above the ground, you can cut off young shoots, a little cutting powder on the stem and plant these in the ground or in a pot. It is amazing how big the tubers are at the end of the season, both from the cuttings and the seedlings. You can simply plant these tubers again the following year. This way the hobby easily grows.
Part 2 (for part 1, scroll up)
Maintenance:
When the tubers start to sprout in the spring, you can top them to get a fuller plant.
No need, I've never done it with tubers. Last year I put the
Dahlias colour by colour, so all the purple ones in 1 row, all the red ones in 1 row etc. I won't do that again next year, I like a colourful bloom myself, I find everything mixed up more cheerful, but everyone has different ideas about that. Just like everyone has a difference in taste which breed/variety they have.
I already told you that I have the Lady Darlene, also the Arabian night, a more decorative
Dahlia in a dark red, almost black, color. It always strikes me that it is the women who find this
Dahlia very beautiful. Most of them don't like yellow, while I also find the yellow very beautiful. Tastes differ, that will always be the case. Furthermore, the beautiful single-flowered red with the name Bishop of Liandaf... difficult name for this beauty.... Also the "Twiggy" from the water lily-like
Dahlias in the color pink, the somewhat darker pink "Optic Illusion", well, those names won't mean much to you, I only know most of my own
Dahlias . I prefer to say that I have the purple pompon
Dahlia and the red pompon and the yellow pompon, that is much easier to talk to as enthusiasts among each other and sometimes I make up a name myself to remember which one I have. Because when they are put away in boxes at the end of the year, I still want to remember what color is in a box.
If I write down: salmon beautiful or pink very beautiful, then nobody says anything, but then the next year I know exactly which one it is. I have a book about
Dahlias with 250 cultivars, many look alike, so it is not always possible to know exactly which one you have.
When the flowers are in full bloom it is a beautiful sight, if you want to keep them beautiful all year round, you have to pick regularly, keep picking, because the more you pick, the more new flowers appear, also cutting away the dead flowers, a lot of work, but that is how you keep the
Dahlias the most beautiful. They continue to bloom until well into October, and they can just about handle a night frost now and then, but then it is time to make the choice what you want. Take them out or cover them.
Harvest or leave:
My vegetable garden is in the open plain, the cold falls over the garden there. That is why I take all the
Dahlias out of the garden every year, dry them and put them in boxes to keep them frost-free in the winter.
Some people put them in boxes with peat moss to prevent them from drying out, which is also possible.
There are also people who just leave the
Dahlias in the ground, I hear that more and more often. If you have a sheltered garden or a garden at home you can leave them in the ground, if necessary covered with some leaves or pine branches. They will often grow again in the spring.
For me that is not an option. First I cut the plants and then with a grip, also called a rake, carefully remove the tubers from the ground and cut the cut stems back to about 15 cm. You will see when you cut the stems that a whole splash of water comes out of the stems, that is how it should be.
Do not wrap the tubers in plastic, they will go moldy. The tubers do not need water in the winter, just leave them dry. It does not even have to be dark, mine are lying in full light, but only in the spring you will see small points appear on the tuber, those will be the shoots.
If you would like to grow them in a pot, you can plant them in the greenhouse or indoors in a pot with soil from mid-February. They will then be ready sooner and if you plant them outside at the end of May you will already have beautiful large plants.
The cut greenery goes on the
compost heap.
In the beginning I said that I planted 200
Dahlias last year, to let them all bloom nicely, it takes a lot of maintenance. That is why I am giving away a lot this year to continue next year with a small number, some of each color.
I also made an appointment with a fellow vegetable gardener to swap.
You also get new colors by exchanging.
Dahlias give a beautiful colour to the vegetable garden. Thousands of
Dahlias are also processed into beautiful figures in flower parades. It may be a farmer's flower, but you don't have to be a farmer to enjoy it.
The flower belongs to the edible flowers, I will not eat them anytime soon, but there are people who make jam and as soon as the jam is ready to be poured into the jars, they sprinkle some dark-flowered petals through it, this is decorative in the jam jars.
Wim.
In
our webshop :
Maintenance:
When the tubers start to sprout in the spring, you can top them to get a fuller plant.
No need, I've never done it with tubers. Last year I put the Dahlias colour by colour, so all the purple ones in 1 row, all the red ones in 1 row etc. I won't do that again next year, I like a colourful bloom myself, I find everything mixed up more cheerful, but everyone has different ideas about that. Just like everyone has a difference in taste which breed/variety they have.
I already told you that I have the Lady Darlene, also the Arabian night, a more decorative Dahlia in a dark red, almost black, color. It always strikes me that it is the women who find this Dahlia very beautiful. Most of them don't like yellow, while I also find the yellow very beautiful. Tastes differ, that will always be the case. Furthermore, the beautiful single-flowered red with the name Bishop of Liandaf... difficult name for this beauty.... Also the "Twiggy" from the water lily-like Dahlias in the color pink, the somewhat darker pink "Optic Illusion", well, those names won't mean much to you, I only know most of my own Dahlias . I prefer to say that I have the purple pompon Dahlia and the red pompon and the yellow pompon, that is much easier to talk to as enthusiasts among each other and sometimes I make up a name myself to remember which one I have. Because when they are put away in boxes at the end of the year, I still want to remember what color is in a box.
If I write down: salmon beautiful or pink very beautiful, then nobody says anything, but then the next year I know exactly which one it is. I have a book about Dahlias with 250 cultivars, many look alike, so it is not always possible to know exactly which one you have.
When the flowers are in full bloom it is a beautiful sight, if you want to keep them beautiful all year round, you have to pick regularly, keep picking, because the more you pick, the more new flowers appear, also cutting away the dead flowers, a lot of work, but that is how you keep the Dahlias the most beautiful. They continue to bloom until well into October, and they can just about handle a night frost now and then, but then it is time to make the choice what you want. Take them out or cover them.
Harvest or leave:
My vegetable garden is in the open plain, the cold falls over the garden there. That is why I take all the Dahlias out of the garden every year, dry them and put them in boxes to keep them frost-free in the winter.
Some people put them in boxes with peat moss to prevent them from drying out, which is also possible.
There are also people who just leave the Dahlias in the ground, I hear that more and more often. If you have a sheltered garden or a garden at home you can leave them in the ground, if necessary covered with some leaves or pine branches. They will often grow again in the spring.
For me that is not an option. First I cut the plants and then with a grip, also called a rake, carefully remove the tubers from the ground and cut the cut stems back to about 15 cm. You will see when you cut the stems that a whole splash of water comes out of the stems, that is how it should be.
Do not wrap the tubers in plastic, they will go moldy. The tubers do not need water in the winter, just leave them dry. It does not even have to be dark, mine are lying in full light, but only in the spring you will see small points appear on the tuber, those will be the shoots.
If you would like to grow them in a pot, you can plant them in the greenhouse or indoors in a pot with soil from mid-February. They will then be ready sooner and if you plant them outside at the end of May you will already have beautiful large plants.
The cut greenery goes on the compost heap.
In the beginning I said that I planted 200 Dahlias last year, to let them all bloom nicely, it takes a lot of maintenance. That is why I am giving away a lot this year to continue next year with a small number, some of each color.
I also made an appointment with a fellow vegetable gardener to swap.
You also get new colors by exchanging.
Dahlias give a beautiful colour to the vegetable garden. Thousands of Dahlias are also processed into beautiful figures in flower parades. It may be a farmer's flower, but you don't have to be a farmer to enjoy it.
The flower belongs to the edible flowers, I will not eat them anytime soon, but there are people who make jam and as soon as the jam is ready to be poured into the jars, they sprinkle some dark-flowered petals through it, this is decorative in the jam jars.
Wim.
In our webshop :
