Plant Dahlias In Your Garden

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Princesses of flower beds and palisades

It is now difficult to imagine our gardens without lush dahlia bushes. By the variety of colors, shapes and sizes of inflorescences, the duration of flowering, they are unmatched. A well-grown flowering bush transforms a garden already filled with a sad foreboding of autumn.

… September has died, and the dahlias were

burnt by the breath of the night …"

The homeland of dahlias is Mexico and Guatemala. They appeared in Europe in the 8th century, where they received two names - dahlia and dahlia. Dahlia named the plant in honor of the famous Swedish botanist A. Dahl, and dahlia - in honor of the professor of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences Johann Gottlieb Georgi.

The name of the dahlia was fixed only in our country. According to the international nomenclature, it is dahlia. Dahlias appeared in Russia in the 19th century. These plants were first shown at a flower exhibition in Moscow in 1844.

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Dahlia care

Heat-loving dahlias are unpretentious to care for, but they prefer loose, fertile, well-drained soils and sunny places protected from cold winds.

The soil on the site intended for planting dahlias must be structural, moisture-absorbing and at the same time permeable. If dahlias are planted in the same place every year, then when planting it is necessary to replace the soil by adding new, fertile land.

Dahlia tubers are planted in warm ground when the threat of frost has passed (May 15-20). In order for dahlias to bloom early, they are germinated. About three weeks before planting in open ground, root tubers are placed in boxes or pots, half covered with nutritious soil, or simply sawdust, and installed in a warm, bright place, regularly sprinkling and watering as needed. After 10 days, the first shoots appear, and then it is better to rearrange the boxes with plants to a cooler and brighter place.

Tall varieties are planted at a distance of 1 meter from each other, and medium-sized and undersized ones - at 60-80 cm. One shovel of humus is introduced into the harvested hole and sprouted tubers are placed to a depth of 6-8 cm, then watered abundantly. In the first week after planting, they are watered daily, in the future they do it less often, but in such a way that the soil under the dahlias always remains moist.

The main organic fertilizer for dahlias is manure, which contains nutrients necessary for the plant. Manure is introduced in the fall during digging to a depth of 30-40 cm.

But it must be remembered that excessive application of manure and nitrogen fertilizers promotes vegetative growth, in which many leaves are formed, but few flowers, and tubers are poorly stored in winter.

With the onset of cold weather, the plants are spud to a height of 15-17 cm to protect the root collar from the first autumn frosts.

To get a powerful and abundantly flowering plant, it is recommended to leave only 2-3 of the strongest shoots near the dahlia bush, and the rest must be removed, and as soon as possible. For lush flowering, they also pinch the top of the shoot above the third leaf, while later the plant develops into two stems. All lateral shoots that emerge from the leaf axils are regularly broken out.

Dahlias bloom from mid-July until frost. Moreover, they bloom most abundantly and magnificently in September, and then on gloomy autumn days, dahlias turn out to be the brightest decoration of the garden.

But they do not tolerate frost at all. And as soon as the cold weather sets in, the solemn inflorescences suddenly, in the midst of flowering, suddenly go out. But the first frosts are often fleeting, and in order for the dahlias to bloom all the often long Indian summer, the plants can be wrapped overnight from top to bottom with light covering material. To protect the root collar from the first autumn frosts, plants are spud to a height of 15-17 cm.

With age, dahlias form large nests of root tubers, which must be divided every two to three years, removing old tubers, which over time accumulate diseases. To do this, the large nests are carefully, loosening them by hand, and divided into several parts, which necessarily have 1-3 "nodules" with 2-3 developed buds. This division is the best landing unit.

Dahlias are very fond of water, and in hot weather, when their leaves sag, water them abundantly and daily. Dahlias need a garter, and especially in August, since at this time their side shoots become so fragile that they break off not only by the wind, but even from their own weight.

Dahlia storage

The most difficult part of growing dahlias is storing their tubers in winter. To do this, they need to create the appropriate conditions and, in addition, there are varieties that form small thin tubers that are difficult to maintain.

Tubers are dug out after the first frost, approximately in the first decade of October. If you delay digging, the water in the trunk will sink into the root collar, and in winter it will rot. Shake off the soil from the dug tubers and leave them in the air to dry for a while. Then put the roots in several pieces in boxes and put them in a cool, frost-free, dry basement. Storage temperature 5-7 ° C.

To maintain the moisture required for storage, they can be covered with moss, earth, or at least several times during the winter sprinkled with water. In addition, from time to time it is necessary to check the safety of the tubers; if rotten ones are found, then they must be thrown away so that they do not infect healthy ones. For special preservation or if there is a risk of freezing of the room in which the dahlias are stored, tubers of especially favorite varieties can be waxed - melt the paraffin in a comfortable saucepan with a long handle, then in not too hot, but liquid paraffin, lower the cut to half, then turn it over and lower it second half.

Paraffin is highly flammable, so be very careful when heating it on a gas stove. The tubers waxed in this way can be stored in a city apartment in a cool place, for example, on the floor at the front door, near the water pipe in the toilet or near the balcony, but be sure to keep away from the batteries.

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Dahlia varieties

There are a great many varieties of dahlias. They are surprisingly diverse in color, inflorescence and bush shape. All the time, new varieties appear, which I also want to try to grow in my area.

Often, the very expectation of the appearance of a new flower, never seen before in a flower bed, which, perhaps, will take root in the collection for many years, is captured. Here are the varieties our family preferred and which I can recommend for garden decoration.

Of all the color schemes of inflorescences, we, first of all, prefer orange-yellow. The variety Tasson stands out with its rich orange inflorescences, a luxurious cactus bright orange with red touches Bindermansdorf. Due to the bright yellow middle of the red inflorescences, as if glowing from the inside, the Virage variety is very decorative. The Color Spectacle variety is characterized by a rich, pure orange color of petals with white tips. Unfortunately, the last of the named varieties, this one has a drawback - white tips are not always formed and not in all inflorescences. The Dragon variety has a similar disadvantage - red with white tips.

Another favorite color scheme of dahlias is purple. From it, we can recommend the Farhat variety - tslivovy with a white border, very original, but the bush is not decorative, since it does not bloom abundantly. The fairy of the night has a rich purple color, but the size of the inflorescences is inferior to the also purple Lilac Time variety. The old variety Cherio looks very nice - the inflorescences are raspberry with white tips, but it has a significant drawback - very thin, and therefore poorly stored tubers.

And, probably, the most spectacular variety Anatol: on a pink background of petals, raspberry strokes, for which it is also called "chintz". Despite certain difficulties in the care and storage of dahlias, it is still worth tinkering with the cultivation of these beautiful flowers. Bright, original dahlias are sure to revive the rainy, gloomy end of autumn.