We bought three new dahlias this year - this is ‘Omega’ - it’s known as a dinner-plate variety and is absolutely huge. We measured it and it is 8” (don’t use metric I’m afraid) and so far we have had 6 blooms. There are at least 4 more buds ready to come out.
We will over-winter the tubers and plant them again next year. And for the past 10 years, we have grown ‘Bishop’s Children’ variety from seed. We have an incredible success rate with them - they have beautiful dark green foliage.
I bought a pot of the ones for Fran’s grave with the first shade of yours above, as the blooms died off one by one I continued to water daily if no rain and, in amongst all the dead heads there is again one glorious bloom.
Ahh that’s the trick, you must take some flower snippers (action €1,29) and dehead (not just the flower, go right down to where it hits the branch). Then it will keep flowering untilnfrost, same for all your flowers!
I beg your pardon, I have never been known to pout.
Back to the flowers, I hesitated to cut some apparently dead ones because they seemed to still have a live bud within, but I’ll take the scissors to them today if it stops raining.
And now some questions. I’m falling in love with flowers and wanted to try them this year. I bought some packs from Action and potted them up as I read to do somewhere. They all came up nicely. I then got busy / the canicule ect. I planted one out, too late but it is growing nicely but only one flower with another bud coming. Some others (the same have buds about to open (still in too small pots and too late to plant out now!). I planted out 2 others that died. I also spent a bit buying a café au lait one, it was a gorgeous healthy looking bulb but never really worked, at one point a tiny green bit came up but nothing after!
Do do you have any hints!? How do you plant yours? Direct or in pots to baby them?
I also grow Bishop’s Children from over-wintered tubers. This year they have grown into large plants with numerous flowers but the flowers are rather small compared to the initial years. I was wondering if you have also found this to be the case ?
I plant mine in pots after over-wintering the lifted tubers in a cardboard box in a dry cellar. The essential thing is to be able to protect the emerging young shoots from slugs and snails who seem to just love eating them away to nothing. Sounds like your Café au Lait was simply eaten by slugs and snails as it tried to grow. I could leave the tubers in the ground over the winter as it is a very well drained site, but then I would have no choice but to use several generous applications of slug pellets in the Spring. Lifting the tubers for the winter, and then starting them off in pots in a slug free greenhouse, conservatory, or porch, not only allows the tubers to grow without being eaten, but also gives 3 or 4 weeks head start over the usual growing season.
By the way, the Tequila Sunrise variety grow to over 6 feet tall in my garden and so need both space and early and copious staking against the wind.
The new dahlias we bought this year are in ‘the dahlia bed’ and we will cut them down to the ground but mulch them heavily. This is what we do (mulch to about 6” all over the bed with chippings we’ve made this year from the hedging and pollarding some of the trees). So we do not lift them. Another method we use is to lift the dahlia tubers from the ones we grow in concrete cattle troughs and store them in large paper dog feed bags in the woodshed. So we will wait until the new shoots emerge and keep an eye out for any slugs/snails and treat accordingly. They are then planted wherever we decide to site them. Then we also collect seeds (mainly of the Bishops Children variety) and we plant one seed per small pot in early Spring and keep them in the plastic greenhouse until they are big enough to plant out, usually in large concrete cattle troughs.
@Robert_Hodge I like the look of the Tequila Sunrise variety so will be on the lookout next year see if our usual supplier (www.Dutchgrown.eu) have them.
@toryroo - we grow the dahlias in different ways and always make sure they never dry out (but don’t drown them) and when the seedlings look strong enough, put them where we want them to grow.
We were surprised a couple of years ago when we didn’t have time (due to poor health at the time) to lift the dahlias but kept them in the ground and mulched them. They didn’t suffer in any way from not being lifted so that is why we will use that method again.
And @toryroo - thought you’d like to see our begonias that are about 15 years old. We lift them at the end of the season and cut all the stalks etc. off them. Then we put them in the garden room in individual carboard boxes with their label on them (showing what colour they are) and over winter them. As soon as they begin to shoot the following year, we plant them - some in troughs like the picture and some in hanging baskets. There are actually only 5 begonias in this picture.
Good advice @chrisell. Besides buying from bespoke suppliers, we also get our bulbs and variety sets from Lidl and Action. They are always good value and as you say, if they don’t survive just buy another cheap set.
Thanks for all the advice! I wasn’t too worried about my losses and know it was mainly my fault for not planting out! Great to hear the tips for next year so I can hopefully get it right. I was peed off about loosing the café au lait though as I’d paid €5 for the 1 bulb! My Aussie flower farmer mate told me they are total princesses!
When? Spring?
Should I do this with the ones in pots or can I just shove them pots and all in the barn?
15 years, that’s impressive! I’m not a fan of them tbh I don’t like red flowers and something about the leaves
Spring to early summer. They like it warm so they’re usually a later flower. But I found old tubers forgotten about from Action this summer - stuck em out in July and they’re doing fine. They’re pretty forgiving - certainly the first year
Those in pots - they should be fine in their pots in the barn needs to be fairly dry though when you put them under cover. Or lift them depending on plans for next year.
I don’t like red flowers and something about the leaves