Perennial Dahlia: planting and care

The most famous legend about dahlias tells that this flower appeared on the site of the last fire that died out during the onset of the ice age. He was the first to appear at the end of it, symbolizing the victory of life over death. A very beautiful legend, and a suitable flower. It is interesting that these plants are called dahlias only here, the rest of the world knows it under the Latin name “Dahlia”. Perennial dahlias today have more than 15000 varieties, which can be quite small with a flower about 3 cm in diameter and 20 cm high, or they can be giants exceeding one and a half meters in height and with an inflorescence more than 25 cm.

Many are afraid to grow a perennial dahlia, planting and caring for them seems too complicated, despite the beauty of the plant. They are not entirely right, some of the difficulties in growing this flower are more than compensated by the duration of flowering, the beauty and variety of inflorescences. And if everything is done correctly, then storing and germinating dahlias will not seem too troublesome.

This article is about planting and caring for a perennial dahlia. Photos and videos will help you better understand the subject of our publication.

General information about dahlias

Dahlias are very beautiful perennial flowers. With proper care, each variety can stay with us indefinitely, every year, giving life to a large number of new plants.

plant structure

Dahlia is a root-tuberous plant, it consists of:

• Thick hollow stem, which can reach a height of 20 cm to 1,5 m or more. It is quite strong, but the weight of the flowers and strong winds can break it.
• Inflorescences-baskets, the diameter of which ranges from 3 cm in midget dahlias to 25 cm or more in tall varieties. It consists of marginal reed flowers, which have a wide variety of colors, and inner tubular, most often yellow. Depending on the variety, the inflorescence may consist only of marginal flowers or have modified tubular ones.

  

• The root system, in a dahlia, is represented by root tubers or root cones, which are actually thickened modified roots.
• The root neck, located directly above the tubers. It is from it that the stems of dahlias grow. It is very important for a flower; it cannot be cut off during autumn digging, since the entire plant dies when the root collar is removed.

Life cycle of a dahlia

As ordinary plants, only dahlias grown from seeds or cuttings behave, and even then only in the first year of life. As they grow, they form a small tuber, which can be dug up for the winter and sent for storage, like large tubers of adult plants, and then they will need to be looked after, like other flowers grown from a tuber.

With the beginning of the growing season, dahlias first of all wake up root tubers. Growth processes begin in them, first buds appear on the root collar, and then shoots. They do not have to be germinated, but can be planted directly into the ground with the onset of consistently warm weather. But then flowering will begin late, perhaps only at the end of August.

After planting, dahlias grow, bloom, form seeds, and after the first frost, the green mass dies and they urgently need to be dug up, cleaned, cut, keeping the root neck and sent to rest. It is best to store tubers at a temperature of 5-8 degrees.

With the onset of spring, under the influence of heat and light, the root cones wake up, and everything starts all over again.

What do dahlias love?

What do dahlias love? We need to know this in order to grow the best flowers possible without losing the tubers that will give life to new flowers next season.

• Dahlias love warmth. They cannot stand the slightest frost and do not winter with us even in the most southern regions.
• Dahlias love the light. They may be able to grow in poor light, but the stems will be elongated, pale, the flowers will be scarce, small and poorly colored, and the tubers will be small, weak, and may well not survive the winter.
• They need moderately fertile soils, water and moisture permeable. The flower will grow anywhere except wetlands, but you will get the best results on light loams or well-fertilized sandy soils.
• Dahlia bushes should be well ventilated. This does not mean that we should plant flowers in a windswept place. On the contrary, dahlias need to be protected from the wind. Just when planting, you need to take into account the future habit of the bush and do not plant them too close to each other.
• Dahlias require moderate watering.. Watering should be sufficient, but not excessive. Here you need to get used to it. We will talk about the intricacies of irrigation on different soils below.

What Dahlias Don’t Like

Although dahlias are considered very unpretentious flowers, there are things that they will not tolerate.

• First of all, it is non-observance of wintering conditions. Dahlia can tolerate great deviations from ideal conditions, but leaving it in the ground, even under the most beautiful shelter or planting it in a pot, putting it on the windowsill and not continuing to water it, is the only result that we get is the death of the flower.
• As we already wrote, a dahlia will not grow without light. And if it does, it will be for a very short time.
• It is strictly forbidden to transfuse the plant. Its main organ is the root tuber, if it rots, the flower will die.
• The plant does not like fresh manure and high doses of nitrogen fertilizers.
• Do not plant dahlias in places where there is often a strong wind, and even without a garter.

Germinating and planting dahlias

Germination of dahlias was fully devoted to the article on our website

Landing in the ground and containers

But it will not be superfluous to repeat the main stages.

Germination of the dahlias

Approximately 2-3 weeks before planting the tubers, they are brought into a warm room, after allowing them to settle for a couple of days where the temperature is higher than in the place of storage, but lower than in the house. Then, for successful germination, you need to do the following:

• If the tubers were not cleaned from the soil in the fall, rinse them.
• Remove all rotten and damaged areas.
• Disinfect the tubers by placing them in a weak solution of potassium permanganate for 30 minutes.
• Powder the cut areas with powdered activated charcoal, let them dry.
• Place dahlia nests in any loose, moist substrate with the root collar on top.
• Sprinkle the tubers with moist soil so that they do not lose moisture.
• Place the boxes in a bright place with a temperature of about 20 degrees.
• Water moderately, avoiding waterlogging.
• When the buds swell or the first shoots appear, divide the dahlias (you can do this every 2-3 years).
• Return the tubers to the ground.
• After the appearance of sprouts, it is desirable to reduce the temperature to 15-16 degrees.

If you are going to propagate the flowers by cuttings, remove the tubers from storage a month and a half earlier, and when the sprouts reach 6-10 cm, break them out with a “heel” or cut them with a piece of the root neck, plant them in pots.

Planting dahlias in the ground

When the threat of spring frost has passed and the ground has warmed up, flowers can be planted in flower beds. They can be planted in containers earlier, but they should remain indoors until the onset of heat.

It is better to start preparing the soil for planting dahlias in the fall – dig the ground onto a shovel bayonet. If necessary, add well-rotted manure or mature compost. In excessively dense soils, add sand or peat for digging, in acidic soils – lime or dolomite flour, in excessively alkaline soil acidic (horse) peat.

• Dig holes three times the size of the planted dahlia nests, plus 7-10 cm deep for adding fertilizer and deepening the root neck.
• For undersized varieties, the distance between the holes should be 50-60 cm, for tall dahlias – 80-90 cm.
• Too dense soils require additional drainage – pour a shovel of crushed stone or gravel into the bottom of the landing hole.
• Add loose humus, sand and fertilizers, mix with soil.
• For tall flowers, support immediately.
• Place the dahlia tubers in the planting holes and cover with soil, deepening the measles neck by 2-3 cm, for very tall flowers, the depth may be a little more.
• Rinse each plant well with warm water.
• Mulch the landing.

Caring for dahlias outdoors

We can assume that after we planted the dahlias in the ground, the main difficulties ended. But only if we don’t make mistakes further. Of course, dahlias are unpretentious, but it does not follow from this that they need to be looked after at random.

Watering

It is necessary to water dahlias so that they have enough moisture, but the water at the tubers does not stagnate, because this can cause them to rot. When watering, the quality of our soils is of great importance. Here are a few simple rules that will help us properly water dahlias:

• Too dense, poorly drained soils retain moisture well. With frequent watering, as in rainy summers, there is a danger of tubers rotting.
• Light loamy soils need to be watered more often and more abundantly.
• Try not to pour water on the leaves – they can rot.
• Water dahlias only in the early morning or after sunset.

Additional fertilizing

When talking about feeding dahlias, it is often advised not to give them nitrogen fertilizers. This is not true, since nitrogen is the building material for all parts of the plant. You just don’t need to get carried away with them – an excess of nitrogen will cause an increase in green mass to the detriment of flowering, and even the tuber will be weak.

The first feeding of dahlias is done no earlier than 10 days after planting in the ground, and the nitrogen content should be increased. Further, dahlias are fertilized every two weeks with complex mineral fertilizers. You can alternate them with organic ones – mullein infusion or green manures, but remember that such top dressings have a high nitrogen content. By mid-August, nitrogen-containing top dressing is stopped.

In autumn, it will be very good for dahlias to give at least two phosphorus-potassium supplements. For a long time, we used potassium monophosphate for such purposes, but now other fertilizers that do not contain nitrogen have appeared on the market.

Dahlias respond very well to feeding with wood ash. You can simply scatter it between the bushes on the ground – it will also serve as a protection for flowers from pests.

Strictly speaking, dahlias can not be fed at all, but then you will not wait for beautiful inflorescences and full-fledged tubers.

Weeding

Weeding dahlias is better by hand – we do not know where the growth of new tubers will be directed and glanders can damage them. Better yet, immediately after planting, mulch the dahlias with peat, straw or pine needles.

Stepping and pinching

Let’s say right away that undersized varieties do not need pinching or pinching. You can not do this with tall flowers, but then the bushes will be ugly, and the flowers are not as large as they could be. In addition, those tall plants that stepchild from the very beginning bloom earlier.

Carefully break out all side shoots growing up to the fourth pair of leaves. You need to pinch the main shoot over the fourth or fifth pair of leaves, all side shoots – over the second or third.

If you are growing cut flowers, cut off the “extra” flowers regularly, so the rest will be larger. But perhaps you like a bush, all covered with flowers, albeit smaller ones. Try doing this and that, and then decide what exactly you want from flowering dahlias.

When the flower fades, and you are not going to collect the seeds, you need to remove it. Some flower growers do not even wait for it to wither – they remove the flower when it is fully opened.

Watch a short video about caring for dahlias outdoors:

Caring for container dahlias

In general, care for container dahlias is the same as in the open field. You just need to monitor watering, most likely, you will have to do it more often. Make fertilizing more careful, if you overdo it with fertilizers in the open field, they will partially go into the ground, but in the container they have nowhere to go, and every extra gram will go to the plant.

What else is good about container dahlias is that at the first frost, which sometimes strikes, and then warm weather sets in again, they can be brought indoors and then put back outside. Sometimes it is enough to cover them with agrofibre.

Conclusion

As you can see, dahlias are much easier to care for than, say, roses. But the most important thing for this flower, as for all others, is your love. Flowers feel how you treat them and respond to care and tender feelings with long and lush flowering.