Dive into Dahlias: A Blooming Adventure in the Making!

28 March 2024 124 5

Dive into Dahlias: A Blooming Adventure in the Making!

Despite rainy days disrupting my gardening plans, I’m prepping more plants at home to create a cottage garden vibe with veggies, fruits, and flowers for my allotment. Stay tuned for updates on my favourite flower!

LISTEN TO ANGELA’S FEATURE!

Angela Allottment Tips Ginger and Nuts

Written by Angela

Now, I should be talking to you from my allotment, but on all the days that I’ve set aside to do some gardening, it’s poured down with rain!

There have been a couple of nice days, but of course, they were the days that I was busy doing other things!

So, I have prepared some more plants at home that I want to include on my allotment.

I’m hoping to create a bit of a cottage garden vibe with a mix of vegetables, fruit and flowers, and hopefully, if we get a fine day over the Easter weekend, I can crack on with some more prep work outside.

In the meantime, I thought I’d tell you about one of my absolute favourite flowers that I’m going to grow.

I have some very happy associations with these blooms going all the way back to my childhood as my dad used to plant them in between his runner beans and vegetables. I would sometimes help him to pick them, and then when I was older and I had my first baby, he brought me a huge bunch of them to the hospital, which meant much more to me than a bunch of Interflora flowers as I knew he’d grown them and that he had cut all the best blooms for me.

These gorgeous blooms I’m speaking of are, of course, Dahlias! And I absolutely LOVE them!

There are many different kinds of Dahlias in every shape, size and colour, so there’s something for EVERYONE to fall in love with!

Dahlias hail from Central America – they were brought to Europe by the Spanish back in the 1700s along with potatoes and tomatoes, initially for eating, but it was noticed that the Dahlias had pretty flowers. Since then, generations of gardeners and commercial growers have hybridised them to make ever-better flowering plants in every shape and colour…..except for the elusive true blue!

Several categories of Dahlias include Tree Dahlias, Decorative, Dinner Plate, Pompon, Collarette Cactus, Anemone-Flowering and Dwarf Bedding.

My favourites tend to be cactus or large decorative dinner plate varieties, as I quite like my Dahlias to be big and blousy … maybe a bit like me?

You can grow Dahlias from seed, cuttings or tubers.

I’ve decided to grow from tubers as that’s been more successful for me in the past.

I’ve chosen a few varieties that I think look lovely, including Cafe au lait Rose, Hollyhill Black Beauty and Klara Zak.

If you would like to grow Dahlias from tubers, it’s quite simple, and now is the perfect time to do so. If you go to the Ginger and Nuts website you can see a few photos showing you just how simple!

It’s not yet warm enough to plant tubers straight into the soil.. also, it’s far too wet at the moment, which would rot the tubers. So this is how to start them off.

When buying your tubers, try to find nice plump-looking ones, then half fill a large plastic plant pot, say about 2 or 3 ltrs in size, with compost, then simply, gently lay the tuber with the central stalk upwards on top and then fill the pot up with more compost so that just the dried central stalk is visible.

But, do not water the tuber until it has started to sprout new green leaves ..and then water.

Plant out into your garden or allotment from May onwards.
Dahlias require fertile, moist but well-drained soil and a sunny, sheltered spot, and the taller varieties need staking.

Remember, in the autumn to dig up the tubers and overwinter them in a frost-free place, such as a greenhouse or a shed or loft.

Don’t leave them in the soil as frost and wet conditions will turn the tubers into mush! Store them over winter and bring them back into growth in late March to early April again next year.

So, I hope you may have been inspired to grow some Dahlias this year if you haven’t done so before!

Happy gardening, my lovelies!

Written by: Ginger and Nuts

Allotment allotment tips Angela returns with her Top Tips