Dahlias done right bring delight — done wrong they often bring dismay. Katherine Benton does them right as evidenced in the photo.
I saw one of her huge dahlia blooms in a small bud vase at the OSU Extension Center recently and got an invitation to see the plant. This dahlia is planted in a raised bed at the edge of the Benton’s deck. The plant is several years old. Katherine says that she mulches it heavily in the fall to keep it from freezing and it returns in the spring. She fertilizes it with a balanced fertilizer.
Several people I have talked to about growing dahlias indicate they haven’t had much success. I suspect the major reason is that they have been planted in garden soil that hasn’t been properly amended rather than in the kind of soil that can be achieved in a raised bed. This is the reason I haven’t had much success. Now, I have hope for next year.
The choices of colors for dahlias are huge with new varieties on the market almost every year. There also are choices for size of bloom and height of plant.
A Web site called “The Garden Helper” offers several suggestions for planting dahlias in the garden:
1. Don’t plant until after danger of frost is past and soil temperature ranges between 58 and 60 degrees.
2. If the ground is excessively wet, wait until it dries.
3. Dig a hole 12 inches wide and 12 inches deep.
4. Fill the bottom six inches with a mixture of the soil you removed, compost — either your own or purchased such as composted cotton burrs — a handful of bone meal and a little Dolomite lime.
5. Place the dahlia tuber horizontally on the soil with the eye pointing up.
6. If planting dahlias that reach several feet high, place a stake of appropriate length in the ground beside the tuber’s eye to provide support as the dahlia grows. Use an old stocking to loosely tie the plant to the stake as it grows, stopping about two feet from the top of the plant.
7. Place about two inches of soil over the tuber and wait for it to peek out of the soil. Add about two inches more soil and continue this process over the next few weeks until the hole is filled to ground level.
8. About a month before bloom time feed with bloom booster fertilizer.
Once established, you should plan to water the dahlias deeply about once a week and more often if the weather is severely hot. When the blooms begin to bud, you may want to remove a few buds to allow the remaining buds to be larger. Be sure to remove spent blooms to encourage repeat blooming.
This winter when the garden catalogs arrive, I’m going to spend some time checking out the dahlia selections rather than flipping past them as I have done in recent years.
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Dahlias done right bring delight — done wrong they often bring dismay. Katherine Benton does them right as evidenced in the photo.
I saw one of her huge dahlia blooms in a small bud vase at the OSU Extension Center recently and got an invitation to see the plant. This dahlia is planted in a raised bed at the edge of the Benton’s deck. The plant is several years old. Katherine says that she mulches it heavily in the fall to keep it from freezing and it returns in the spring. She fertilizes it with a balanced fertilizer.
Several people I have talked to about growing dahlias indicate they haven’t had much success. I suspect the major reason is that they have been planted in garden soil that hasn’t been properly amended rather than in the kind of soil that can be achieved in a raised bed. This is the reason I haven’t had much success. Now, I have hope for next year.
The choices of colors for dahlias are huge with new varieties on the market almost every year. There also are choices for size of bloom and height of plant.
A Web site called “The Garden Helper” offers several suggestions for planting dahlias in the garden:
1. Don’t plant until after danger of frost is past and soil temperature ranges between 58 and 60 degrees.
2. If the ground is excessively wet, wait until it dries.
3. Dig a hole 12 inches wide and 12 inches deep.
4. Fill the bottom six inches with a mixture of the soil you removed, compost — either your own or purchased such as composted cotton burrs — a handful of bone meal and a little Dolomite lime.
5. Place the dahlia tuber horizontally on the soil with the eye pointing up.
6. If planting dahlias that reach several feet high, place a stake of appropriate length in the ground beside the tuber’s eye to provide support as the dahlia grows. Use an old stocking to loosely tie the plant to the stake as it grows, stopping about two feet from the top of the plant.
7. Place about two inches of soil over the tuber and wait for it to peek out of the soil. Add about two inches more soil and continue this process over the next few weeks until the hole is filled to ground level.
8. About a month before bloom time feed with bloom booster fertilizer.
Once established, you should plan to water the dahlias deeply about once a week and more often if the weather is severely hot. When the blooms begin to bud, you may want to remove a few buds to allow the remaining buds to be larger. Be sure to remove spent blooms to encourage repeat blooming.
This winter when the garden catalogs arrive, I’m going to spend some time checking out the dahlia selections rather than flipping past them as I have done in recent years.
