Jump Starting Dahlias
It’s that time of the year again when I offer up my studio to the dahlias.
If you want to jump start dahlias in pots, to plant outdoors in May, It’s important that they are warm and as my studio is mostly between 15 °C - 21 °C it’s much better than the greenhouse or the garden room. It’s quite a simple progress and I know lots of gardeners can’t be bothered and plant the tubers straight outdoors mid May, but I like to be in control of the growing, the size of the plants and I like to watch the development, hence I grow the tubers in pots.
You basically fill a pot with potting soil, push a tuber in the soil (dangling bit down) and cover it up with a bit of soil just enough so that the eye is sticking out. Water them and keep the pots moist but definitely not wet as the tubers might rot and you will end up without any growth.
I use plastic pots, containers and even storage boxes. A storage box can hold up to 4 plants and they prove to be quite successful as you can see in the top right image. Once the tubers start to get leaves you’ll have to pinch out the tops. Though dahlias will grow just fine on their own, one little pinch will give you a stronger, bushier plant with more flowers. You can see that in the bottom right image, I pinched out the top and you can see two new shoots on the left and right.
Plant them out in the garden when it’s warm enough, I say mid May but as the weather is quite mild at my end, I might plant them outdoors early May. And that’s it …
The table filled with dahlias is enough to recreate this. You can read the full dahlia post by clicking here.
If you have questions do not hesitate to leave a comment, I will always answer.
Love, Yvonne
