dahliascare
Dahlia Care – How to Care for Dahlias in the Garden and in Pots?
Your dahlias have just emerged or are already in bloom! Here's what's important to consider when caring for and maintaining dahlias. The great thing about dahlias is that they don't require much care. However, dahlia care and maintenance do require some attention and a few clever tricks. That's where the dahlia growers and we come in with this article to help you. With the instructions and tips from the grower, you'll make dahlia care and maintenance more enjoyable and easier! So, make your green thumbs a little greener. Take your time reading through all the instructions, tips, and advice. Learn to cultivate like a grower and ensure yourself a summer of carefree enjoyment.
TIP: Don't stare at dahlias in their eyes for too long. They might make you fall even more in love with their colors, increasing the chances of them gracing your garden again next year...
1. Dahlia care and maintenance – Support tall dahlias with a stake or string
There are several types of dahlias that can grow quite tall and/or heavy, some reaching up to 150 cm or higher. Therefore, support tall blooming dahlias with a stake or string.
2. Dahlia care and watering – Keep the soil adequately moist (almost always)
From the moment you plant your dahlias in the garden, it's important to keep the soil adequately moist. In practice, dahlia care and maintenance involve giving each dahlia plant about a liter of water when the soil starts to dry out. Repeat this process each time the soil dries out again. Note: the soil should be moist, not wet, as excessively wet soil can cause your dahlia bulbs to rot.
TIP 1: If the leaves of your dahlia plants start to droop, they likely need more water. Quickly give them about a liter of water.
TIP 2: Tap water is often too 'hard' due to the presence of minerals and calcium. Dahlia care is best done with rainwater or water from a source like a ditch. Your plants will appreciate it!
TIP 3: When caring for your dahlias, avoid spraying water directly onto the flowers. Instead, water the soil around the plants. This helps keep the blooming flowers looking beautiful and healthy for longer. Water on the flowers can cause the petals to scorch.
3. Dahlia Care and Maintenance – Too much rain? Drain the soil
Dahlia care and maintenance requires your attention, especially after heavy rainfall. If there is water pooling on the ground after excessive rain, it's essential to drain it as soon as possible. If your dahlias remain waterlogged for a long time (a few hours to a day), they will rot. Pay close attention to this! Draining the soil means literally removing excess water underground to make the land drier.
TIP: If draining the soil isn't feasible, you can always dig them up and replant them in a new, dry location. Make sure this area allows for better water drainage. Alternatively, you can transfer them to a pot.
4. Dahlia Care and Fertilization – Give a Little Extra Nutrition Once a Month
Dahlia care also involves providing sufficient nutrition to your dahlias. Once your dahlias start blooming, a little extra feeding from time to time will benefit them. You can give them additional nutrition once a month. Dahlia grower Peter recommends the following types of fertilizer:
- 10 to 20 granules of fertilizer NPK 12+10+18 (12+10+18 is a product name)
- Calcium ammonium nitrate (a type of fertilizer suitable as a nitrogen fertilizer)
- Natural compost (helps improve soil structure and is beneficial for biodiversity!)
TIP 1: Notice that the leaves are turning yellow or at least lighter in color (pale green)? That's a clear sign that they need a bit of extra nutrition.
TIP 2: It may seem obvious, but when caring for dahlias, pay close attention to the amount of nutrition you're allowed to give. Always read the label carefully.
5. Dahlia Care and Flower Maintenance – How Many Flowers Can You Expect from One Plant?
The number of flowers you get per dahlia plant can vary greatly. If you have low-growing, prolific flowering dahlia varieties with bulb size 1, you can get as many as 20 to 50 flowers per plant. Large-flowered or decorative types, as the name suggests, produce very large flowers, typically ranging from 3 to 10 flowers per dahlia. There are few plants that produce as many flowers. What luck we have!
TIP: There are dahlia care tips & tricks that can help you get more flowers. This can be achieved by 'topping' them! See below for 'topping dahlias'.
6. Dahlia care and flower maintenance - Get more flowers by topping dahlias
Attention! Topping dahlias is not necessary! Your dahlias will happily grow without being topped. Still undecided? You can try topping them next year.
Opting to top your plants as part of dahlia care and maintenance can yield two major advantages:
- The biggest benefit of caring for dahlias this way is that your dahlias will develop more branches and thus form more flowers. There's a chance the flowers might become slightly smaller, but your dahlias will produce many more. All summer long. YESS! Large varieties that easily grow up to 110 cm -150 cm tend to stay a bit shorter when topped.
- Your dahlias become a bit sturdier through topping, making them more secure in the wind. Handy if you have an open garden where a lot of wind blows through.
Good to know: Don't be afraid. Topping dahlias does not damage the plants! They simply continue to grow.
The steps to top dahlias:
- Be aware that several shoots (stems) grow from one tuber. You will top each shoot.
- Wait until your dahlias are 10 - 15 cm tall.
- At the top of each shoot (stem), you'll see the young shoots at the tip (the buds). So, it's the last part of the stem where the new leaves are growing.
- You can remove the young shoots above the top pair of leaves. You can either snap them off or cut them with a knife.
- Et voilà. Enjoy even more flowers!
TIP: Als je een mesje gebruikt, moet deze heel scherp zijn zodat de plant geen wonden krijgt die extra energie vragen om te genezen.
7. Dahlia care and flowers – you can remove old, dried-up flowers
Dahlia grower Peter recommends cutting off old, dried-up flowers. Make sure to leave 2 to 3 pairs of leaves. Note: this is not necessary, but this way more energy goes to the blooming flowers.
8. Dahlia care and maintenance – Let your dahlias bloom until you dig them up
As you read at the beginning of this article: dahlia care and maintenance doesn't require much effort. It does require attentiveness, though. If you've done everything right, your dahlias will continue to bloom calmly until autumn. However, make sure to follow all dahlia care instructions until you dig up your dahlias before the frost begins (around late September). What you need to do to dig up (harvest) and store dahlia tubers, you'll learn here. Did you still see dahlia care and maintenance as a complex task? Then we hope the growers and we have dispelled some doubts. Want to learn more? See the articles at the bottom of this page.
TIP: When your dahlia is fully faded, prune your plant back to 2 to 3 leaf pairs. This way, all the energy goes to the tuber. Are you storing the dahlia tubers? Then you can be sure they absorb enough nutrients to shine just as beautifully next year.
Meet Peter
Meet the dahlia grower who accompanies you on your journey from bulb to flower.
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