Dear Readers, when i went to the garden centre with my lovely friend J on my birthday, she treated me to a positive plethora of dahlias. And here they are! Some of them will be great for pollinators, and others are purely an indulgence. But I have to confess that I have not had the best of luck with dahlias in the past. I’m hoping to grow these in pots, and to put them out once the risk of frost has passed, but that’s as much as I know, so I’m very happy for any advice you might have.
My Dad was a great lover of dahlias, and was very good at growing them. They make such extraordinary cut flowers, but Mum was less keen, as she maintained that they were always full of earwigs. Of course, being Bug Girl (the precursor to Bug Woman) this was part of their appeal, but I could never find any earwigs, though there were plenty of aphids, who were farmed by ants. I spent many hours with my watercolour paint set, trying to mark the ants in different colours so that I’d recognise them if I saw them again. Alas, as with so many scientific experiments this one fell at the first hurdle – watercolour paints are, as you might expect, soluble, and so as soon as the ants got into the damp earth all the paint came off.
And in other news, my friend L has introduced me to Finchley Garden Centre, where they have a whole field of dahlias that you can cut for 60p a stem. And a very nice caff too! Something for us North Londoners to explore eh….
Finchley Nurseries dahlia field
Being able to pick your own dahlias sounds like an excellent idea.
Sun and good food, I think, is the way. (A bit like human beings?) Neither of which mine have a lot of! But I still get enough blooms for the table throughout the season. Mine are wintering in orange B&Q buckets of soil in the cold green house. I plant them out when they have shoots and have been hardened off a bit. I like Obsidian, such an interesting shape.
You’ve certainly picked a good mix of colours and flower shapes. 👍👍😊
My wife had some success growing ours from seeds last year. She’s out at the moment, so I’ll report back (maybe via email) with any tips on how she did it.
I recall later in the year, (maybe October?) the ones in the ground were hit by the first frost and died while the ones planted in the old tin bath survived and continued to flourish. I think they were the same variety of dahlia, so pots may be better for longer lasting blooms! But then in London, your frost may not be as sharp as in N. Wales!