Growing beautiful dahlia’s can be somewhat tricky, but we’ve compiled some tips so you will have loads of dahlia blooms to enjoy!
Tips for growing beautiful dahlias:
- Plant a mixture of seedlings and tubers. 🌱 This way, if a large rain storm comes, it won’t wipe out all your plants. It’s easy for tubers to rot in the ground, if it is overly saturated. (i.e. just like what happened this wet spring…) Seedlings (small dahlia plants grown from seed) are still developing their tubers and have a jump start on growth, so they are less likely to rot due to those abundant rain showers in the spring.
- Plant tubers into a well-drained area. 💦 This goes along with the previous tip. Adding in plenty of compost to the soil will help water to drain and also provide plenty of nutrition for the plants.
- Water your dahlias a couple times a week, 💦 during those droughty summer weeks. Continue to monitor the soil and keep it moist. However, you don’t want it wet or the tubers might rot. Water also helps to bring on more blooms! The general rule is to water less at the end of spring/beginning of summer, but water more often at the end of July/beginning of August.
- Fertilize only in the 1st or 2nd month of growth. 💧 (if you feel like you need to). It could prevent your plants from starting to bloom if you continue to apply fertilizer all season. You will have nice bushy plants, but no blooms! Nobody wants that…
- Bag your dahlias with organza bags if you have a bug situation. 🪲 So far, (fingers crossed) we have been lucky and have not had many bugs chomping, but we have had to cover our blooms in the past. Here are the bags we use. Or you can always just plant more than you need, figuring some will get eaten and that you might still have enough left to pick.
- Pick Dahlia’s at the appropriate time. 🌼 Unfortunately, dahlias don’t have the longest vase life, so picking them at the appropriate time is crucial. The best time to harvest your dahlias for the longest vase life is when the first layer of pedals are lifting up from the center. This will also prevent the bugs from chomping too much of your bloom.
- Continue harvesting/pruning. ✂️ These plants are cut and come again, so continue to harvest and deadhead your plants until the first frost, for continual blooms.
- Dig up and save the tubers. 🥶 After a frost, dig up those tubers on your favorite varieties to store over winter in your garage. If you leave them in the field, they will freeze and thaw and turn to mush.
Growing dahlia’s is so rewarding and I hope this inspires you to give it a try! If you aren’t growing them this year, start your search for tubers for next year. The best varieties tend to sell out fast!