10 TIPS TO
GROWING GORGEOUS DAHLIAS
So, I’m going to start out by saying that dahlias intimidated me BIG TIME. I thought something so beautiful and elegant, had to be a pain in the ass to grow.. right? Well, I couldn’t have been more wrong! What I’ve learned so far is that- Dahlias are surprisingly simple to grow, require just a little maintenance and consistent water and will thrive in a multitude of different growing zones!
I personally have grown dahlias in stock tanks, raised beds, small pots, large pots, wine barrels and straight in the ground and all locations produced me lots of gorgeous blooms! They are pretty adaptable plants that are pretty easy going! I will not claim to be a dahlia expert by no means but over the last few years of growing them I've come up with 10 of my own must-know tips to grow gorgeous dahlias and a few bonus harvesting tips at the bottom to help you extend your vase life!
Let’s go over those now!
Tip # 1: Protection from Frost
We planted our tubers a little bit too early last year, I believe it was late Feb, early March when we planted them which was a bit too soon. We had a couple of very warm weeks, they spouted and did very well and then a hard frost rolled in and pretty heavily damaged a lot of them. It was actually a blessing funny enough... See, I cut off all of the dead and mushy frost bitten leaves and what it pretty much served as a pinching method, all of them came back and with a plethora of flower buds! But none the less- I still don’t recommend planting them too soon or if you do, simply cover them with cloth to protect them from the damage. That is a technique used b man flower farmers to get dahlias much sooner than their competition!
Tip 2: Rich nutrient dense soil
Use a rich soil thats heavy in compost or manure and has a decent drainage. You can plant in clay soils too, they actual prefer the alkaline environment of clay soils but just don’t do well with water that retains a lot of water. So regardless of where you are growing your dahlias- in the ground, in a pot or all of the above, you really just need to add a decent amount of compost or manure to your potting soil for them to establish good solid roots out of their tubers. for clay soils by adding some organic matter you will help lighten up the soil. We used layers of timothy hay and goat manure on the bottom of each pot and then a mix of turkey compost + potting soil on top.