Major in Dahlias

A perfect 15-inch bloom won an award at a Dahlia Show. It is interesting to know a dahlia can be grown that large, yet this is only one of the many things worth knowing about this flower and the beauty it adds to my landscape. Twenty years with the dahlia, and I am still learning.

Gardening for me began rather modestly some years ago with a flower box of petunias on the balcony of our apartment. Today it ranges over half an acre where I am host to such well-known guests as the daffodil, iris, gladiolus, rose, peony, dahlia, chrysanthemum, evergreens, shrubs, and flowering trees.

My first dahlias came along when I inherited a few nondescript ball varieties from the previous owner of our home. They did their best, though they must have cast envious glances toward my expanding rose bed.

Then something happened – I attended my first flower show where dahlia’s were present. What a feast of colors! And the size of some of the blooms! That visit charted the road ahead, for shortly I was to join a local dahlia society and a little later the American Dahlia Society.

I visited dahlia gardens the length and breadth of the country and attended shows in other cities. Dyed in the wool fans from near and far visited, dropping cultural hints and words of encouragement.

Along the way I discovered that the full enjoyment of the dahlia was to come only after living with this flower from season to season. Just as only the attuned ear revels in a Bach symphony, so only the trained eye sparkles to the beauty of a perfect bloom. Nor is beauty all this aristocrat of the floral world has to offer.

The floriculturist will tell you that it excels all other flowers in range of color, form and size. Its color spectrum with everything except blue is to be found in twelve different formations.

Small pompons measure 1-1/4 inches in diameter; the large decoratives, worked over by just the ordinary green thumb, will run 11 inches. That rare gardener who is blessed with not one, but ten green digits, once in a while pushes this to 15 inches and over.

Early Spring Project

In a few weeks time, the baskets of clumps will be taken out of their winter storage. Examination will disclose some losses. There always are. In addition to the roots which have dried up or rotted, there will be those which refuse to sprout.

Unfortunately, the roots of some good varieties are known to be “poor keepers”, which explains why a loss of ten per cent is considered normal.

Then comes the job of cutting the clumps into divisions, each of which is cut to carry one eye only. We have found almost any pruning shears provided with two sharp blades satisfactory for this work. To each division is attached a label 3″ inches by 5/8 inch, on which the name of the variety is written with water-proof marker (ordinary pencil fades).

In recent years, with a spray of honeyed words, I have been able to persuade the little woman to do this cutting and labeling. There is a good reason for passing this on to someone else. Even with care, it always turns out a few in our garden are incorrectly labeled. I find it comforting to have someone handy to take the blame.

Having taken inventory of my roots, the next step is to make out a list of new ones for the coming season. Of course, even with my losses, there are enough divisions to fill the garden several times.

So why order more?

The truth is that we have never been able to resist trying a few of those recommended by our friends and the persuasive catalogs. Then, too, we are always trying to preserve a certain balance in the garden. We aim for a full color range along with a diversification of different types and sizes.

To grow the giant size well presents a challenge. The medium size dahlias are rapidly increasing in popularity. The miniatures should have a place in every dahlia garden, for the ladies like them for arrangements and small vases in the home. That goes for the pompon too.

This little ball-shaped flowers is a classic of perfection.

Getting Started

Most commercial growers offer both roots and potted plants which have been propagated in the greenhouse. Usually the latter are shipped in a pot in the ball of soil in which they have been growing. Sold at somewhat lower price, they produce equally good mature plants.

We learned through the trial and error process that it takes plenty of experience and know how on the part of the commercial grower to produce healthy, plants of all his varieties season after season. Some of the same ingredients are also needed in the shipping end if the plants are to reach us in good condition.

Whether it be plants or roots, I try to make sure of my source. When the shipment is received, care is taken to keep the labels intact. They are later fastened to garden stakes.

Sometimes the novice is inclined to think this label business is for the fan, but that for him it is superfluous. Not infrequently a friend, losing a properly labeled root we have given him, comes back to us two or three years later inquiring whether we still have “that medium size, sort of pinkish tan, with a rather odd shape.”

That’s a tough one. Particularly if it is one we no longer grow. A label would have helped. About May 15, the Rototiller churns the soil to the proper tillage and thoroughly incorporates any fertilizer added to the soil.

At planting time two weeks later, the garden is laid out in rows 40 inches apart and the stakes for the larger “A” and “B” varieties are set 36 inches apart in the rows. My stakes, 65 inches long and about 1 1/8″ inches in diameter, are driven firmly into the ground before planting. Two roots of the same variety are planted at a stake, one on either side, five inches from the stake.

A six inch hole is dug and the roots laid on their sides with the eye toward the stake. They are covered with several inches of soil and the holes filled up as the plants grow.

Too much water around the roots in the early season will cause them to rot. When we have an overabundance of rain, I get busy with the hoe and fill in soil to fill the depressions.

The procedure with a young plant is somewhat different.

The hole is dug just deep enough to allow the top of the ball of earth to drop one inch below the surface. Miniatures and pompons call for about the same handling as the larger varieties, except that the stakes need be only four feet in length and spaced 28 inches apart.

Frequently our overflow of miniature and pompon roots is distributed in the flower borders, adding color in the fall when the other flowers have stopped blooming.

There are many good dahlias on the market today. The weak sisters sooner or later (the sooner the better) have a way of disappearing from the catalogs.

Contributed By RJ Berry

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