Quezi

Dahlias From A Friend's Garden - courtesy KaCey97007 - CC-BY

Dahlias vary widely in height and foliage color, as well as bloom size, color, and form.  Dahlias with giant 10 inch+ blooms are dramatic and fun in your garden. A 12″ dahlia flower is an amazing thing to see.

Dahlias with smaller blooms will bloom earlier and rebloom quicker giving you more flowers over the season than the giants.

Dahlias don’t require any more preparation than other bedding plants. Dahlias do well in high organic matter soils. Dahlias are heavy feeders and will benefit from additional fertilizer.

The most successful way for planting dahlias using well established plants that are well rooted and have 2-3 pairs of leaves.

Planting tubers requires the right timing, soil temperature, and patience while waiting for them to grow. Dahlia tubers are planted flat into a hole 4-6 inches below the soil surface and with the ‘eye’ pointing up. Dahlias are widely varied in size so there is no standard recommendation for spacing. Full grown dahlias are usually as wide as they are tall, so the best guideline is to plant them 1/2 their height from walls, fences, or other plants.

Dahlias make perfect cut flowers. They react to cutting by producing more blooms. Plants that have blooms removed regularly will produce more blooms than those that have flowers left on the plants.

You have two choices when it comes to over-wintering. Leave your dahlias in the ground in warmer areas or you can dig them out where the ground freezes more than an inch or so..

For more information about growing dahlias