I was thinking about this for some time to start a small series of -Talking about some flowers, and today I' m actually starting this series. This idea came to my mind because some of my friends told me that they want to start gardening but want to go slow. One by one learning in detail about one plant at a time.......So today I' m talking about one of my favorites, Dahlias......this majestic plant was always part of my garden . I have some very vivid and very sweet memories from my childhood attached to it .
Now I must talk about the plant as how to grow and what care should be taken to get best flowers, but before that I think we must know some basic info about Dahlias:-
1-
ORIGIN AND NAME- This is native of Mexico and from there only it was distributed to the rest of the world. It's now grown in most parts of the world. Dahlia is named after a great botanist Dr Anddreas Dahl. botanical name is
Dahlia variabilis,
2-
SIZE OF THE PLANT- Dahlia plant's height varies from few inches to 4.5 to 5/6 ft depending upon the variety. They can be classified according to their size of the flower and type of the flowers. Some famous types are
-Star dahlias
-Cactus dahlias
-Pompom dahlias
-Single dahlias
-Dwarf dahlias
Hybrid dahlias also come in many colors and sizes
3-
PROPAGATION- This is one most important aspect of dahlia as these can be grown from seeds, stem cuttings and tubers also . Plants propagated through seeds do not breed true and often end up blooming as single Dahlia.
Some more decorative varieties such as pompom,cactus,and other large flower varieties are grown from tuber/bulbs and stem cuttings. Tubers/bulbs are planted 15 cm deep and at least 2 to 3 ft apart from each other. While planting care must be taken to ensure that each tuber/bulb has at least one' eye'. As from here only new shoots will sprout
S
tem cutting - After the tubers/bulbs have sprouted ,shoots coming out are cut and these stem cutting will produce a new plant. Some people use rooting mixture on these shoots to ensure faster root growth, but as I have experienced in most cases rooting mixture is not required but if you don't feel confidant you can use rooting hormones,which are easily available at garden and seed stores.Care must be taken not to over water these cuttings . After rooting these can be planted in beds.
Feeding/ watering and other care - Dahlias need frequent and heavy watering, and cow dung manure or leaf mould will help plant grow taller and stronger, I some times use fertilizers also .
Staking- Now this is very important part in successfully growing Dahlias. As plant will grow large and will bear large and heavy flowers, staking in early stages itself is very useful and important .Over the years I have made many of them. I use bamboo stakes By each year number of my stakes also increase.
Now, if you are keen to get very good flowers one more very important step is debudding. Though I feel greedy at times and don't do that to have more flowers but then I compromise on the size of the flowers . Well this is an individual choice but I must tell you how to do this. Mostly every tip bears more than one bud, generally three of them.To get large flowers, only one central bud should be kept and rest should be removed.
I sometimes grow them as tall as walls at some parts of my garden and never do debudding. There they flower profusely, creating a flowering wall. But if you are growing them in pots, size of the plant can be kept under control by cutting extra buds and some extra shoots.
This is a very beautiful flower and it can be used for flower cuttings also.
I hope I was able to give some important information about this majestic flower and how to grow them.
Next time we will talk about lifting and storing dahlia tubers for the next season. Till then, have fun and stay healthy.
