Dahlias: Simply the best
hether you have raised your dahlias outside or under cover, it’s good to remove all but five shoots sprouting from the tuber (stem thinning). If you want to build up your stock, these can be used for stem cuttings.
Then pinch out the tips of the remaining main shoots between your thumb and forefinger (or with a knife, see pic left) as they grow. This encourages bushy plants with vigorous shoots that produce lots of flowers.
After about a week in the ground, scatter fish blood and bone fertiliser around the clump at the manufacturer’s recommended rate, and give them another good soaking. From midsummer onwards, try to feed them every week with a liquid fertiliser that is high in nitrogen and potash. If it’s dry, water them at least once a week, with a flood, not a sprinkle.
Having put the stake in place at planting, tie the shoots in every couple of weeks, as once they get going they grow very quickly.
When deadheading, remove the whole flowering stem, back down to a fat, healthy bud.
In recent years, our winters in the south of England have been so mild that dahlias left in the ground, mulched deeply to protect them from the frost, have survived, bulking up and flowering well before other plants grown on in pots. Even the wet autumns and winters haven’t killed my plants left in the ground.
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