Comments on: Delightful Dahlias - a must for exotic gardens http://www.myglobalgarden.com/blog/delightful-dahlias-a-must-for-exotic-gardens The Global Gardening Blog and Social Network Fri, 21 Nov 2008 06:36:22 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Rosie Catherwood http://www.myglobalgarden.com/blog/delightful-dahlias-a-must-for-exotic-gardens#comment-195 Rosie Catherwood Sat, 12 Jul 2008 19:37:52 +0000 http://www.myglobalgarden.com/blog/?p=361#comment-195 Love your blog and thanks for the kind words about my garden. I must add though that I use no chemicals on my dahlias. As you know my garden has a pond and resulting insects, frogs and toads and birds so I try to keep it as chemical free as possible. The only guilty exception is an early spray on the roses but really I have so many ladybirds, ladybird larvae and blue tits that greenfly is not the problem. Also the plot is small enough for me to hand remove slugs and snails on night manoeuvres and I use nematodes as well. Incidentally, I find crushing greenfly and blackfly on the stem by hand (well, gloved hand) and smearing the resulting mush around on the plant stem seems to deter others for a long time. I think the smell of dead compatriots must be a real turn off for them. The reason the dahlias are flowering early is because I over-winter them in the shed in newspaper and then pot them up in Feb/March in the greenhouse . The ones that are too big for even huge pots I put in large seed trays and semi cover them with compost and these seem to do just as well. If you don’t bring them on in the greenhouse you have to wait until the last frosts to put the tubers out. This could have been early June this year so they would be much later into flower. I know they are supposed to be greedy for food and water but honestly, even if you don’t submit to their needs, they still deliver great flowers regularly as long as you keep picking and dead-heading. I think this is one instance where my clay helps, like with roses, because the water and nutrients are quite well held around their root systems. They get no special favours in my garden. Rosie Love your blog and thanks for the kind words about my garden. I must add though that I use no chemicals on my dahlias. As you know my garden has a pond and resulting insects, frogs and toads and birds so I try to keep it as chemical free as possible. The only guilty exception is an early spray on the roses but really I have so many ladybirds, ladybird larvae and blue tits that greenfly is not the problem. Also the plot is small enough for me to hand remove slugs and snails on night manoeuvres and I use nematodes as well. Incidentally, I find crushing greenfly and blackfly on the stem by hand (well, gloved hand) and smearing the resulting mush around on the plant stem seems to deter others for a long time. I think the smell of dead compatriots must be a real turn off for them.

The reason the dahlias are flowering early is because I over-winter them in the shed in newspaper and then pot them up in Feb/March in the greenhouse . The ones that are too big for even huge pots I put in large seed trays and semi cover them with compost and these seem to do just as well. If you don’t bring them on in the greenhouse you have to wait until the last frosts to put the tubers out. This could have been early June this year so they would be much later into flower.

I know they are supposed to be greedy for food and water but honestly, even if you don’t submit to their needs, they still deliver great flowers regularly as long as you keep picking and dead-heading. I think this is one instance where my clay helps, like with roses, because the water and nutrients are quite well held around their root systems. They get no special favours in my garden.

Rosie

]]> By: Shala http://www.myglobalgarden.com/blog/delightful-dahlias-a-must-for-exotic-gardens#comment-161 Shala Wed, 02 Jul 2008 19:31:14 +0000 http://www.myglobalgarden.com/blog/?p=361#comment-161 Those are beautiful! It's so nice to see what grows well in other parts of the world. Those poor things wouldn't last a week here since we are lucky to get an inch of rain every month or so. I would spend all my time watering. Those are beautiful! It’s so nice to see what grows well in other parts of the world. Those poor things wouldn’t last a week here since we are lucky to get an inch of rain every month or so. I would spend all my time watering.

]]>