Dahlia Growing Guide
Location:
- Before planting, choose a suitable location in your garden.
- Dahlia’s like full sun, I find they grow well with morning sun and afternoon shade.
- Also good drainage is important.
Soil:
- We dig over the dahlia beds and fertilise, two weeks prior to planting.
Planting:
- Plant dahlia tubers horizontally, with eye facing upwards.
- Place tubers approx. 10cm deep and we space them 40cms apart.
- If staking, place stake in ground before planting tuber.
- Tubers can be planted October – December, for most areas two weeks either side of Melbourne Cup day is a good guide.
Watering:
- In most cases, watering is not required until dahlia plants are 10cm out of the ground.
- But every year has different weather conditions.
- A guide is to test the soil with your finger, if it’s a bit dry then water can be added.
Maintenance:
- When dahlia’s have at least four sets of leaves, they can be pinched out.
- Pinching encourages more lateral growth and promotes longer stems for cutting resulting in more flowers.
- When picking flowers harvest when they are almost fully open.
- The more you pick, the more flowers the plant will produce.
- Deadhead any damaged/old flowers to encourage the plant to keep flowering.