Dahlias are supremely beautiful flowers that not all florists offer. This flower grows in the shape of a ball with a hypnotizing rosette flower pattern.
Its home is in North and Central America, which have warm climates. When the danger of frost has passed in spring, you can already plant them in your garden bedding.
We’ll be showing you how to take care of dahlias. So scroll down to learn more!
Growing a Dahlia Plant
Contrary to most people’s beliefs, dahlias are rather easy to grow. The plant begins from healthy tubers, which are sort of round underground stems.
To know if they’re healthy tubers or not, the stem must be firm with no spoiled or moldy spots.
Make sure that the soil has great drainage. Furthermore, they’re best planted in acidic, loamy soil, but any soil condition will do given it isn’t soaked with water.
Now, they need to be planted about 8 to 12 inches deep in the ground. Add compost in order to provide them with important nutrients and make their soil absorb water and air easily.
Dahlias love to be fed to grow healthily and majestically. And you can give them fertilizer with a 5-10-15 nutrition balance.
In this ratio, the first variable represents nitrogen, the second is potassium, and the third is phosphorus.
Aside from that, dahlias tend to have a lot of foliage, so it’s wise to space small plants 1 foot apart and big ones 3 feet apart.
Tips in Caring for Dahlias
Water your dahlias deeply to reach the tubers beneath the ground. As, after all, larger dahlias can actually be planted as deep as 6 inches in the ground.
You should water them once or twice a week. The important thing to remember is to not let the soil dry out, so you need to do this more often during scorching and dry summers.
When the plant becomes 15 inches tall, prune the flowers to foster stable structure and branches as well as new flower buds.
Also, you have to apply mulch to your plant. This helps to fight off invasive weeds and keep the soil moist for a longer period.
How to Look after Dahlias in the Winter
At most, Dahlias can withstand winter conditions in Zone 8 climate, although they have to be cut back and mulched.
Colder conditions will require you to shelter the tubers indoors. But do so in a gradual way so they will adapt to the ambient temperature.
To store healthy tubers, put them upside down in a basket filled with vermiculite, peat moss, or perlite. Inspect it monthly and spritz the tubers with water if they become dry and wrinkled.
It can happen that some of the tubers may have rotten or fungal spots. In this case, remove them.
Also, you may want to protect the rest of your dahlia tubers by sprinkling some fungal powder on them.
In mid-to-late spring, when the weather is nice and warm, you can replant the tubers and grow beautiful dahlia flowers again. Their flowers should bloom in autumn or summertime.
