Garden

Dahlia: care and varieties

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Author: Peter Berry
Date Of Creation: 12 February 2021
Update Date: 1 July 2024
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Dahlia Varieties - Over 50 different Flowers and 7 Flower Types - Plus Growing Tips
Video: Dahlia Varieties - Over 50 different Flowers and 7 Flower Types - Plus Growing Tips

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The beautiful dahlia is one of the classic garden flowers

Dahlia: care and varieties

Dahlias are unquestionably one of the most established garden flowers in our latitudes - their classic, mostly floral, lush blooms are just part of a classic flower garden. Here is an overview of knowledge-worthy cultivation rules and the enormous variety richness of this kind.

ancestry

For many, dahlias are part of the familiar picture of their home country. In gardens of many generations, they have always had a firm place and are currently experiencing a certain comeback. Originally, however, the genus comes from very distant lands - the Spaniards discovered them some 500 years ago in the plateaus of Mexico and Guatemala and brought them from there to Europe. Dahlias have traditionally been valued as ornamental flower by the Aztec aborigines in their homelands.

blossom

Flowering is certainly the most important thing in Dahlia for the local ornamental garden culture. Spherical, filled flowers are most likely to be associated with dahlias - however, there are many different species within the dahlia genus, some of which also have very different flowering phenomena. Thus, in addition to the many generous flower types, there are also open, disc-shaped types such as the single flowering or star dahlias.


The typical and probably most popular filled varieties are particularly well suited for bed arrangements in combination with filigree ornamental grasses or for effective cut flower bouquets. Due to their heavy, dense petal abundance, the filled varieties, however, tend to buckle and may need to be supported by rods or low hedge planting.

There are hardly any limits to colors for hobby gardeners these days. The range of countless varieties leaves hardly a nuance - only deep blue or black varieties are not included in the game.

heyday

The flowering period of dahlias varies slightly from species to variety, but generally they fill the garden with its splendor in the usual flowering time over the summer months. Some varieties already show first flowers from June, others rather only in the course of July. They can survive until the autumn until the first frosts.

Which location is suitable?

In the garden dahlias prefer a sunny, warm location. Also on the feet they like it warm. The soil should be nutrient-rich, deep, permeable and not too dry.


plant out

Because of their relatively high nutritional needs, you should prepare a humus rich substrate for dahlias. At the planned planting point, work plenty of compost, horn shavings and, as a matter of course, house manure under the ground. When setting the individual tubers you should keep a distance of about 50 and 80 centimeters - depending on how big the variety is. You bring them about twice the depth of tubers in the ground. For better germination you can put the tubers in water two days before planting.

What is the best planting time?

Dahlias are planted in late spring, after the last frost danger is banned - thus after the Eisheiligen. This applies both to the one-year and the perennial varieties.

Dahlia in the pot

If you do not have extensive beds, you do not have to do without dahlias. They can also be cultivated in a pot on a terrace or a balcony. This even has several advantages:

The substrate in the bucket should be as nutrient-rich as in the bed. Also, it should have a lot of volume - so use a large planter. The soil can also be enriched with compost and horn shavings for the long-term supply of the highly-consuming dahlias. In addition, they should be fertilized regularly with one - this is in the bucket very easily feasible with a regular liquid fertilizer once a week.

overwinter

Dahlias are not frost hardy according to their country of origin. A separate hibernation is therefore necessary in our latitudes. In bedding culture, the tubers must be dug up and stored. In autumn, wait until the flowers have lost all their foliage and then dig out the tubers with the grave fork. Then allow them to dry for a few days, so they do not rot during storage, and then place them in a sand-filled box. Place them in a cool, dry place - for example in an unheated basement room. The temperature should be around 5 ° C.

To remember:

Fertilize dahlia properly

In the bed, dahlias are best supplied with organic long-term fertilizer when planting, ie by mixing in mature compost, manure and / or horn shavings. If you keep your dahlias in the bucket, you should provide them with a universal fertilizer every week during the growing season over the summer.

Prefer

The preference of dahlias can be well worth it if you do not want to wait too long for the flowering in summer. They often bloom much earlier in early spring with a preferential phase. To do this, put the tubers in pots from the end of February and put them on the windowsill. From the 15th of May you can put them outside in the garden and look forward to a blooming blooms soon.

Multiply dahlia

Dahlias are best propagated via cuttings or by division. With the cutting method you have the advantage of a higher yield. Each tuber has a capacity of about 10 to 20 shootable shoots.

To get cuttings, you have to drive the tubers early in the year, preferably at the end of January. To do this, place them in pots with potting soil and leave the shoot buds exposed. Keep the soil well moist and ensure an ambient temperature of about 15 to 20 ° C.

If the tuber has formed shoots after 2 to 3 weeks, simply cut them off with a clean knife and put them in their own pots with potting soil and some rooting powder. It is best to cover the cuttings with foil so that they can thrive in a warm, evenly moist microclimate. The rooting takes about two weeks. After gradually getting used to cooler temperatures and more irregular humidity, you can then put the young dahlias in the bed as usual starting at the icy saints.

The cuttings method again at a glance:

divide

The much simpler but not quite as productive propagation method is the sharing of tubers. To do this, cut a tuber in half before planting in May and make sure that each section has an ejection eye.

Pull

Finally, dahlias can also be pulled from a seed. You can either buy seeds from specialist retailers or collect them from your own plants in the garden. However, you must pay close attention to the right time.After blooming, the seed coat will eventually burst on its own - a sign that the seeds it contains are now ready for germination.

Gather the seeds carefully and store them over the winter. Sow from March in the 18 to 20 ° C warm room in a bright window seat. Keep the seeds, which are slightly covered with soil, evenly in the seed trays, possibly even under foil. After about 10 days they should germinate. From April, you can separate them and plant them out in May after the icy saints.

In seed breeding, you will not get a clone of the mother plant. It may therefore be that other flower colors result in the daughter plants. Especially this surprise effect is for many hobby gardeners but also very attractive and almost a challenge to breeding experiments.

tip

Anyone who wants to achieve a special abundance of flowers in his dahlias, they can pinch about 10 days after planting. By cutting off the individual shoot tips, the plant is stimulated to further branch and thus to a multiplication of the flowers. Bloomed flowers should also always cut off the same to promote a new flowering bud.

sorts

Dahlias are a very diverse genus. Systematically they are divided into 4 sections and a total of about 35 species. For the local garden culture, however, only the section Dahlia is actually relevant. The remainder, Dahlia Pseudodendron, Epiphytum and Entemophyllon have partly Beetuntaugliche, about lianic or very high growth characteristics.

The section Dahlia again comprises 25 own species. There are now dew different varieties with varieties of flower forms and colors. For the purpose of a better overview, they are therefore subdivided into 15 separate variety groups or classes, which are based primarily on the appearance of the flowers. Often, therefore, the classes also have names based on other plant flowers, such as the anemone-flowered or the orchid-flowered dahlias.

Here is a selection of the 15 variety groups, each with a variety example:

Ball dahlias

As the name suggests, the varieties of this dahlia show a spherical flower. They are a true dahlia classic and can hardly be imagined without traditional flower gardens. Ball Dahlia have a vigorous growth and are about 100 to 140 cm high. The class includes a very colorful variety with delicate nude shades to brightly shining summer colors or multi-colored structuring.

The variety Eveline has a white color with delicate violet shades, the variety Golden Torch shows a rich, sun-yellow flower ball. Fans of sophisticated color play within the flower may find favor with the Jowey Joshua variety, with its brick-red color with a cream-colored center.

Pompon dahlias

Characteristic of this class are the just pompon, so puff-shaped, spherical, filled inflorescences. They are therefore quite similar to the ball dahlias, but are not quite as big with about 80 to 100 cm. The neatly structured flower balls on the solitary stems give a very decorative image. The different varieties can have very different colors - the variety Lipoma, for example, shows from June in romantic old rose to lilac and is also ideal as a cut flower.

Cactus dahlias

With this variety, all hobby gardeners get their money's worth, which have a tendency to more exotic flower structures. For the cactus dahlias with their many, spherically arranged, tapering petals are a little less classic rural, but a little more refined image. In some varieties, the spiky-looking petal structure is still emphasized by a color transition at the petals - for example, in the variety Jessica, in which the lemon-yellow center at the ends in a contrasting scarlet red.

Stag Dahlias

The deer antler dahlias also show a particularly attractive flower structure with very numerous, dense and narrow-pointed petals, which sometimes seem very delicate and fringed depending on the variety. Again, there are several different color variants with contrasting toned petals, such as the variety Anna Marie with white heart and pink ends.

Star dahlias

This variety shows a slightly less lush inflorescence - with only a few, narrow petals in a uniform star arrangement, they have a much more delicate appearance than the many voluminös filled species. The flowers have a diameter of about 8 centimeters, in height the star dahlias reach a good one meter. The variety Honka is a particularly significant representative of the Star Dahlias through its orange-yellow coloring.

Single flowering dahlias

The eponymous simplicity of this class lies in the picture-book-like appearance of its open tubular flowers with mostly 8 clear, egg-shaped petals. The open-flowered dahlias are not only a pasture for our eyes, but also for nectar-gathering insects such as bumblebees and bees. Your pollen supply is also very rich. The stature height varies within the class pretty much from very low 30 to about 150 centimeters in Heckendahlien.

The variety carnelian is one of the best known among the single flowering dahlias and shows light red petals with slightly blown out tips around a rich yellow center.