I usually use either fallen leaves (small ones off my amelianchier or the neighbour's silver birch) or coarse twiggy homemade compost if I have it. Something quite free-draining that will insulate a bit without getting soggy. This year I might use the spent compost that the tomatoes were in. It's peat-free, full of wood chips and drained rather too freely so it should do the trick. Chipped bark might work too.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
I really like Big dahlias because it provides a long flowering season. It needs a support structure for the long term. I used Fertilizers twice during the growing season for heavy blooms.
Dahlia "Evening Glow" picked for the small vase on our coffee table. I love the fact that they seem to just keep on going - I can have flowers for the table and flowers in the garden, best of both worlds!
Others seem to have photos of very similar dahlias with a different name - not sure if they are similar varieties or the same variety with alternative names? It would be interesting to learn for future purchasing. Mine were a garden centre freebie/giveaway, so I am going by what was on the packet that they gave me at the time.
Here are some of mine, picked a couple of weeks ago for a stand at a fair. No idea of te varieties anymore as I lose labels.
I have a gaudy orange and yellow one that has started flowering very late and some simple Bishop's Children I sowed from seed and some pompoms and some spikey ones but these are my faves this year.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
@Artemis3 It's my first year growing them, so fingers crossed I mulch them enough to get them through the winter - I don't really know what I am doing, so it might be down to trial and error with a hefty dollop of luck. The tubers seem to have somehow unearthed themselves (possibly because the plant got a bit top heavy), so I shall have to give them some serious attention at the weekend. They are lovely flowers, so it is uplifting and reassuring to learn that yours gave you joy for years. I am sorry to hear that you have since lost your plant x
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Dahlia "Evening Glow" picked for the small vase on our coffee table. I love the fact that they seem to just keep on going - I can have flowers for the table and flowers in the garden, best of both worlds!
Others seem to have photos of very similar dahlias with a different name - not sure if they are similar varieties or the same variety with alternative names? It would be interesting to learn for future purchasing. Mine were a garden centre freebie/giveaway, so I am going by what was on the packet that they gave me at the time.
I have a gaudy orange and yellow one that has started flowering very late and some simple Bishop's Children I sowed from seed and some pompoms and some spikey ones but these are my faves this year.