How to plant and care for dahlias outdoors in spring

The simple outdoor care of dahlias is a great reason to grow these flowers in your garden. Known to everyone since childhood, now they are experiencing an unprecedented wave of popularity among plant lovers. This happened due to the emergence of many new varieties and hybrids bred by breeders. When you look at some of them, you can hardly believe that the luxurious bouquet in the flowerbed is an ordinary dahlia.

Such different and beautiful flowers: choosing a variety for planting

Dahlia tubers were brought to the territory of Europe by travelers from Mexico more than two centuries ago. Flowers, similar to multi-colored stars, botanists attributed to the Astrov family. There are relatively few plant species (just over 30), but the number of varieties compensates for this modest figure - over 1500, and every year the collection is replenished with new specimens. There are several classifications of these plants (for example, according to the shape of the inflorescences), but for the gardener, the main thing to remember is that they are tall and short.

Tip: if the owner chooses tall varieties for planting in flower beds, then further care is possible only with the use of fasteners.

When do dahlias bloom? It all depends on belonging to a particular variety and the time of the beginning of cultivation. When buying planting material in the spring, you need to read the instructions: some varieties are overly thermophilic and are not suitable for planting in those latitudes where sudden cold snaps often occur. The most popular types among flower lovers:

1. "Funny boys". A low-growing annual variety, extremely unpretentious to care for. The flowers are large (up to 8 cm in diameter), of various colors. Red, yellow, snow-white, pink flowers can cheer up the owner.
2. "Silvia". A tall variety with huge salmon or delicate orange flowers in a volumetric shape. With proper cultivation, you can get meter specimens.
3. Galery. An excellent variety, both for open and closed ground. Suitable for decorating curbs and garden paths. The height of the plant rarely exceeds 35 cm, but its flowers are bright, large and lush.
4. "Dipest Yellow"... The flowers are small, with an unusual geometric shape and such a bright yellow color that you want to close your eyes. They bloom early, when summer has not even come yet, and finish growing buds in late autumn.

When buying tubers or seeds in the spring, you need to roughly imagine a planting plan. The taller the plant, the more open space it will need, and undersized specimens are ideal for decorating garden paths. If the owner plans to plant dahlias in combination with other flowers, then you need to know that they begin to lay buds in the second decade of June. The flowering period of almost all varieties is 3-4 months.

How to grow your collection: breeding methods

To avoid possible difficulties in caring for tubers in winter, you need to decide for yourself the question of the method of growing flowers. Dahlias can be propagated in the following ways:

• Seeds. This method is suitable for owners who plan to plant plants as annuals.
• Cuttings. When you need to get seedlings with all the signs of the mother sample, use this method.
• Tubers. A proven method for planting perennial flowers.

Gardeners living in the southern regions of our country can sow seeds in the second decade of May directly to the beds. But flowering can only be expected after a couple of months, so impatient breeders sow seeds for seedlings in the spring. River sand is moistened, placed in containers, seeds are laid out on top and sprinkled with a pinch of soil. The boxes are covered with glass and kept at 25 ° C. When the first shoots appear, the glass should be removed, and after the first leaves are formed in the seedlings, they should be cut into separate pots.

Advice: when caring for delicate sprouts, you must not forget about periodically moistening the soil and removing condensate accumulated on the walls.

To propagate flowers by cuttings, you need to plant the tuber in light soil for germination at the end of winter. The resulting shoots are cut off with a small piece of the tuber shell and planted in separate containers, not forgetting to arrange a greenhouse for them. In a week, the seedlings will start to grow. Further care for young dahlias is to periodically air and moisten the soil.

Tip: the tuber should be inspected for damage in spring. The rotten area needs to be cut off and burned with pharmacy brilliant green. All tubers are immersed in a pink potassium permanganate solution for 30 minutes before germination.

You can start reproduction of tubers in the second decade of April. Having prepared a loose soil of sand and peat, the tubers are buried 2-3 cm and left at room temperature for the formation of the first shoots. Temper the seedlings before planting by exposing the pots to the open air. Dahlias can be planted on flower beds in late May or early June, when the threat of frost has passed.

It's time to go to the flower beds: planting young plants

To facilitate further care for yourself, you need to take care of a place for planting dahlias. It is better to choose a plot that is sunny, not thickened by other plantings. In the shade of trees, the plant will stretch, and flowering will be poor or not at all. Drafts and high winds can cause irreparable damage to the hollow, fragile stem; an excellent option would be to grow in front of the southern wall of the house.

Tip: when tall dahlias are planted in the beds, then a strong peg is installed near each tuber in advance to secure the stem.

They dug up the ground under the flower beds since the fall, while bringing in about a bucket of rotted organic matter. In the spring, the procedure must be repeated. If the selected area is located in places of occurrence of groundwater, then a thick layer of drainage is poured on the bottom of each hole. Organic fertilizers are applied on top of it and sprinkled with a layer of soil so as not to burn the delicate tubers or roots of the seedlings. The planting material should be placed vertically - this will promote the formation of new nodules.

Tip: Dahlias love growing in PH neutral soils. If there is an alkaline soil on the site, then it can be improved by the introduction of bottom peat. The acidity of the earth is reduced by adding wood ash.

Now the hole needs to be covered with earth and watered abundantly. The next step in proper care will be mulching the surface of the flower bed with hay, straw or grass. The addition of peat is encouraged. After planting, this process will help you forget about weeds, loosening and the invasion of harmful insects for a long time.

Undemanding care: what a beautiful flower needs

Delicate dahlia tubers can rot when over-watered, so this process needs to be adjusted. It is enough to water the plants 2-3 times a week, while making sure that moisture does not accumulate in the center of the hole, but is distributed over the entire surface of the flower bed. Cultivation in flooded areas is possible, but watering should be done less often and if there is a drainage layer in the soil. Water treatments are carried out after sunset or early in the morning.

Tip: if the mulching stage was skipped during planting, you need to take care of weeding. Every week, the soil must be carefully loosened so as not to damage the tubers.

Quality care is impossible without periodic pruning of the plant. When the dead flowers are removed in time, the plant begins to form more buds. When growing tall varieties of dahlias, all side shoots and lower leaves are cut out, and 2-3 buds are left in the inflorescences. The flowers formed from them will be bright, large. Planting low-growing varieties does not require constant pruning when leaving, only regular removal of dead plant parts.

For flowering plants, an increased amount of fertilizer is required. When dahlias are just starting to grow green mass, you need to feed them with fertilizers with a high nitrogen content (urea) once a week. Before the beginning of the formation of buds and with further flowering, fertilizing should be made with the presence of phosphorus and potassium in the composition. Dahlias respond very gratefully to the addition of rotted organic matter (manure, bird droppings). It is usually enough to add a bucket of infused organic solution when digging the ground in spring and autumn.

The fragile juicy parts of the plant are a tasty bait for all kinds of harmful insects.
They especially like to settle in whole colonies on delicate stems:

1. Slugs. Young specimens are preferred for feeding.
2. Earwigs. The flower begins to shed its buds, dry up.
3. Aphid. Sticky yellowish spots will tell you about the appearance of pests.
4. Thrips. Dangerous pests that feed on plant sap.
5. Snails. Mulching will prevent them from entering the flower bed.

Proper care will help prevent an invasion: you need to conduct a weekly routine inspection of dahlias. If troubles have already arisen, all green spaces should be treated with preparations with insecticidal activity (Fitoverm, Aktara).

The cultivation of plants ends in autumn: the tubers are dug up, dried and stored in a plastic bag with vermiculite at 5-6 ° C. During the winter, it is necessary to check their integrity several times. And you don't have to wait for the onset of spring - it's time to select new varieties and draw plans for future flower beds. It's already February, it's time to get the wintered pets from the basement or closed loggia.

Planting dahlias in open ground in your area will help solve many problems. Garden paths will acquire a decent frame, and slender rows of tall plants will flaunt near the gazebos. A group with the taste of selected dahlias of various colors looks great on the local area. And the combination of coniferous shrubs with these luxurious flowers has long become a landscape design classic.