Dahlia Disaster or a Lesson on Over-watering
By Buzzbee
5 comments
Earlier this year, I got carried away with going against my usual gardening style and decided to plant loads of dahlias – so I had potted them up all very nicely, I thought. Some I put on various window sills round the house and some I put, hesitantly, into our rather battered plastic greenhouse. This weekend I discovered that the greenhouse tubers had put on some small amounts of healthy growth, even though I had only been watering them once at the weekends. Four of the window-sill ones had put on huge but weak growth and there was nothing in any of the others. On checking the pots I found the compost to be soaking wet and the tubers all rotted. Alas, I had been judging the window sill pots by how dry the top of the compost seemed and had kept watering them – clearly I was being fooled by the wonders of central heating into thinking they were dryer than they really were. So had to bin the lot – the sappy growth ones I have cut back and have put in the plastic greenhouse – it’s back to weekly watering for them.
On the plus side, it does mean I can probably now fit all the dahlias I have into my garden! Isn’t nature a clever old thing?
14 Apr, 2008
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Comments
Hi I also like to grow dahlias and have tried the bishop of landaff for the first time, but I am wondering if I have done something wrong this year, as I planted the tubers in a pot and left them in a cold greenhouse, I did this ages ago and there is still no sign of any growth. Maybe I should bring them into the house where it is warmer?
Did you plant your in a pot and cover completely with compost or leave the top of the tuber showing?
15 Apr, 2008
Hi Andrea I potted Dahlia tubers and left them i my unheated greenhouse ,some now show signs of life while others are still to show any signs of life mabye your tubers just need some more time I planted them with tops showing
15 Apr, 2008
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I have got some Bishop of LLandaff tubers on the go at the moment (never propergated dahlias before) so your experience could provide some helpful advice for me i think.
14 Apr, 2008