Baytree Garden Centre’s advice on dazzling dahlias
This week, Baytree Garden Centre’s Mark Cox discusses tactics for your Dahlia – and his rivalry with Latin dance tutor Antonio...
The atmosphere in the Cox household could be described as icy this week. The present Mrs Cox has split somewhat acrimoniously from her Latin dance tutor Antonio for reasons she is keeping to herself, though she tells me that it has nothing to do with Antonio and I quote “shacking up with the floozy from number 9”.
The floozy from number 9 happened to have only moved to the village a few weeks ago. It must have been Thursday morning when my darling wife suggested that I offer my gardening services to and I quote “that woman” which should not be construed as just a way of getting me into the house to spy on Antonio.
When Mr Oliver lived there, I remember he had the most incredible displays of dahlias, in an array of dazzling colours and forms. It was a sad day when he passed, but part of me hoped that the bulbs which he had planted were still in the ground and in good condition meaning they could be lifted and replanted next year to keep the display at number 9 alive.
There is no doubt that whilst there are lots of tasks to do in the garden during November, many of the jobs are repetitive such as leaf collecting, sweeping paths etc. They’re not the most exciting tasks to undertake but they are definitely necessary. So armed with a leaf blower and wheelbarrow I headed over the number 9.
Michelle as is it turns out was the floozy that lived in number 9 and I have to say she was a very friendly woman and I suspect maybe a little deaf as every time I spoke she made me stop so that she could stand right up against me to hear better. I introduced myself and welcomed her to the village. I explained that if I could, I would love to help her tidy her garden and lift her dahlia tubers. Imagine my surprise when Michelle said that she would love to have her Dahlia’s lifted by a big strong man such as me.
Falling autumnal temperatures should have triggered the Dahlia plant to begin dying back. What, Michelle and countless other gardeners are waiting on, is for the first really hard frost of the year, as once this has happened, we can lift our Dahlia tubers from the cold damp soil.
The first real sharp frost will cause the Dahlia’s foliage to blacken and all of the nutrients in the plant to descend into the tuber. Think of the tuber I said to Michelle as a living rechargeable battery, all of the energy the flower needs to grow will be stored in tuber. Ready to thrust through the earth next summer Michelle said.
Whilst they are not quite ready to lift yet, when they are ready we’d use a fork to carefully lift them out of the soil being sure to not damage the tubers themselves. Clean any loose clods of soil from the tubers and check them for signs of rot. There is not point storing a rotten tuber so I’d discard any that are not healthy. Into a tub, container or bucket filled with dry compost I’d place the Dahlia tubers into. Making sure that they were stored in a dry frost free environment, a garden shed or dry outbuilding is perfect for this and they will be quite happy in their new winter home.
It turns out Michelle had thrown Antonio out just before I’d arrived this morning and according to her he was going to shack up with the floozy at number 12. Hang on a minute I live at number 12….
