FEBRUARY in the garden
Lots of blooms, long stems!
1 Tuber, 1 Shoot, stopped and disbudded
Now is the time to reap the rewards of your efforts. Keep picking as this promotes lots more blooms and it helps to open up the plant to help prevent fungal problems. Picking also prevents the plant from wasting energy on seed production. Try to pick with the longest stem possible, ideally down to the second set of leaves.
Once the flower has opened its center ( in double flowers ), showing the stamens, it is technically called a blown centre and the flower is shifting from the flowering stage and entering the reproductive stage. It is ideal to deadhead these blooms as they take up more energy from the plant and will delay the production of more buds.
The seasons are changing and February is still quite early for a lot of growers, with plants on a go slow, particularly if it is hot. Dahlias are autumn plants and will tend to do better in cooler weather. They originate in the highlands of Mexico, so like the sun, but not the heat. Don't despair if you plants are slow to get going.
For me, the middle of February is when the main crop of flowers gets going and goes through till the end of March. About the 3rd week in February I will put another sprinkle of potash down to help stems stay robust and it will help with colour too.
Keep up a vigil for virus, fungus and bugs and keep up with the spray. Take affected fungal leaves off and burn or landfill. Do not compost.
As everyones flowers come on, it makes for the ideal time to visit as many gardens/growers as possible to check out the different varieties and make a wishlist. From the end of January to the beginning of March is show time. These shows are an invaluable resource for your next seasons garden. You can not only see the flowers at their best, but you can talk to the growers and get top information about growing them. More information on growing exhibition varieties is included in the exhibition section of this website.
If you have plants that are not performing as you would have liked, then now is the time to consider culling them. This applies particularly to this years seedlings. If the first few flowers show no promise at all, it probably isn't worth wasting the garden space.
Show blooms on display
Decorative varieties
Fimbriated show flower
Seed collecting
If your goal is to try seed collecting for seedlings then you can start now. I usually prefer to wait till March in order to let tubers have plenty of time to mature.
Most people will simply let the bees do the pollinating. If you are hoping for seed from fully double flowers you may need to strip some of the petals off to help bees to gain access. As the seed head dries they can be picked and put inside to finish drying. Just place the stem and seed head in a dry jar until head is completely dry. Many seeds will simply shake out. Otherwise just invert the seed head and the seeds will be black, elongated and have substance to them. If you drop them on a bench they should bounce.
You can hand pollinate if you want specific crosses. this means you might have to cover both donor and recipient flower until the stamens are showing. This keeps the bees out. Hand pollinate with a small paintbrush and then cover again to keep the bees out. Leave to mature on the plant as long as possible. If it is a wet season or getting late, then rain, humidity in general can play havoc with rotting out seed heads before they mature. You can take a soft cloth or tissue and gently squeeze the seed head to extract excess moisture and then cut and put in a dry, warm spot.
It can be a good idea if breeding is on your agenda to plant all similar plants together. eg. all decoratives in one spot and all others somewhere else. This will give you a better chance of achieving a decorative offspring, especially if using only bees. Dahlia seed can produce plants very similar to the parent plant but will never be the same due to the large number of chromosomes within its genetic make up.
Store your seed in a cool, dry spot. I wrap mine in a paper towel and place in a paper envelope with at least the parent plant name on it.
seedhead not viable
Seedhead not viable
Seedhead viable. Tightly closed, conical shape and just needs to dry out and seeds will mature.