Dirty Great Dahlia

Last year I planted a Dahlia in my front garden.
Being suitably lazy I gave it extra depth to protect against the winter (I never get round to digging up and drying out).
At this time it is over 6' high with about 6 additional shoots of varying heights from 3 - 5' high. There seems to be no sign of any flowers, just lots of side shoots from leaf joints, which are also growing.

Any suggestions of how to encourage flowering - presumably next year now?

 

Good for you GCC. Thats a really good size. I spoke to some people from the Dahlia society at a big flower show and they said that you can plant the tubers up to 18 inches deep. That solves the winter cold problem - but there is always a problem with rotting from winter wet.

Most Dahlias are short day flowering. That's to say that they won't start to flower till the days get shorter. So it would be normal to have no flowers yet. But you should get plenty of flowers later on.

I think Dahlias like to be fed well and have plenty of water. A book on Dahlias that I have, says that during the growing season they need 40 inches of rain. As that's more rain than many parts of Britain get in a year, you need to water them even when it rains.

 

My Dahlia has only just flowered (albeit, only one bud has opened) but I did plant the tuber late May.

 

I agree with Peter, Dahlias are only just coming into their flowering period and will go on well into October in a good year.
I've grown the big ones from seed, and even then they flower first year very well, so yours will come.
The bigger it gets before the flowering starts, the more flowers you will get.

 

Thanks for the responses.
I'll cross my fingers and wait patiently

Cheers all

 

GCC - I believe that if you pinch out the side shoots/flower buds, you will get fewer flowers - but bigger ones. They do this for exhibiting. If you pinch out the leading tips/flower buds you will get a larger number of smaller flowers. Or you can do nothing - like me, and get something in between.

Pete - I have heard talk of a variety of D. imperialis that grows very tall, but flowers earlier than imperialis. Have you ever heard of that? I am tempted to try imperialis, but being colder in the north, I am not sure if I could ever get it to flower.

 

Hi Peter
I did try D.imperialis a few years ago, got a great plant but no flower ?? and I lost the tuber over the winter.
Dave

 

I never got my D imperialis to flower or even bud up, even when we had that winter when the dahlias didn't get frosted until December. I thought they were supposed to flower in November. It was still very nice as a foliage plant. I lost it last winter, though, after it had survived 5 or 6 winters outdoors.

 

I've got one D imperialis that survived last winter.

To be honest I dont give it the attention it needs, I rarely water it and its been overgrown by spuds right now.
Not heard of the earlier flowering type Peter, although I do remember talk of a different species which was nearly as big but flowered more reliably here.

When I spoke of the big ones flowering first year from seed I was really referring to the large cactus types.

 

Thanks Dave, Madahhlia and Pete. Sadly you all seem to be saying the same thing about imperialis not flowering. I am still temped to try it one day just for the foliage and height.

Still on the subject of Dahlias. I grew some 'Bishop's Children' from seed last year. They didn't do much that year, but some had that lovely dark foliage, and they all had different coloured flowers. But this year they have done wonderfully. They are flowering away like mad. I like the colours, the dark foliage, but especially the ability to flower early.

There is hardly a flower or bud on any of my other Dahlias.