Hello

greetings all, I just found your forum and found it very helpful so I have registered and posted to introduce myself. I have a mature grden round my house which is recovering from 16 months of builders attacking it. I am recovering from a traffic accident and hense i am reading about gardens and not digging however i have decided to try my hand at cannas allong with some other dahlias to keep Bishop Llandarf happy, so any advise on these new adventeres for me would be most appreciated - oh and not least how to explain to my husband that one of our bedrooms has been turned into a greenhouse.
Thanks
janet

 

Hello there and welcome Janet. What kind of garden have you got - outside the building damage that is :D

Can't help with the cannas but dahlias I can. The range of these is huge - and they are excellent for late summer colour - flowering til the frosts. You can get annual bedding dahlias (later in the season) but me I'd go for the tubers that are currently in the garden centre. Chose the flower type and colour you want - daisy type flowers are better in the rain than the cactus type. Look for tubers that are big and firm to the touch.

When you get them home - and take them out the packet you will see where the old flower stem was. Plant in 50/50 compost and vermiculite - ensuring that the stem and the top of the tuber is exposed. Place in sunny and warm spot and keep watered. When the shoots start to appear - these can be propogated - but otherwise plant out in May when all fear of frost has gone. Dahlias are greedy feeders, so if you have a light soil, then you may need to plant with a slow release fertiliser, or feed during the season.

 

Thanks Fran for info on Dahlias, I have got my Bishop Llandarf out of hibination but I think he was put away badly as some tubers are slimey. There are loads of tubers, so presume they will all divide up.

Our garden is very varied, we have a river running allong the East, we have to stop the garden being washed away with thick planting of snowberry to hold the bank together, the wild ducks love to nest in it. To the West is a field, so we get invaded by ground elder and twitch.

The south side of the house is where the main garden is developed. to the North is my stable block and the main car park area with garden between the two. House has to be accessesd by bridges, so car parking essential.

the land is very wet as you would expect being by the river, the garden does flood in extreme circumstances and I have lost many shrubs as a result however we are lucky the water has not got into the house. The soil is very limey, I am too long in the tooth to battle with plants that don't like these conditions, but I am a bit of a plantaholoc so I am willing to have a go with new ideas.

I am pleased to have found inspiration from the group, hope I can manage to get round the techno side of it.
Janet

 

Hi Waco. There are loads of perennials that like it damp or wet.

One of the major things I have learnt since I became interested in gardening, in the need to suit the plants to the location. But from what you say, I am sure you are way ahead of me on this one.