When dahlias bloom - care during this period
Content:
Dahlias are widely used to decorate the garden and vegetable garden. Gardeners are attracted by the ease of cultivation, perenniality, relative cheapness, variety and beauty of flowers.
This flower is quite unpretentious, it can be planted under trees in partial shade. A plant native to Mexico, so it loves a warm and humid climate. It is advisable to protect it from gusts of the north wind and plant it on the south side of the site. Dahlia loves space and fresh air - the space around it should be cleared of weeds. You should not plant the plant in lowlands and with nearby groundwater (60 cm). So the root system will rot.
Dahlias
Dahlias: flowering period
The period when dahlias bloom, in early varieties, begins 30–40 days after planting. In the late - in 70-80 days. The first month that dahlias bloom is June. Flowering continues until September - October. When planted early, weather permitting, dahlias can begin to bloom in late May.
How dahlias bloom
When dahlias bloom, the garden seems to be transformed. Bright, juicy, large flowers become an adornment of any flower bed, a wonderful decoration for a house, a fence and other garden buildings.
Exquisite miracle
There are a huge number of plant varieties: perennial and annual, early, late, tall and undersized. The flowers themselves can be different in color, size, shape, terry, etc.
Features of care during flowering
In Russia, the blooming period of dahlias lasts on average from May to November. When a dahlia blooms, you need to maintain the necessary conditions for it - at this time it has a great need for food. The soil under the flower should always be slightly damp, but not soggy. From a lack of water, the stems become stiff, the dahlia's flowering worsens, growth slows down.
In dry, hot weather, the humidity should be increased. This is done using fine-hole sprayers. To better retain moisture in the soil and prevent the formation of a crust, the ground under the dahlia is mulched with humus, peat or dry manure.
Plant pinching
To stimulate the appearance of flowers, it is necessary to cut off already faded flowers, then new buds are formed faster.
Fertilizer
During the flowering of dahlias, they must be regularly fed with organic and mineral fertilizers - once every 2 weeks. To do this, 1/4 of a bucket of manure, 15 g of potash or 10 g of ammonium nitrate, 15–20 g of Superphosphate and 10–15 g of potassium sulfate are dissolved in 1 bucket of water. The resulting mixture can be fed at the root of 4–5 plants.
This fertilizer is used until mid-July. Then the composition is changed to phosphorus-potassium fertilizers, and from the second half of August - to phosphorus fertilizers. After each feeding, it is advisable to spray the bushes with water to moisten the leaves and increase the humidity.
Why dahlias do not bloom well
If the dahlias have not bloomed by mid or late August, you need to analyze the features of caring for the plant. The main reasons for the lack of flowering:
- Lack of light. Dahlia prefers partial shade, completely in the shade it will wither, grow poorly, and if it blooms, it will give one weak flower.
- Lack of moisture. A dry plant does not bud at all. In dry and hot weather, dahlias need to be watered abundantly daily - at least half a bucket per bush. In order to avoid rapid drying of the soil, it must be mulched.
- Excess nitrogen in the soil. In this case, the plant spends all its energy on building up the green mass, and not on the formation of buds. To make the dahlia bloom, you must cut off all the lower leaves and stop feeding the flower with manure (nitrogen).
Variety of colors
- Lack of pinching. If the growth of the plant is not stopped in time, the bush will direct all its forces only to the formation of the strongest bud. To obtain abundant flowering, after the formation of 4-5 pairs of true leaves, all new shoots must be cut off.
- Incorrect planting of tubers. This is when, instead of one tuber, two or more are planted in the hole. As a result, several sprouts grow, which oppress each other, and the dahlia does not have the strength to form buds. Only one tuber with a clearly visible bud should be planted in the hole, or better, already sprouted.
What needs to be done to make flowers bloom faster
Good planting material is a guarantee of timely and abundant flowering.
How to save tubers for later planting:
- In the southern regions of Russia, tubers can not be dug up for the winter, it is enough to cut off the stems and cover the plant with any material. In the first days with above-zero temperatures, it is necessary to remove the winter shelters from the dahlias and cover them with a film for faster soil warming.
- In the northern regions, it is better to dig up the tubers, dry them well and put them in the cellar for storage. The tubers are dug up from mid-October to mid-October. It all depends on the particular autumn.
To speed up the flowering of dahlias, it is necessary to plant them in the ground with almost mature plants, possibly already with buds. To do this, it is necessary earlier than necessary to plant the same tubers for seedlings in a large container. By the time it is planted outdoors, the dahlia will have developed into a mature plant, possibly with flowers. It must be planted in prepared soil and in the right place. This should be done with a lump of earth where it grew.
In order for dahlias to bloom profusely and magnificently, it is important to observe certain conditions. The soil should be nutritious, moist, loose and free of weeds. The bush must be thinned out, pinched and pinched in a timely manner, and the faded buds must be removed. It is important to properly store the tubers before planting in the ground. All this will help to get a beautiful flowering dahlia bush.
