Dahlia Season: Plant, Support, Irrigate & Groom forum: How do you grow and support your dahlias during the season?
After 13 years online, Cubits.org is scheduled to be shut down. Please make sure you have the contact information for all your friends, and that you download whatever content you want from this site.
Views: 31, Replies: 10 » Jump to the end |
|
|||
| I found this picture of Ted's remarkable dahlia rows and potted flowers from 2014. Besides being a stunning picture, it got me wondering about ways to grow, stake, and support dahlia plants and how that interacts or interferes with the display of the garden in general. I'm a small time hobbyist grower but would love to see some of your growing systems! Pictures and desrciptions invited. I use whatever cages I can muster and a few stakes to hold each cage and it works well for weeding as I can lift each cage and get under there. Did this due to voles and rabbits, but would love something nicer looking. My beds and rows are short. Many of you grow hundreds of varieties so I am excited to see all ways to grow dahlias, from the home gardener to the pro. Thanks! Here is Ted's picture and that lovely overhead system using twine to stake plants. So attractive and functional:  I don't know why this showed as not new since i just made this thread so I hope it gets some views. |
|
|||
| It doesn't show as 'new' to you because you likely viewed it in the process of creating it. :) |
|
|||
| We learned how to tie up our dahlias from visiting the Les Connell farm in the 1990s. Once you learn a system that works, you tend do do it the same way and that is the case here. There are as many ways to support dahlias as stars in the universe. Many are excellent and better than ours. Some take more time and some take less time. The method of hanging some flower baskets at the end of the rows was invented by Margaret and I. Historically,no better method for tying dahlias has been invented that is better than the way they did in the early 20th century. They used wooden 2 x 2s probably about 8 feet long and pounded them into the ground. The dahlias were planted at the base of the stake and anywhere from one through four plants could be planted there depending on the size of the mature plants and the sun exposure. The stakes could be placed into the garden in any kind of pattern and they were probably at least 4 feet apart but I bet that varied too. Phil Mingus planted this way and a visit to his garden was magical. You were not constrained by rows of dahlias and you could walk anywhere and we wandered all round the stakes to get any kind of a view. Very old pictures show dahlias being planted this way. However, it is time consuming to do and maintain and not conducive to t tape irrigation. I have a picture of his garden but always I cannot find it right away(it is on cubits somewhere too) . One of the prettiest displays of dahlias I saw in a garden was at Helens Dahlias two blocks from Mingus Dahlias. I understand Helen is still alive but not doing well. She used the criss cross method where you use about 8 takes and place them into two rows creating a rectangle. The width of the bed is determined by your "reach" as you are supposed to be able to reach all the flowers in the bed. The plants were supported by using baling twine in a criss cross pattern in two levels and the flowers grew up above the levels of twine.You could reach all of the flowers to disbud and pick as needed and it looked wonderful. I wish I had taken a picture. We like to place a sign on our porch that says: We are in the garden. Really, we are always in the garden. |
|
|||
teddahlia wrote: That describes exactly the method that the legendary Paul Comstock used. He tied only one dahlia to each stake and he only grew the large dahlias. (If his wife, Edna, hadn't insisted he never would have saved the seedling that became Edna C, because he thought it was too small). Paul had the cleanest garden I've ever seen. There was not a single weed, of any size, anywhere. It was almost sureal. |
|
|||
Another grower who visited the Comstock garden was Steve Santos who as a teen ager went there to get his famous stock of Edna C. that he still grows.  Edna C. We like to place a sign on our porch that says: We are in the garden. Really, we are always in the garden. |
|
|||
| Because I live in the woods with very moist, acidic soil, I grow everything in pots. From my 120 year old plus rhubarb to 300 plus dahlia varieties. I like it because it makes it really easy to move things around as needed. I can also separate plants that look iffy without having to dig them up. Because of this set up, I just use bamboo stakes and twine for my dahlias. One stake per pot (I add a second if needed). I also like this option because it's completely biodegradable and inexpensive to replace if needed. |
|
|||
| I have 6 raised beds that are 4' by 20' or so. I use rebar posts that are left in the beds year round. The end rebar posts are in drilled holes that go into the end framework about 15" from the outer edge for stability. and down into the lower framing on the bed. I tie twine from one post down to the end of the bed where there is a matching post. Then I tie twine across the ends between the posts. I keep adding twine as they grow taller. It works for me. Salish Dahlias |
|
|||
| Thank you for all your responses and ideas! I hope we can keep this going and maybe even see some pictures of your methods since sometimes it's hard to visualize with just words. Reading leads to so many questions: such as, if you grow dahlias in pots, what size pots are adequate? Amanda, do you have any pictures of some of yours and the other plants you grow in pots? I am intrigued. Ted, I'm assuming that if you put several dahlias around one sturdy stake, you would have to still tie them up, right? but it would go faster and be less fussy because you would tie all 4 at once each level up you go, I guess. That would be so amazing to wander around the dahlia groups like that. It would be magical as I visualize that that. When we had more rabbit problems I caged every dahlia plant with a round cage in case they chewed in through the fencing, which was scrounged because I have to do a lot of that.. I scrounged most of the wire for the cages so they are different heights, nothing matches. I put in 2 bamboo stakes per cage, sometimes 3 for the tall varieties. Then I can sort of push the cage up the stakes to get under them when I need to weed in or around the cages. It's awkward but it doesn't take a ton of time and it functions for what I need. I used to put bamboo stakes around each dahlia and tie with twine about every foot as they grew. This way I'm doing it now is less time consuming but not as attractive. the nice things for the tall ones is I can always tie more twine around the stakes pushing up past the cages if it grows too tall for the cage. but it's not pretty! Mine is not a show garden! I still wish it could be prettier, since the cages show and it's also hard to photograph the dahlias close-up sometimes and not get cage or fence in the picture. But - when i need to pull Canada Thistles and young weeds from the dahlia beds, this works for me. Ted and Steve M, thank you for telling us about some other methods - Paul Comstock's and Helen's. Noni, I would love to see a picture of your beds and how you stake and wire things. I love the ideas here and will try to find a picture of my method, not that anyone would want to emulate it! |
|
|||
| I will go out and take a photo of the bare winter garden with the rebar poles in place because that will tell you a lot more then photos with dahlia plants in them. The good thing is that now my husband has got the hardware in I can tie them up all on my own and enjoy it. I just get the big ball of twine at the garden store and I can do all the tying up by myself. I Just tie it to a rebar post at a corner and walk around the bed keeping it at the same height. IT gets wrapped twice and pulled snug at the rebar posts. And yes, we painted the rebar a soft gray so it isn't rusty. The rebar goes through a hole drilled in the top frame and into a hole that ends in the bottom framework piece. That gives it two points of attachment in the bed frame and keeps it stable. I tie the twine VERY SNUGLY because it stretches some as it gets wet and things grow. I will add higher levels of ties if the plants need them later in the summer. I like very tall plants and I like them upright, LOL, not sprawled on the ground. I may run some cross ties across the upper levels if the plants blow too much in the wind or look like they could crash in a thunder storm. I have been really packing my plants in but had so much powdery mildew this year I am going to try to leave more space between them. I do not know if I will be able to resist filling the space. YOu always think you can fit another dahlia in SOMEWHERE. This is very much a downsized retirement garden. When we lived on acreage I had about a quarter acre of cutting garden. I have 3 other beds in this garden. One is for perennials, one for annuals , and the 3rd newest one is for Chrysanthmums and anything else I couldn't fit in. My vegetables are grown in grow bags in our orchard, along with the berry vines and rose garden and hydrangea garden. I am enjoying exploring how older gardeners can keep up with the work to have the things they want to grow. I am loving the grow bags for things like tomatoes, cucumbers and summer squash. The reason I go to all this work with raised bed is two fold. One, I have fairly severe arthritis so it makes it easier not to have to stoop so low. I do a lot of my work sitting on a garden stool. And two, our new place is on pretty solid red clay that is very difficult to dig in. Much easier just to buy a pile of organic garden mix and fill the raised beds. Also we lined the raised beds with rat wire so we have had no problem with tubers being eaten from below. The garden is patrolled by my Ancona Ducks who eat as many insects as they can find. I did have a problem with them eating the young dahlia plants for the first time this past year. They will have to stay in their smaller enclosure until the plants can withstand them this year! Once the plants are big enough and strong enough I have nothing more then a few leaves snipped by them...but I also don't have a slug problem as all! Salish Dahlias |
|
|||
| I would like to experiment this season with the 'Swan Island' technique of support...or 'non-support' as it were....on at least some of my dahlias. Extra deep planting; hill up soil as plant grows like I do for potatoes; trim off entire dahlia plant once it reaches, say, 3 feet; hope for the best! But since I start my dahlias in a greenhouse and transplant potted plants that are 8 inches to 14 inches tall, can I bury those plant stalks deeper than the soil level in the pots? Can I bury them 4 inches deeper....6 inches deeper? Thanks! Chris |
|
|||
| Hi there, since cubits is shutting down we would like invite you to join a bunch of cubit alums as https://forum.dahliaaddict.com/ Here is the relevant thread: https://forum.dahliaaddict.com/t/season |
| « Back to the top « Cubits.org homepage « Growing Dahlias: cubit homepage « Dahlia Season: Plant, Support, Irrigate & Groom forum |
You must first create a username and login before you can reply to this thread.
