GIVE YOUR DAHLIAS A FLYING START
If you lifted and stored dahlia tubers last year, or have bought new tubers for growing this year, late February is the ideal time to bring them into growth.
Plant your tubers 10-15cm (4-6in) deep, in 2-litre pots of peat-free potting compost. Water, and grow-on in a frost-free cold frame or greenhouse, planting out after the frosts (from late May). Alternatively, you can plant tubers directly in April, after risk of penetrating ground frosts has passed. Look for new shoots in early June.
Spring propagation
If you are keen to propagate dahlia plants, you can start tubers into growth indoors in shallow trays of potting compost, to grow on at 15-18°C (59-64°F). When shoots reach 2-3cm (1 in) tall, cut the tubers into sections, each with both roots and shoots, and pot up separately. You can then grow these plants on until they are ready to plant out.
Another method, for new plants, is to cut new shoots at their base and insert them into small pots of seed and cutting compost. Keep in a heated propagator to root. Pot plants on once they have rooted, and continue to grow them on, in the same way as for divisions.
Most herbaceous perennials, including many grasses, will benefit from being divided every two to three years. Division helps to maintain plant vigour and is most successful if plants are not actively growing.
Summer-flowering plants are best divided from now (if not too wet) until May or in autumn (Sept-Nov); spring-flowering plants, such as irises and primula, will respond better to summer division, after they have flowered.
Dividing perennials
Tips for dividing different perennials
* Lift clumps gently with a garden fork, and shake off excess soil so you can see the roots.
4* Some plants, such as Ajuga (bugle), produce individual plantlets, which are easily teased out and replanted.
4* Fibrous-rooted plants such as Heuchera, Hosta and Epimedium can be lifted and pulled apart gently, or cut into small clumps.
•5* With large, fibrous-rooted perenr; such as Hemerocallis (daylily, left insert two garden forks back-to-t into the lifted crown and use the to lever the root mass apart.
*I- Use a sharp knife, spade or lawr edging iron to section dense clu and plants with woody crowns with Helleborus) or fleshy roots as Delphinium) into divisions, e with three to five strong shoots
Aftercare
Try to replant divisions as soon i possible, watering them in well a regularly, to help them to establish
If you lifted and stored dahlia tubers last year, or have bought new tubers for growing this year, late February is the ideal time to bring them into growth.
Plant your tubers 10-15cm (4-6in) deep, in 2-litre pots of peat-free potting compost. Water, and grow-on in a frost-free cold frame or greenhouse, planting out after the frosts (from late May). Alternatively, you can plant tubers directly in April, after risk of penetrating ground frosts has passed. Look for new shoots in early June.
Spring propagation
If you are keen to propagate dahlia plants, you can start tubers into growth indoors in shallow trays of potting compost, to grow on at 15-18°C (59-64°F). When shoots reach 2-3cm (1 in) tall, cut the tubers into sections, each with both roots and shoots, and pot up separately. You can then grow these plants on until they are ready to plant out.
Another method, for new plants, is to cut new shoots at their base and insert them into small pots of seed and cutting compost. Keep in a heated propagator to root. Pot plants on once they have rooted, and continue to grow them on, in the same way as for divisions.
Most herbaceous perennials, including many grasses, will benefit from being divided every two to three years. Division helps to maintain plant vigour and is most successful if plants are not actively growing.
Summer-flowering plants are best divided from now (if not too wet) until May or in autumn (Sept-Nov); spring-flowering plants, such as irises and primula, will respond better to summer division, after they have flowered.
Dividing perennials
Tips for dividing different perennials
* Lift clumps gently with a garden fork, and shake off excess soil so you can see the roots.
4* Some plants, such as Ajuga (bugle), produce individual plantlets, which are easily teased out and replanted.
4* Fibrous-rooted plants such as Heuchera, Hosta and Epimedium can be lifted and pulled apart gently, or cut into small clumps.
•5* With large, fibrous-rooted perenr; such as Hemerocallis (daylily, left insert two garden forks back-to-t into the lifted crown and use the to lever the root mass apart.
*I- Use a sharp knife, spade or lawr edging iron to section dense clu and plants with woody crowns with Helleborus) or fleshy roots as Delphinium) into divisions, e with three to five strong shoots
Aftercare
Try to replant divisions as soon i possible, watering them in well a regularly, to help them to establish