Hello my fellow garden lovers, how are you? I’ve just about recovered from our open garden last Sunday, sadly the same can’t be said for the garden as the heatwave and hosepipe ban continues. It’s making me really think and come up with new ideas for what to do with my garden next year but we’ll come to that later. What I really wanted to share with you is the one thing that’s thriving right now- my dahlias. In particular the tubers that I’ve had for a couple of years. It’s interesting as I’d bought quite a few new ones this year but they still haven’t flowered yet- the tubers were good but they didn’t contain the same ooomph of the ones i’ve looked after myself, next year will be different. The first few pics are of my favourite dahlia- Cafe au lait, yes, she’s still top of my list. I love the unpredictability of each bloom, every one completely different, even when on the same plant. So how do I look after them?
Dahlias are very hungry plants! My biggest tip is to use a granular feed, I use Growmore by Westland, sprinkled around the base, once a week. I prefer the granular feed as it’s slow release and I can see where I’ve put it. I give it a good water in and let it get to work. I don’t water my dahlias that much, not even in the heatwave, during the intense hot days I went to every other day in the evening, the rest of the time I water every three to five days, unless we have rain, which I did last night thank goodness. We were having a bbq and continued with umbrellas in the very British way, I love a bbq in the rain. Anyway, back to dahlias- I will often disbud mine which means removing a flower or two where there is more than one on the same stem, thus allowing a good strong stem with one flower to bloom, this creates good flowers for cutting. However, that said, I didn’t do this for my open garden as I just wanted them blooming, hence in the picture there is one that looks squished, I would have normally removed that one.
I get a lot of questions about when to lift and how to store dahlias. The trick is to always wait until they’ve had a really good frost, not just a little one, I wait until mine have been completely blackened and starting to collapse. Cut the stems back leaving roughly three inches. The reason for leaving it this amount of time is that it allows all the nutrients to be fed back into the tuber, thus giving it the best chance for next year. Now if you’re lucky enough to have free draining soil where they won’t be waterlogged then you could leave them in the ground and give them a very thick mulch of garden compost. I once lost a whole crop this way when it was one of the coldest wettest winters on record, so I no longer do this. I lift mine, now if I’m smart about it I write labels and tie them on, but I’m not smart about it, however, as I don’t grow many varieties it’s not a problem as I can usually tell which is which by the tubers and if this fails I can tell when the leaves start to come.
Anyway, I’ll write later about how I lift and store mine as I feel like we should enjoy them before we start thinking about putting them to bed. You can expect your dahlias to flower all the way through to the first frost if you feed them regularly. Of course there are other feeds on the market and you can always make your own. When I had more hours in my days I used to put nettles and comfrey in a bucket, add some horse manure- fill with water and leave that to honk! When it’s dark brown and you have to cover your nose to go near it- it’s ready. Take a small capful and add to each watering can, and watch the magic happen.
Dahlias aside, I’ve watched in horror this week as wild fires claim the land. Here in the uk they are destroying my favourite place to paint- Dunwich heath in Suffolk. My heart flips into my throat at the thought of all the wildlife lost. Nature can be most cruel. I will visit in September to see a very different landscape to the one I’m used to, reminding us once again the power of the elements and how change is inevitable.
Shown above is a selection of my paintings inspired by Dunwich in Suffolk. The two on the left are sold, the other two are available in my gallery.
As I sit in my garden of an evening I’m noticing how the prairie planting is performing brilliantly- attracting lots of insects and holding its own in this heat. The top performer is the bronze fennel which has perfect little landing pads for hover flies. The verbena bonariensis is another one that just gets on with it and attracts bees and the wonderful hummingbird moth. The hummingbird moth is just a sheer delight to watch. It’s the time of year when the roses slow down, I’m feeding mine every couple of weeks with liquid seaweed. Roses are my favourite thing to photograph as you’ll see if you follow my notes. I’m always a little sad when they are over.
We are on the doorstep of August, the busyness of summer will start to ebb, during the next few weeks, it’s ever so subtle and also comes as a relief. I do hate wishing time away but I’m always chomping at the bit to make it to September- my favourite month of them all. I’m working on an exciting project for September which I will share with you in two or three weeks time.
Right, I’ve rambled enough.
If you’d like to continue the conversation then let me know what’s still doing well in your garden. Are there any changes you’re thinking of making next year?
Emma
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