subject: Making Your Own Dahlia Garden [print this page] Famed Dahlia grower Conrad Faust when planting his Dahlia garden each year makes sure he selects tubers with good eyes or sprouts. Each tuber is set horizontally at a depth of 6 inches with the eye just a few inches from the stake. At first the hole is filled in only to a depth of 3 inches, and it is filled in to ground level later as the new plant develops.
As the plants begin to grow, the tops are pinched out as soon as they develop two or three sets of leaves. This pinching back, says Mr. Faust, strengthens the plants so that they make their heavy growth close to the ground.
In the Faust garden, shoestrings, bought by the gross, are used as plant ties, and Mr. Faust advises that if you are unable to buy shoestrings in such quantities use soft cord or strips of cloth to tie the plants.
The next and a most important step in the Faust growing technique is the disbudding. Being particularly interested in the larger types of dahlias, his goal is to develop the largest blooms possible. He removes all the lateral buds on each stem and leaves only the terminal bud to develop, thus insuring that it receives all the strength from the stem on which it is growing. Side shoots will of course appear from the lower portions of the plant; these are pinched off down to the last two sets of leaves. The shoots which come from below that point are allowed to grow and provide later blossoms.
Small dahlias, such as pompons, minatures and balls, are not disbudded in this manner, and Mr. Faust says that if they are disbudded at all it should be done moderately.
In the South we nearly always have a July and August drought which is rather severe on dahlias that are nob provided with sufficient water. Dahlias need large quantities of water, so Mr. Faust's advice is to give them a thorough soaking to a depth of at least 10 inches when moisture is needed. His dahlia beds are in constant cultivation by being regularly given a light surface working. He has also had excellent results with mulching his plants with pine straw, wheat or rye straw, peatmoss or oak leaves.
According to Mr. Faust, there is a special technique for cutting dahlias for use indoors or for exhibition purposes. First of all, they should be cut either early in the morning or in the evening, but never during the middle of the day. The stems should be placed in deep containers of cold water immediately after cutting so that they can absorb as much water as possible to keep the petals full and turgid.
Sometimes, even when cut at the right time, a few blooms may begin to wilt badly. A sure method of reviving such blooms is to cut off about an inch of the stem under water. This prevents air bubbles from entering the water passages and preventing water from rising in the stems. As a matter of fact, many of our dahlia fans cut all their stems under water before placing their blooms in the show room, a practice which insures them against undue wilting.
