Who’s growing Dahlias this year

[Onionbhajisandwich]

What varieties are you growing this year? I’ve got some Babylon Bronze and Kelvin Floodlight (among quite a few others) that I’m really looking forward to growing this year!

I’ve got a few tubers which haven’t sprouted yet - been in pots in sunny conservatory for 5-6 weeks … are they goners? I was so looking forward to them :(.
others I planted at the same time are doing great

Have you watered @wohmum ? Mine are now all sprouting and I have gone in with the slug prevention.

Yep, all watered and kept warm.
think I just need to be patient!

your’s sound great!

No idea which dahlia this is but I've got a bud!

I came to the thread to show my first bud too! I’m very excited especially as I can’t remember which ones I have so each flower will be a surprise!

You lucky things! I've checked my VERY thoroughly and no buds

These are mine at moment from tubers planted in March.

I’m totally thrilled as thought mine had died but today I saw new life sprouting through one of the old stalks! So me abandoning them to a cold winter in a pot hasn’t killed them

I was in the garden centre last week & all their bulbs were reduced by 50% off - I let DS choose some - called Dazzling Sun - & have put them straight in the garden as they had shoots already. First time ever growing them.

Mine started to come up and then got nobbled by slugs. I've moved the. And they seem to be having another go!

Mine are mostly doing ok* and I have a bud!

• one sad candidate alas. A Cafe Au Lait which I killed though my own ineptitude. I loved it to death, through over watering . It was potted up, waiting to go out, looking lush then it turned grayish brown on the tips and wilted. After a bit of googling it suggested it might be a case of over watering, so I furtled about and gave the tuber a light prod, and it EXPLODED. Honestly I ought to have filmed it for Sporners' Corner. All the tubers had rotted off. I managed to salvage 2 cuttings of stem but all else was putrid.

I'm very disappointed in myself! But I I blaming the new peat free compost that I've not yet got to grips with. I have still got another pot of Cafe Au Lait tuber (I split my Farmer Gracy delivered tuber!) And a previous cutting that I took when I pinched put the stem so all is not lost...

Thank you for listening to my essay and sharing my dismay.

I have shoots appearing! Very exciting. Also habe more tubers that need planting but had no time. 🙈

I looked at my dahlias this morning and a couple had aphids - one had a huge number just under one of the buds. I had them on my roses about a month ago and they didn’t return there, hopefully they won’t go back to the dahlias.

Just like last year, the earwigs are having a feast on my dahlias. I will do what I did last year though, upside down pots with hay in the middle on the end of bamboo canes where they all like to congregate.

Oh, boo to pest damage
Do the earwigs eat the leaves or just the flowers?

They decimated a lot of the flowers before I started the hay pots. Ants seem to enjoy farming aphids on everything this year, my garden is very dry as we're at the top of a hill. I don't seem to get slugs or snails at all!

Hi all, total dahlia novice joining this thread! I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing but your enthusiasm is infectious 😁

I bought 3 tubers from Wilko yesterday at the bargain price of 60p each and have bunged them in pots outside to see what happens. Don't know whether they will do anything though, as it feels like it's a bit late to be planting them? They're in the south-facing back yard so fingers crossed.

Also, last year I bought an established plant which, again, I just bunged in a pot on the north side of the house and it flowered for aaaaaages. I didn't dig it up when it stopped flowering, just left it there (told you I was clueless), and now there is absolutely tons of new green growth in the pot. I can't see any buds though, but I am fervently hoping that it's just...come back. We shall see, I guess!

Ooh just seen the thread. Is it too late to start?!

Don't earwigs love dahlias ?
For that, I'm out.

Photo of the 'revived' pot. Slightly worried that I'm actually tending to a giant weed 😂

My dahlias are super chomped and have blackfly. Doing my best to keep them going but feels like a losing battle!

Help, please!

Get a spray bottle and fill with water and a good squeeze of washing up liquid. Spray this liberally over the black fly and it should help keep them under control.

I've just had to cut down an elderflower tree in our garden which was absolutely covered in blackfly, to the point there were no leaves and sticky stuff everywhere. As it's over my raised flower bed they have started eating one of my new foxglove plants. I thought they were as hardy as anything.

Ooohhhhh I’d forgotten about this thread! How’s everyone’s doing? I planted 50 odd and all but 4 have grown really well. So anyway I realised that I don’t have anywhere near enough space for 46 dahlias so I’ve shared them out with some neighbours and some work colleagues. I’ve still got about 25 in our garden though so looking forward to seeing how they turn out 😁

@astersugar the washing up liquid spray that someone suggested above works really well - mine were literally covered last year at one point but I squirted them off each day and they gradually disappeared.