Beginning of new dahlia season 2012

    My dahlias have started their preparation for the new season back in the middle of February. I brought up from the winter storage some tubers of my favorite varieties as well as tubers that I received in exchange with Nadezhda and those that I bought from Peter Haslhofer and put them in trays filled with potting media. It took a few days for the tubers to wake up and start to sprout with new growth.

Since beginning of March I'm taking cuttings. It takes about 14 days for them to root in moist coir substrate in a mini-greenhouse.

As soon as the roots appear I plant cuttings in nutritious potting mixture and keep them on sunny windowsills.

Last summer the plants developed from cuttings were growing very well and flowering earlier then those that were grown from tubers. Tuber production from cuttings was fine as well. Some of the cuttings I'm planning to offer for sale in our society stand at Nordiska Trädgårdar 2012.

Dahlia season 2011: part I

   It’s been a while since I posted last time. Summer is in its peak right now and a lot is going on in the garden. Dahlias are starting to be a centre of attention. Most of potted dahlias are flowering for a long time now. Gallery Art Nouveau was the first to flower back in May. It was followed by Melody Mambo, Gallery Salvador, Gallery Matisse, Gallery Art Fair and Melody Dora. Melody Latin and Melody Dixie started to flower a bit later from last days of June. The last low growing variety left to flower is Melody Harmony. Although it already opened first inflorescence I can’t see it since it’s hidden among leaves. But more flowers should open soon on top of shoots. Let’s take a closer look at each plant.

   Gallery Art Nouveau. 4 cuttings planted in a 10l pot. Bright color of informally shaped inflorescence nicely contrasting with dark green leaves.

Gallery Art Nouveau

   Melody Mambo. 4 cuttings planted in a 15l pot. Very dark deep red satiny inflorescence tops medium green lush foliage.

Melody Mambo

   Gallery Salvador. 4 cuttings planted in a 10l pot. Striking contrast of pretty large, Ø10+ cm, inflorescence on a very low growing, 35 cm, plant. Scapes could be longer to bring inflorescence higher on top of the foliage.

Gallery Salvador

   Gallery Matisse. 3 cuttings planted in a 7l pot. Heavily flowering lowest growing pot dahlia in my collection. First inflorescences were showing ugly open center but later opened flowerheads look fine.

Gallery Matisse

   Gallery Art Fair. 4 cuttings planted in a 10l pot. The most heavily flowering of my pot dahlias.

Gallery Art Fair

   Melody Dora. 4 cuttings planted in a 20l pot. This year inflorescence size is much larger than it was last year. I think this is my favourite pot dahlia right now.

Melody Dora

   Melody Latin. 4 cuttings planted in a 20l pot. Actually it appeared to be only 3 cuttings of Melody Latin and 1 cutting Melody Dixie. I guess I've mixed the labels ☺. But the combination looks good. The shape and size of flower heads is very similar only color is different.

Melody Latin

Melody Dixie

Dahlia cuttings are getting roots

   To my surprise dahlia cuttings that I'm taking since March are all getting roots. Windowsills are being filled with pots.

Already now I have 30 planted dahlias and there are 60 more cuttings waiting for their turn. Not all tubers are equally productive. As expected low-growing Holland-bred varieties like Gallery Art Fair or Melody Harmony are producing a lot of cuttings, 10-20 per tuber, while some more rare varieties like Nick Sr produced none so far. Varieties originating from Peter Haslhofer like Hapet Red King and some seedlings are producing 3-5 cuttings per tuber. Different varieties are rooting with different speed. The fastest are again Gallery varieties, they are rooting in a week. In the same conditions 2 cuttings of Vicki did not root since March 13. They are not rotting either, just sitting there and waiting for something.


   In between planting dahlias I had to take care of one more beloved flower today - my 9.5-year-old Zwergschnauzer Little Spoon. It was time to trim her winter coat since it started to fall off and cover everything with black wire-like hairs. Here are some before and after pictures of the process.




   К моему удивлению, черенки георгин, которые я начала снимать в марте, активно укореняются, и подоконники заполняются горшками. Уже сейчас высажено 30 штук укорененных черенков и около 60-ти ждут своей очереди в череночнике. Не все сорта одинаково хорошо черенкуются. Как я и ожидала, больше всех образуют черенков низкорослые голландские сорта такие как Gallery Art Fair и Melody Harmony, по 10-20 штук с клубня. А вот желанный коллекционный сорт Nick Sr не выдал ни одного отростка, хотя лежит со всеми вместе уже больше месяца. Сорта Петера Хаслхофера Hapet Red King и сеянцы образуют по 3-5 черенков на клубень. Разные сорта и укореняются с разными темпами. Быстрее всех конечно дают корни сорта Gallery - за неделю. А вот два черенка сорта Vicki сидят без корней с 13-го марта, но и не гниют, ждут чего-то.
   Сегодня в перерыве между посадками георгиновых черенков я позаботилась о еще одном любимом цветочке - моей 9.5-летней цвергине. Пришло время тримминговать её. Вот несколько фото процесса с начала и до конца.

Cuttings

   The power embraced in a dahlia tuber is very impressive. About 2 weeks ago I put some tubers out of the winter storage in a warm damp coir and most of them have produced many runners.

I'm delighted by my first cuttings, they look very thick and promising. Hope they will develop nice roots.

Some more runners are developing right at the place where I made a cut. Instead of one cut runner there will grow 3 or 4 more.

   Кроме роскошного цветения в георгинах меня всегда впечатляла мощность роста заключенная в клубне. Всего две недели назад я выложила клубни на проращивание в тепло влажного кокосового волокна. Большинство клубней уже выпустили побеги, и я сняла несколько первых черенков. Теперь любуюсь, какие они толстенькие; надеюсь, что хорошенько укоренятся. А на месте срезанного черенка образуются 3-4 новых.