How to Grow and Care for Dahlias

Dahlia plants offer large, showy flowers.

Dahlias are colorful, showy flowers available in an array of varieties, reaching different heights. Dahlia plants grow well along garden edges, walkways and as background flowers. Gardeners grow dahlias from seedlings and cuttings. Most commonly, dahlias grow from tubers, which store valuable food and nutrients for the growing plant.

Things You'll Need

• Dahlia tubers
• Shovel
• Bone meal
• Peat moss
• Dolomite lime
• Bucket
• Wooden stake
• Garden twine
• Water-soluble fertilizer
• Garden shears

Instructions

1. Obtain healthy dahlia tubers from a trustworthy retail garden store or online nursery. Since there are many types of dahlia plants to choose from in a range of colors, shapes and mature heights, base your decision on where you wish the dahlia plant to grow. Taller varieties grow well as a background plant among flower gardens. Shorter varieties grow well along walkways or garden edging.

2. Read the planting instructions that came with your dahlia tubers for spacing requirements. Choose an area in the garden that receives full sun throughout the day. Use a shovel to dig a planting hole that is 12 inches by 12 inches. Shovel the dirt you removed from the hole into a bucket. Add a handful of bone meal, a shovel-full of peat moss and one or two spoonfuls of fertilizer such as dolomite lime to the dirt in the bucket and incorporate.

3. Fill the planting hole halfway with the dirt in the bucket and place the dahlia tuber eye-up in the hole. Insert a long, wooden stake next to the dahlia tuber if you plant tall varieties. Cover the dahlia tuber with 2 inches of the dirt in the bucket or as stated on planting label. Set the bucket of dirt aside for use later.

4. Water the dahlia tuber thoroughly, being careful not to displace the dirt covering the tuber.

5. Cover the dahlia sprout with the dirt stored in the bucket as it emerges from the top of the planting soil. Continue to cover the dahlia sprout with dirt until the planting hole fills and you have used all the dirt in the bucket.

6. Tie tall dahlia varieties to the wooden stake as they grow, using garden twine.

7. Continue regular watering once per week at a ratio of 1 inch of water per dahlia plant. In hot weather, water the plants twice per week.

8. Feed the dahlia plants a water-soluble fertilizer about a month before the first set of blooms appears. As the plants begin to bloom, they become heavy feeders.

9. Snip off spent dahlia blooms with garden shears to promote continuous flowers. If you want a smaller, more compact dahlia plant, snip the new growth off as the dahlia reaches 1 foot in height.

References

• The Garden Helper: How to Plant, Grow and Care for Dahlias