Dahlias are a beautiful ornament of any garden. These beautiful flowers bloom for a long time. Recently, their popularity has decreased slightly. There were numerous exotic plants from foreign nurseries. But flower growers-breeders continue to bring out more and more unusual varieties of dahlias. With the help of the dahlia, you can create wonderful mixborders: in the background, high dahlias are planted, and ahead of them are low-growing varieties. Excellent will look the corner of your garden of dahlias in a monochrome range of colors: white, orange, pink.
Care for dahlias
Consider how to take care of dahlias. These flowers like a lot of sunlight and a sufficient amount of moisture. The soil for dahlia must be fertile. Under these conditions, they grow well and bloom abundantly for a long time.
In order to get a beautiful and strong plant, dahlia bushes should be formed. During the period of growth, it is necessary to periodically remove growing shoots. Otherwise, the inflorescences of the dahlia will be shallow and not so beautiful. If the bush grew very high, it must be tied to the support, so that the wind does not break its shoots with heavy flowers.
Caring for dahlias includes regular pasynkovanie bushes: breakdown of lateral shoots, which appear in the axils of the leaves. If you do not do this, the dahlia bushes will bloom worse. And only dwarf varieties are not stepchild.
During flowering, it is necessary to regularly remove faded flowers so that they do not delay the ripening of new buds. And from the middle of summer they begin to remove the lower leaves on the dahlia bushes. This is done in order to harden and strengthen the root neck of the bush, which will contribute to better wintering of the tubers. We regularly carry out weeding and loosening of the soil.
Love dahlias feeding, especially after rain or watering. To do this, use full mineral fertilizers. Depending on the temperature and humidity of the air, dahlias require abundant and regular watering. The soil under the bushes should be constantly slightly moist. If you do not do this, then grow and blossom bushes will be worse. After each watering, it is recommended that the soil under the dahlia bushes be mulched with peat or humus. So the land will dry less and plants will be less likely to water.
Pest Control
Dahlias, especially their young shoots, are prone to pests: slugs can spoil them, and twigs or earwigs gnaw out young buds of a blooming plant. If you notice these pests on the dahlia bushes, be sure to treat the bushes with a decoction of wormwood, celandine and other plant protectors once a week. Dahlias and viral diseases, such as ring spotting or viral mosaic, are exposed. For the control of diseases, plants are sprayed with Topaz, Hom, and others.
At the end of the summer, the dahlia bushes should be bored to prevent autumn frost.
Dahlias are heat-loving plants, therefore it is by no means possible to leave them for the winter in the earth. After the first frosts, the tubers of dahlias are excavated, washed and dried in the sun for five hours. Store the tubers best with the maximum
If you want to ensure the proper care of flowers dahlias, at the age of three, their bushes should be divided for rejuvenation and better flowering. There is also the secret of the abundant and magnificent flowering of the dahlia - the first flower that appears on the bush must be broken. Then lateral shoots will begin to grow intensively, which means that the blossoms will be better.
As you can see, dahlias are not particularly whimsical, and any one even starting a horticulturist can cope with growing them on the plot.