Dazzling dahlias
For most of my gardening career, dahlias have been considered beyond the pale by the arbiters of good taste in the garden. And then, in the 1990s, the great Christopher Lloyd, egged on by his new head gardener at Great Dixter, Fergus Garrett, tore up the formal rose garden designed by Edwin Lutyens and replaced it with cannas and dahlias in riotous colours, a haze of purple from self-sown Verbena bonariensis and the striking banana, Musa basjoo, a hardy Japanese species.
Christopher Lloyd was so fond of these plants that he called his dachshunds Canna and Dahlia. They wander in and out of his wonderful book, Gardener Cook, usually on account of their undiscriminating and insatiable greed. In the introduction to the book he tells how Dahlia ate an entire bowl of bread dough that had been put to rise in front of the fire at the far end of the house. The dough continued to rise inside her, and she spent a hideously uncomfortable night. Being a dachshund, he wrote, she would do it again.
The Exotic Garden, as Christopher Lloyd’s late summer tropical garden came to be called, has done much to revive the respectability of dahlias. And rightly so – they come in dazzling colours, are easy to grow and are as splendid as a cut flower as they are in the border. The ‘Bishop of Llandaff’ was the first to return to favour as a perennial plant. It has a profusion of single flowers in a glowing scarlet, grows to a manageable 100cm to 120cm (3ft to 4ft), and has attractively dark leaves and stems. There are now seven ‘Bishop’ dahlias, including ‘Canterbury’ and ‘York’, which should more properly be ‘Archbishops’.
I love the dramatic dark dahlias, ‘Rip City’, ‘Chat Noir’ and ‘Nuit d’Ete’. The new ‘Karma’ dahlias, bred in the Netherlands as a cut flower, are also striking, and have a long vase life. Good ones are ‘Karma Fuchsiana’, a bright coral pink, and ‘Karma Choc’, its flowers velvety and almost black.
Many of these dahlias grow enormous in a sunny position in the border, in a fertile, moist soil with good drainage. A stout stake (not just a bamboo cane) is required when planting, and leave 60cm to 90cm (2ft to 3ft) between plants or they will crowd each other out. Elegant, smaller dahlias, such as ‘Tamburo’, ‘Roxy’ and ‘Bishop of Oxford’ can be grown in pots. Sarah Raven has three tubers, one of each, for £12.50.
Dahlia tubers are planted outside after the frosts are over, and can be started off in pots under glass. Plant them, stem upwards, spreading out the tubers, in good multi-purpose compost in three-litre pots. Keep them moist, make sure they have plenty of light and they will have formed bushy plants by the time it is safe to plant them out. The plants will be in flower by July and will continue until the first frosts in autumn blacken the flowers and foliage.
In mild areas (if we can count on them again), tubers can be left in the ground in winter, protected by a thick mulch. In a good year they will bulk up well and flower long before tubers grown on in pots. If you do decide to lift them, cut them down to 15cm and shake off surplus soil – do not wash. Let them dry naturally indoors for a couple of weeks and then store them in a shallow tray, just covered with slightly moist potting compost, sand or vermiculite. Keep them in a frostfree place and start them off again in spring in pots.
Where to buy
Sarah Raven offers dahlias in gorgeous colours, all trialled in her garden at Perch Hill in Sussex. Tubers are sold singly, in multiples of the same variety or in collections: 0845-092 0283 or www.sarahraven.com
Rose Cottage Plants are awardwinning specialists in dahlias and hardy bulbs: 01992-573775 or www.rosecottageplants.co.uk
It has been far too cold to even consider sowing outside, so a warm, well-lit windowsill is a good option.
Tender crops such as tomatoes, peppers, aubergines and chillies benefit from heat; a windowsill propagator is ideal.
Jiffy 7 pellets, which swell up in warm water, are perfect for lettuces and annuals for the border or cutting patch. Kits come with a waterproof container and lid.
I recommend the Jiffy 7 Windowsill Propagator Kit with 24 Jiffy 7s, plus refills. £10.99 or £17.98 for two: www.suttons.co.uk
Use a special seed compost such as John Innes No 1. Cover the container but remove the lid when seeds germinate. Water sparingly.
Larger seeds such as courgettes and squashes should be sown on their side in pots. I cover mine with cling fi lm, which I remove when they germinate.
If seedlings are spindly and weak-stemmed, they are not getting enough light.
If you have enough windowsill space, sow some broad beans and peas in biodegradable loo-roll tubes.
Scilla siberica, the Siberian squill, has short stems of nodding fl owers of an intense blue. Naturalise under trees or around deciduous shrubs. Bulbs are available in summer for autumn planting.
Christopher Lloyd was so fond of these plants that he called his dachshunds Canna and Dahlia. They wander in and out of his wonderful book, Gardener Cook, usually on account of their undiscriminating and insatiable greed. In the introduction to the book he tells how Dahlia ate an entire bowl of bread dough that had been put to rise in front of the fire at the far end of the house. The dough continued to rise inside her, and she spent a hideously uncomfortable night. Being a dachshund, he wrote, she would do it again.
The Exotic Garden, as Christopher Lloyd’s late summer tropical garden came to be called, has done much to revive the respectability of dahlias. And rightly so – they come in dazzling colours, are easy to grow and are as splendid as a cut flower as they are in the border. The ‘Bishop of Llandaff’ was the first to return to favour as a perennial plant. It has a profusion of single flowers in a glowing scarlet, grows to a manageable 100cm to 120cm (3ft to 4ft), and has attractively dark leaves and stems. There are now seven ‘Bishop’ dahlias, including ‘Canterbury’ and ‘York’, which should more properly be ‘Archbishops’.
I love the dramatic dark dahlias, ‘Rip City’, ‘Chat Noir’ and ‘Nuit d’Ete’. The new ‘Karma’ dahlias, bred in the Netherlands as a cut flower, are also striking, and have a long vase life. Good ones are ‘Karma Fuchsiana’, a bright coral pink, and ‘Karma Choc’, its flowers velvety and almost black.
Many of these dahlias grow enormous in a sunny position in the border, in a fertile, moist soil with good drainage. A stout stake (not just a bamboo cane) is required when planting, and leave 60cm to 90cm (2ft to 3ft) between plants or they will crowd each other out. Elegant, smaller dahlias, such as ‘Tamburo’, ‘Roxy’ and ‘Bishop of Oxford’ can be grown in pots. Sarah Raven has three tubers, one of each, for £12.50.
Dahlia tubers are planted outside after the frosts are over, and can be started off in pots under glass. Plant them, stem upwards, spreading out the tubers, in good multi-purpose compost in three-litre pots. Keep them moist, make sure they have plenty of light and they will have formed bushy plants by the time it is safe to plant them out. The plants will be in flower by July and will continue until the first frosts in autumn blacken the flowers and foliage.
In mild areas (if we can count on them again), tubers can be left in the ground in winter, protected by a thick mulch. In a good year they will bulk up well and flower long before tubers grown on in pots. If you do decide to lift them, cut them down to 15cm and shake off surplus soil – do not wash. Let them dry naturally indoors for a couple of weeks and then store them in a shallow tray, just covered with slightly moist potting compost, sand or vermiculite. Keep them in a frostfree place and start them off again in spring in pots.
Where to buy
Sarah Raven offers dahlias in gorgeous colours, all trialled in her garden at Perch Hill in Sussex. Tubers are sold singly, in multiples of the same variety or in collections: 0845-092 0283 or www.sarahraven.com
Rose Cottage Plants are awardwinning specialists in dahlias and hardy bulbs: 01992-573775 or www.rosecottageplants.co.uk
Top tips for successful seedlings
It has been far too cold to even consider sowing outside, so a warm, well-lit windowsill is a good option.Tender crops such as tomatoes, peppers, aubergines and chillies benefit from heat; a windowsill propagator is ideal.
Jiffy 7 pellets, which swell up in warm water, are perfect for lettuces and annuals for the border or cutting patch. Kits come with a waterproof container and lid.
I recommend the Jiffy 7 Windowsill Propagator Kit with 24 Jiffy 7s, plus refills. £10.99 or £17.98 for two: www.suttons.co.uk
Use a special seed compost such as John Innes No 1. Cover the container but remove the lid when seeds germinate. Water sparingly.
Larger seeds such as courgettes and squashes should be sown on their side in pots. I cover mine with cling fi lm, which I remove when they germinate.
If seedlings are spindly and weak-stemmed, they are not getting enough light.
If you have enough windowsill space, sow some broad beans and peas in biodegradable loo-roll tubes.
