Dahlias and Daffodils

Last week, PostNL was regularly seen with a large trailer at our dam to pick up the Dahlias that you ordered from us. Always a beautiful moment for us, when the first orders leave our company and the postmen go and delight our dear customers with their orders. I sincerely hope that you will enjoy all the beautiful things that will grow from it next summer.

Once again a brief explanation of what you can best do with the Dahlia tubers after you have received them. For us it is a piece of cake, but I still regularly experience that, especially with the Dahlias, they are handled incorrectly. Preparing the Dahlia:

The more experienced gardener usually chooses to force the Dahlias. Forcing is a simple way to give the Dahlias a good start, which will make them flower considerably earlier. It really isn't difficult, it's one of those jobs that you think afterwards that 'getting started' was more work than the job itself. A few bags of universal potting soil and a few pots is all you need, and it's done before you know it. Do use pots with holes in the bottom, you know, just those used plant pots that almost every gardener has lying around in a corner of the shed. Plant the Dahlia in the pot so that the cut stem is just above the ground, and place the pot in a light space where the temperature is around 15 degrees. Keep the potting soil moist. The temperature is not really important, but if it is colder than 15 degrees, the start of growth will be considerably later. I showed this pot two weeks ago in my news blog, and this is what it looks like now. The start of growth is already visible. This pot has been in my greenhouse, during the day the temperature was often in the 20s, but at night it was almost always lower than 15 degrees. Ouch, that hurt, I heard the cracking roots crack. It is what it is, she had to sacrifice herself for science. Here you can see that in these first two weeks the Dahlia tuber has already been very busy creating roots. You will see that this root growth will have filled the entire pot by the end of April, beginning of May. Because of the many roots in the pot, they will form a nice root ball, which you can easily tap out of the pot. Then you can easily plant it in the garden, perhaps even like that, hop, in the hole of the dug up Tulips that you enjoyed to the fullest this spring.

I can hear some of you thinking, Carlos always enjoys himself to the fullest, is he okay? Well, now that we're talking about it, I'm doing fine. Today is a holiday for me, the Fluwel Special Narcissus are available again. The last few weeks I have enjoyed the many Narcissi in my greenhouse to the fullest, there they are again. I took many photos and together with Vlad I put many new varieties on the site, and then it's always a party when it's ready and we can offer them to the Narcissi lovers. No less than 370 different varieties from our nursery are on the Fluwel Special Narcissus page. Feel free to take a look and enjoy all the beauty that this particularly beautiful flower bulb has to offer. Dahlia Big Brother

But to stay on topic, I was talking about the Dahlia. If you don’t want to force the Dahlia and would rather keep it until planting time—end of April, beginning of May—you have to make sure it doesn’t dry out. Wrap it in newspaper and put it in a box and store it in a cool place of around 10 degrees. Dahlia tubers can really dry out, and it’s not that they are immediately lifeless, but the start-up of a dried-out and shriveled tuber will be much slower than that of a vital, fresh tuber. You can also put them away in a cool place in the bags they come in. These bags are made of porous plastic, which allows oxygen to get in but minimal moisture to escape. The planting time for the Dahlia tuber is after the last night frost. I don’t know how it is in all the foreign countries we send to, but in the Netherlands it seems that there are no more night frosts after mid-May. I always check the 14-day weather forecast and if it turns out at the end of April that there is virtually no chance of night frost, I plant the tubers. Dahlia Lilac Time

You can do the same with the pre-forced Dahlias: when there is no longer a chance of night frost, they can go into the garden. In addition to the advantage of earlier flowering, the pre-forced Dahlias also have the advantage that they are less likely to be completely eaten away by snails. Of course, the snail will run to the Dahlia as fast as lightning if they come near it, but they will not eat the entire plant in one night, as can happen with a newly germinating Dahlia. So of course, keep a close eye on those slimy dresses, but the chance of failure by the snail is considerably smaller with pre-forced Dahlias. Dahlia Platinum Blonde

Of course, you can also let the Dahlias bloom in a pot. In the past I have said that this is perfectly possible, and in theory it is. But in practice I have found that Dahlias in a pot is actually a hopeless mission for a somewhat lazy gardener like me. Do you know what it is like with a Dahlia that is blooming happily? It is always hungry and thirsty. Really, if you have your Dahlias in a pot, and then go to Aunt Agaath for a few days during a sunny weekend in August, you will see your Dahlias hanging in the pot in a stupor when you get home. It will then take at least two weeks before you get going again. I once asked my Dahlia friend Peter Komen whether you can also put Dahlias in a pot. Yes, Peter said, you have to knock the bottom out of the pot first so that the Dahlia can take root in the ground. If you don't do that, you're out of luck, you'll forget about them for a day and they'll hang limp. Narcissus Mesa Verde. This year's special, 3 for €9,-

Enough about the Dahlia, I'm going back into my greenhouse to play with my Daffodils. I would like you to take a look at the Fluwel Special Narcissus page in our shop.

Kind regards and see you next week,

Carlos van der Veek