APRIL in the Dahlia patch

Photo: Wyldleigh, Robertson

While the sad end of another Dahlia season is just around the corner, there are some things you can do to prolong the flowering season before the frost arrives.

Deadhead spent blooms (unless seed saving)

To extend your flowering deadhead spent blooms and continue to pick and enjoy them to encourage as many blooms as possible. You'll notice that with the daylight hours decreasing blooms tend to blow their centres much more quickly as the plants make their last run for providing ample opportunities for pollinators to visit.

Get the air moving

Ward off any mildew attacks by removing the lower leaves to let air circulate to reduce the mildrew risk but if some does pop up, swiftly remove the affected foilage and dispose of in your green waste.

Labels

While there are still blooms it's a good idea to get labelling to make identification later. It might not seem like the most exciting job to do now but you'll be very glad you did come Spring.

Final feed

Now is the time to give your Dahlias a final feed and some potash while they are still forming their tubers to make sure they're well fed before the go to sleep for winter.

Seed saving

If you're wanting to grow some plants from seed next season or share them with friends ow is the time to consider collecting and storing some seeds. The best way to do this is to wait until the seed heads are closed tightly, cut them off and hand them to dry out before extracting the seeds later on. It's important that the seeds are able to dry out well over winter so storing them in paper bags, envelopes or even old medicine bottles that have the silica gel packets in them are great ways to prevent the seeds rotting.

NOTE: If you grow Dahlias from seed they will not be true to type, instead being a mix of the flower you harvested from and whatever Dahlia the pollinators visited prior. This makes it a little bit like the lottery and this is how new varieties of Dahlia's are created. Next season you just might grow the most spectacular Dahlia colour or shape ever from a seed.