Dahlia cactus

Good day! Bought a cottage, which showed a basket of seeds, found a bag of “Dahlia Cactus, a mixture”, the photo on the bag has already faded. However, so that such a rich supply of flower seeds is not lost, I want to try to plant them all, because I really love flowers. It seems to me that their shelf life still allows plants to be grown from these seeds. Tell me, what is the peculiarity of growing dahlias and what to do if I don’t want to dig up tubers every year? What time is better to sow and when to expect flowering? Here in the Kaliningrad region, for example, warm weather stays, sometimes, until mid-October. And an additional question about the soil: what should it be for growing dahlias? Regards, Valentine.

Good afternoon, Valentine! The flowers of “Dahlia Cactus, Blend” in the photo can be completely different, so if you have a faded image and you have found photos of flowers, for example, on the Internet, then do not expect them to look like

Dahlias are flowers that do not require careful care, non-capricious. If the climate allows, then they will bloom for a long time, until the first frosts, in your case until mid-October. But depends on the weather. These flowers are very good for decorating a flower garden in the style of "country", they can be combined with peonies and phloxes, so that the flowerbed is not empty until the time when the dahlia begins to bloom.

Since for tubers the temperature below -1 ° C is destructive, it is customary to dig up the tubers. If you don’t want to tinker a lot with tubers, you can grow dahlias like an annual plant from seeds every year. As a rule, varieties with a low stem are grown in this way.

Flowers are undemanding to the composition of the soil, but they can not be planted in wetlands. It is advisable to land on the sunny side, protected from the wind. If you want to immediately sow in open ground, then do it no later than the 4th decade of May, otherwise you will wait for flowering only after August. If you grow through seedlings and as an annual plant, the sowing should be done no later than the first decade of April.

Cover seating boxes with a film for a greenhouse effect and reaching a temperature of 25-27 ° C. Seeds germinate well in a mixture of peat and sand. Make sure that the soil is not overwetted, and use a spray gun. Sprouting seedlings, when the first leaves appear, should be seated in separate pots. Before planting, disinfect the soil with potassium permanganate or steamed.

Before planting in the ground in mid-May, the seedlings must be hardened. Start taking it out 5 minutes a day, increasing each day by 5-10 minutes. Some plants may bloom by this time.

After half a month, at the end of May, dahlias are ready to move to the ground. By this time there will be no frosts, and dahlias, as a rule, tolerate transplantation well. They should not be planted in the place where sick plants grew, for example, asters. Make sure that the distance between the plants is more than 20 cm. Between them you can plant marigolds - they do not like pests because of the strong smell.

Remember that the dahlia planting site should be changed every year.

Gallery: dahlia cactus (15 photos)