An awful lot of stuff has been written about the art of growing perfect dahlias. There are so many different ways of arriving at the same result and most of it is commonsense and good husbandry. My gardening experiences started when I was a young man, living with my wife Irene, and two small daughters Pamela and Lorraine in a modern council flat. There was a plot about as big as an allotment that went with it. I remember it had an ash path that went the entire length of the plot, made from the remains of the Coalite we used on the back boiler in the living room. One side of the path was a wide flower border and on the other as many vegetables that I could produce. It was in that flower border that my first encounter of flower power occurred. We’d been away with the kids for a few days, I’m practically certain it was Southend, which is a seaside resort on the South coast. As soon as I got home I’d gone down to inspect the plot, and low and behold there it was, the most perfect incurve chrysanthemum I had ever seen. It was luck of course because I’d never let an incurve bloom mature to its full potential before, and the weather had been favourable. The name of the chrysanthemum was Elizabeth Anne, now long gone I presume.
 
Anyway, oh you’re wondering why I’ve started an article on the culture of dahlias by talking about chrysanthemums! Well that flower border had a lot more growing on it than chrysanthemums. There were dahlias of course, and a lot of other stuff as well, it was a sort of testing ground for later years. You grow lots of plants when you’re young; you’re not sure what you like. Gladiolas, sweet peas, fuchsias and even pansies were all favourites of mine, but it was the picture of that chrysanthemum that stayed with me for twenty years to the credit of the one who raised it. When I moved to Bournemouth in 1957 my chrysanthemum collection had grown to such an extent, that half the back lawn had to be dug up to accommodate it. Inevitably this led to exhibiting, the first success I had, was with a variety called Peach Blossom, shows you how long ago it is, I don’t expect anyone can remember it. Anyway it gained a third prize and I was twenty-seven at the end of that year. Forty-five years on and the numbers have been reversed, I am now seventy two, at least that’s what I was when this article was written in 2003.
 
With this prize under my belt, and the sight of all those other exhibits in my head, I was determined to do better, we’ve all been there haven’t we. Catalogues were ordered; every known book on chrysanthemum growing and showing was acquired, and in order to get the most up to date information, I joined The National Chrysanthemum Society. After going to a few more shows I joined my nearest specialised society, which was The New Forest & District Dahlia & Chrysanthemum Society. Very soon I too was picking up the red tickets. Okay you’ve had enough of me waffling on about chrysanthemums. You are there, aren’t you?
 
Throughout my show days in the South I visited many different venues, and who should be there staging their blooms, you’ve guessed it `The Dahlia Boys’ they’re very much like `The Chrysanthemum Boys’ but if anything, they expect more for their money. They were always on about chrysanthemum growers getting just the one flower per season for all that work. Whereas they could get as many as three lots of show able flowers from theirs. It’s true of course, apart from a bit of spray after an early flowering chrysanthemum bloom is cut, is all you do get, but they are beautiful flowers, and you will never beat them for the length of time they last in a vase. The other thing they couldn’t understand was how could chrysanthemum growers wanted to grow a group of flowers that had hardly any colour range? Of course in those days they were right, but since then the chrysanthemum hybridists have been to work they have developed a spectrum second to none. There’s someone I’ve got to know, since using the Internet, who always won top honours when we exhibited at the National Chrysanthemum Shows in London many years ago. His name is Harry Lawson, and he comes from Hartlepool, he’s been breeding chrysanthemums now for thirty years, and reckons a bi-coloured bloom is on the horizon, but that’s for the chrysanthemum boys to get excited about, isn’t it? Not us.
 
Every dahlia in its group is as different as chalk is to cheese, to its neighbouring cultivars. Okay some are similar, but none are the exactly the same, they’re like people, what suits one, won’t suit another. One mans meat is another mans poison, and all that. Find out their likes and dislikes, and you have the key. Don’t get me wrong, of all the plants I have every grown, the dahlia is the most accommodating, grow it well and it’s magnificent, grow it with the minimum of attention and it will still put on a show. The best exhibitors take their passion to the extreme sometimes. This is true for both dahlia enthusiasts, and anyone else willing to give up everything for their hobby. Only this week I heard of a leek exhibitor who supposedly slept on the plot where his prize-winning leeks grew. Some would say this is taking it too far, but for him, in this day and age, with vandalism as it is; this is what he was prepared to do. To grow anything to perfection is an art. The people that pick up the prizes are the people that see to their plants needs before themselves, or anyone else come to that. I had to alter the last line because I’d left myself wide open to being called a sexist. In case anyone objected earlier, to the passage where I mentioned `Dahlia Boys’ and `Chrysanthemum Boys’ I’m sorry, but in those days it was the norm for the chaps to do the growing and the ladies to do the cooking etc, how times have changed. These days there are some very good lady growers, and some very good lady hybridists, but then again there are blokes, who can knock up a superb meal, and do the house work as well, but then there always was. Whoops.
 
Dahlia culture for me is finding out what the plant needs at each stage of its growth, and supplying it. You might think having never shown a dahlia in my life, I would be the last person to try and give advice on how to grow them. You’ve got a good point, but then I did show and grow chrysanthemums for a number of years, and they are just as exacting. When I started, I suppose I’d have been called a fanatic, so it helped to have an understanding wife. The trick is not to grow more than you can manage. During the winter months think of how many plants you would like to grow the following year, and then cut the number by one third. Regards spraying against predators find a reliable systemic insecticide spray, and another none systemic, and alternating them once a fortnight throughout the growing season, and take heed of the instructions on the bottle.

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