There’s more to dahlias than tall flowering types that you see around the shows.
There are also types that are ideal for growing in tubs and troughs. I have even
grown some in hanging baskets, as a centre plant. They are good in small borders
also; even some of the park departments are growing them, to put them in large
beds. Some of the variety’s that are good for all this are, Exotic Dwarf a pink
single with a darker pink in the centre, it grows eight inches tall this is a
lovely little flower (flower size about one and a half inches across). Grow this
with one named Omo, this grows the same size flower. A really bright white
flower, I think this was named after the washing powder Omo. Then there are the
Topmix variety’s in all different colours and the Lilliput types Red, Yellow,
Pink, Orange Bronze and Purple. These variety’s you can get from the Garden
Centres and Superstores that sell gardening sundries. They were raised in
Holland and are grown there like we grow potatoes, and are harvested in the same
way; they put them into what I call Dutch Bags with the photo of the flower on
the top of the bag. That’s how we get them in the Garden Centres. But one of my
favourites is one called Little Dorrit raised in England it has a little flower
Lilac with a Purple ring around the centre. I was in Holland last year and we
ordered some plug plants from a nursery man Cornelius G de Ree. These were New
to the UK, a new type of dahlia raised by a Mr René Rotaveltts from just outside
of Amsterdam. They are small patio dahlias of eight variety’s Amazon Bronze,
Amazon Lilac, Floral Star, this has tiny Orange flowers about one inch across,
Dahlstar Rose with Eye pink semi double, Dahlstar White, Dahlstar Red, Dahlstar
Yellow, and a dark leaf one named Jewel Lilac this has a dark Lilac flower with
a Black centre one I think will do well in the years to come. They all grow
about eight inches tall. If you are going to grow any of the ones I have
mentioned, you will need about three tubers to a container of about fifteen
inches across. Put some small stones or old broken earthen ware pots in the
bottom of the container to help for drainage (don’t forget to make some holes in
the bottom of the container to let the water drain out if it gets over watered).
Dahlias like water but don’t like to just stand in it. Then half fill your
container with multipurpose compost mixed with some sharp sand, the sharp sand
helps to give the compost some body and also drainage. Then place your tubers in
the compost, at this stage I mix with the rest of the compost and sand some
water gel granules and some slow release fertiliser. This will produce a very
nutritious growing media that will help to keep the plants fed through the
summer and help to hold moisture. Put this over the top of the tubers, about one
and a half inches below the rim of the container, give it a good watering and
place in the greenhouse or conservatory until all signs of frost has gone. Then
wait for the small shoots to appear. Hope you have some fun trying this out, I
don’t think you will be disappointed.