Summer Care for Dahlias

5 – Cherry Blossoms 4 – Daffodils blooming 3 – First Swallows of the year (Photo by: Jen Goellnitz) 2 – Victoria Dahlia Society members start returning from places like Hawaii and Arizona (sorry, no photo)   1 – Dahlia tubers eying up for the VDS Plant and Tuber Sale (April 30 at Westshore Town…

Dahlias work extremely well as border plants and in pots and as an added benefit the bees and butterflies love them. Pictured below are some dahlia varieties that work particularly well in the garden border, including Rembrandt which grows to about 12″ tall and Bonne Esperance which grows to 18 to 24″.

This year, for fun, we are encouraging our members to grow dahlias from seed to see what flowers they might get. In September, we will have an informal flower show where members can show off their favourite blooms (judging will be by popular choice, ie what people like just by looking, and not by ADS…

The Flowers of the Year for 2013 have been announced. This year the flowers of the year were selected by the Nanaimo Galdiolus & Dahlia Society (we alternate years selecting the flowers of the year). The single will be Gwyneth which is an orange waterlily (WL OR). Photo from http://www.mountainvalleydahlias.com The triple will be Lakeview…

It’s mid-June and my dahlias are growing well, soon it will be time to start disbranching and disbudding! It won’t be long before the blooms are ready and it will be time to bring them into the VDS Annual Show, taking place on August 16th and 17th at Westshore Town Centre. If you want to…

Our March meeting featured two excellent presentations. One by Dwight from Integrity Sales and Distributors on fertilizer and the other by Cathy on Mason Bees. Fertilizer We all know that dahlias and other plants require certain nutrients to thrive and many of us apply fertilizer to help supply those nutrients. The question is how do…