The Easy-Going Dahlia

by Beverly Faxon

As a cutting flower, dahlias are pretty easy-going, a perfect way to give the brain a rest and rely instead on the hands.

They seem to require just three things. They need close attention paid when they are wee sprouts because slugs munch them like the tender greens they are. I have tried making metal cages for them to start out in, like little green gerbils, but they seem to do best with doses of Sluggo. A stake when they are planted (or cut back in the late fall) marks the spot where I start putting Sluggo mid-spring. Then I keep an eye on the spot, and when the tiny shoots come up, I sprinkle on more Sluggo as needed.

Once they reach a lush eight inches or so, slugs seem to pass them by. As they grow, I corral them gently with some twine around that stake and perhaps another. Otherwise, they will eventually topple over. This year, the largest dahlias towered above my head.

As they flower, the one thing they ask for is an appreciative audience to cut them regularly for vases, or at least to deadhead them as them bloom. I used to think of dahlias as a late summer, early autumn flower. But the last few years, they have come on much earlier, filling the garden and house with mid-summer blooms and not quitting until close to the first frost.

You can plant the tubers, like little wizened yams, mid-April to mid-May, as long as there is no more frost coming. Nestled in a little basket, the tubers make a nice Mother’s Day gift, and even nicer if they include an offer to stop by and help with the planting. I’ve never bothered to dig them up and store them as is sometimes suggested, and they have come back from some pretty deep freezes.