Paul is a keen dahlia grower who has spent years perfecting the art of growing dahlias for competition purposes and I have taken the opportunity to ask him a few questions.

Trelyn Kiwi dahlia

So what is your favourite dahlia?
“Of the 102 dahlias that I grow my main dahlia has to be Trelyn Kiwi, which is a small cactus which you can see in the picture below. This dahlia is a multi winner up and down the country, even to the other ends of the world such as New Zealand.

Its form is immaculate if not the easiest to grow. I usually grow 24 plants but this year I am growing 32 plants of it!

Do you have some advice on how to achieve the best results with your dahlias?
I follow these steps in order to be ready for the annual dahlia show which takes place in Truro next weekend on 16th August:

Marston Velvet dahlia

- Planting: I usually plant my dahlias during the last week of May, watering in with Maxicrop Seaweed based growth stimulant and Epsom Salts. Other fertilizers are also available but these are my preferred choice.
- Stopping: in order to grow perfect show dahlia flowers, in particular for my Trelyn Kiwi variety, I like to pinch out the central leading bud in June. When that leading bud is removed the lower buds grow on producing the resultant stems which should be ready for the show in August.
- Debranching: secure 7 stems and the resultant blooms will reach 6.25 to 6.50 inches across.
- Disbudding: I remove all other bud growth down to ground level
- Cutting for the show: I cut the flower 24 hours before the show, or 36 hours placing blooms in a dark shed; Trelyn can have ‘green centres’ so a day before cutting add a high nitrogen feed such as Chempak No.2 to each plant. This should help to close centres along with the ‘dark shed’ treatment.

How do you deal with the dreaded earwigs?

Don Hill Dahlia

You need to maintain clean plots and surrounding areas so that earwigs have less places to hide and breed. Otherwise, twice a year mix a 10 times stronger dose than recommended of an insecticide such as Bug Clear by Scotts for example, mix in a jug, pour into a washing up liquid container and pour this down each cane as they can hide there. Also I spray dahlias every week with insecticide (Roseclear is my choice as combines insecticide and fungicide).”

If you want to see some of the most beautiful dahlias in the country including Paul’s, then a visit to the West Cornwall Dahlia Annual show is a must:
The West Cornwall Dahlia Club, the Main Show is on Sunday 16th August at Chacewater Garden Centre, Chacewater, Truro, Cornwall. Alternatively you can check out Paul’s website which is dedicated to dahlias.

Garden Dahlia

In my experience it is important to feed dahlias regularly in order to get a nice succession of blooms. Experts sometimes differ on what type of fertilizers they use to grow their prize-winning blooms (prize winning tips often remain secret!). I find that you can either use a general complete flower fertilizer that you can find in any garden center or better still, I like to use sulphate of potash which is basically the liquid that I use to feed my tomato plants.

I prefer to use liquid fertilizers since they are easier to dilute according to the manufacturers instructions. I also like to make sure that during periods of draught my dahlias are watered regularly and I obviously feed the base of the plant in the ground.

Right now I have dahlias grown in pots, and also some plants over-wintered as they were planted directly in the ground last year.

This year a couple of my plants didn’t make it through the exceptionally cold winter so it’s best not to leave them outside if you don’t want to take any risk.

Varied Border

The specimens that were planted directly in the ground and survived winter are only just starting to produce buds but I know that they will be just as beautiful as the forced one.

Another tip for growing dahlias is that it is best to dead head the faded flowers regularly. This encourages new growth and it also makes the plant look tidier.

Whilst I deadhead I also take the opportunity to check for earwigs since they lurk in the flower petals and can do quite a lot of damage to your plant. I don’t use any pesticides on my plants and prefer to trap the earwigs in upturned clay pots as I explained on my previous article about growing dahlias.

If you have found that a particular type of dahlia is graceful to you, then you will be able to propagate the plant at a later stage.

So it’s worth keeping a note of which plant is of interest to you right now so that you may be able to grow some more for free for years to come.