Malcolm Harrison

Seed swap

I have ordered a packet of 100+ Mixed Dahlia seeds from the National Dahlia Collection in Cornwall. They are very cheap and a good way to get started to restore a garden with beautiful blooms next summer. If you have too many then give some away to family and friends.

Growing Sweet Peas

I am growing dwarf sweet peas from seed this autumn using root trainers to get a better root system established. They were sown in September using an electric propagator at 15 deg C and after about 14 days most of them germinated. They were then moved into a colder mini greenhouse where they have remained since including one or two nights at freezing temperatures. I will keep them there overwinter and not pinch out the leading tip - just let the natural cold temperature growth develop the side shoots until next spring before planting out. 

Storing Dahlia Tubers

I have been raising and growing two varieties of Dahlia from seed over the past two years with great success. They have been grown both out in the open garden and in pots. I stored the tubers over winter in Vermiculite and replanted them in pots from which just three reshooted this summer and I must say they were both stronger growing and produced beautiful blooms from mid June right the way through till the first frosts this November - so certainly better than the year before. The others I lost to a wet spring and early summer.

This winter I, too, have many huge tubers to store and I think this time I will try  vermiculite for some and just wrapping in newspaper for the rest and see which method turns out to be the best. I have read articles where the soil is just left on the tubers and just left to dry and others where they are cleaned, washed and trimmed before storage. I would value any further tips on this issue as well.

Many thanks.    Malcolm

Storing Dahlia Tubers

I have read many articles and watched several video clips on methods of storing Dahlia Tubers each one differing in some way from the next. I would value comments on the essential points to watch out for during the overwintering process. My home is in South Bedfordshire.

Many thanks.

Storing Dahlia Tubers