Derek Hewlett, one of the world’s finest dahlia growers, reveals all the intimate details of his love affair with this, the largest of all the dahlia family, in the hope that his experiences will be of benefit to others similarly inclined.
It is some years now since I saw my first giant decorative
dahlia. It was love at first sight: that magic something you can’t
explain, and they have held me fascinated ever since.
There is nothing different in the general habits of this group
of dahlias from any other, be it mediums, smalls or pompons. except.
of course, that the flowers come larger. There can be no type
of flower that responds so readily to being well cultivated and
pushed to the limit as our modern giant decorative. And there
is no doubt which exhibits rouse the majority of attention and
interest at National and major shows throughout the country!
If you are starting out on the road to growing giants there is
no finer place than at one of these shows to make your selection
of varieties to grow. The ones that win regularly vary very little
across the country, and it is here that the beginner or hardened
campaigner should be on the lookout for the varieties that have
won or been placed and, of course, the possible novelty that he
thinks has potential. The mortality rate of good giants is not
high and I am still happily growing and showing varieties that
I bought thirty years ago for half a crown.
Names like Kidd’s Climax, Cherokee Beauty and Liberator spring
quickly
to mind, and there are many others that have stood the test of
time. When starting to grow or exhibit giants don’t be lulled
into the false paradise that the dearest ones in the trader’s
catalogue are necessarily the best. Usually they are the untried
newcomers. carrying a high price because of their novelty content
and general scarcity. Intending exhibitors will be well advised
to leave these trial horses to the experienced growers who already
have their full quota of standard varieties and are always on
the lookout for shock troops to dazzle an enthralled audience
and outwit the opposition. If these novelties are going to be
any good. they are soon taken up and the initial price drops rapidly
after the first year or so.
Robust plants
It is wise to have some main objective in view, your local show
or a National show. when making your plans for the following season.
Base your plans on the date of that show and work back for the
general timing programme. Bear in mind that blooms of giant decoratives
take approximately 30-35 days to come into flower from when the
bud is taken, and it is important that the whole structure is
built up into a good robust plant, fit to support the blooms you
expect to get at the end of the story.
Give your plants plenty of time to reach this maturity. I like
to plant out as a general rule approximately 100 days before my
main show date. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule
and many the man who planted out Lila Pattie never stood a chance
of seeing it flower for the early September shows. These are only
things you can learn by experience, at least that’s what
I was told, but I found that by reading every available word on
dahlias, talking and asking questions to the boys who grew giants
at the big shows, and by attending as many lectures as was practicable
I soon found out the idiosyncrasies of the different varieties.
You also learn by practice. and it is only by growing giants yourself
that you become really acquainted with them.
Make certain that you plant out a good healthy plant of a reasonable
size and don’t forget to give it as much space as it will
eventually require when it is fully grown. I have been as guilty
as the next man by planting too close and have now learnt my lesson:
if you can give them 3ft. either way you are then getting very
close to the ideal. Like all dahlias they need tying, staking,
spraying and the normal good culture that the majority of competent
dahlia growers give to their plants. Being big fellas they have
big appetites and giants are happiest when the plants are mulched
with a well-rotted manure. Like you, I have read that all this
muck and mystery is so much guesswork, and the really “with
it” grower awaits his soil analysis, and then scientifically
arrives at the requirements of his dahlia patch. This may be so,
but I’ve always been a believer that the proof of the pudding
is in the eating, and I can see no logical reason for changing
what, for me, has been a formula that produces results.
Soils needs
It is very important before mulching to make sure that the ground
is well soaked, if not by rain then get the hosepipe and sprinklers
working and don’t be shy with the water. My aim is to start
mulching the last week in June, and to really pack the stuff round
the plants to a depth of 6-8 in. The majority of my plants will
be stopped around this period, giving them plenty of time to throw
good strong breaks. I reckon to mulch three years out of four
and this is the diet that they seem to like. The mulch not only
conserves the water content in the ground by not allowing the
sun to keep drying and baking the surface; it also keeps down
the weeds by robbing them of their light source, When it is all
dug in during the winter the well-rotted manure seems to improve
the ground yearly. My soil is clay topsoil with a heavy ballast
subsoil, ideal for drainage. Over the years the clay and manure
have mingled together to form a heavy loam that will take all
the water I can pump into it. It is fortunate that this is so,
because I’m not sure whether I think the manure is more important
or the water: certainly it is a combination of the two that produces
blooms that will give you a reasonable chance of success.
Having stopped your plants somewhere between ten and eleven weeks
before you want the blooms, the breaks that will eventually carry
the flowers will soon require your attention. Are you growing
three or four blooms to the plant? Certainly some of the more
rugged-growers will carry four good blooms: Go American, Trelawny
and Margaret Duross are prime examples whereby a good size bloom
is obtained and it seems to improve the refinement. But, the majority
of present day giants are grown three up, and it is the three
breaks that you will have to sort out as soon as possible. When
a strong plant is stopped at the end of ,June or early July it
may have four or five pairs of leaves below the growing point,
thus having eight or ten breaks as soon as the side shoots start
growing. It is a perroutation of any three from eight or ten breaks
you have that you will decide whet her you have blooms on the
show date or not. A wise grower would not want to Put all his
eggs in one basket, so he would select three different length
leaf breaks. It would he opportune at this stage to impress on
would-be growers that it is important to grow enough of each variety.
If I could only grow twelve plants I would make sure that they
were all the same variety. Twelve, all different “ones”
or six “twos” is not the way to succeed on the show
bench. When growing for the larger classes, you still
need to grow in dozens if possible, only more varieties will be
needed. It will be seen that if twelve of a certain variety are
grown and de-branched to three shoots each, the grower will have
thirty-six blooms running for him, which could be sorted out in
numerous ways. The important thing is to do it in time: don’t
keep hedging until you see the buds. What is required is three
or four laterals growing away strongly, getting all the nourishment
they require, all building up the petal count in the bud.
Buds will appear
It is getting this really strong large stem that is one of the
real “musts”, because these are the stems that always
seem to carry the largest flowers. We have all seen out-of-this-world
giants on stems more becoming to a small decorative: but they
are the exception. Year in and year out the real crackers have
always got the thickest stems. It goes without saying that this
is also a tremendous advantage when staging and carrying blooms
about.
Soon our buds will appear and the pulses start racing at the thought
of the beauty that will soon be ours. It is this period that gives
me the most satisfaction the whole year round. I get a great kick
seeing the first shoot coming from the crown of the dormant tuber,
and who can honestly say he doesn’t get a thrill from staging
a first-class exhibit? But, for a genuine sense of achievement
and pleasure there is nothing to equal a quiet walk round the
dahlia patch in the cool of the evening with the buds secured
- to me this is the highlight of the season. It is normal practice.
when taking buds of giants, to use the central or main terminal
bud, but certain varieties tend to have too short a footstalk
when this is done, so a side bud is used instead. The blooms carried
on side buds normally have longer stems, vary very little in size
to their centre bud counterparts and are credited with having
more refinement. I’m not so sure about the last fact, but
what is for certain is that they take three or four days longer
to mature than centre bud blooms. This can be useful knowledge
if your main buds are running that bit early. and could give you
those few vital days’ reprieve. Notable varieties that need
growing on side buds to gain length in stem are Mark Hardwick
and Cherokee Beauty.
It is surprising how soon the small bud, possibly the size of
a pea when secured, soon fattens out and colours up. It is very
important to keep the spraying and tying programme going and now
is the time when the would-be exhibitor must keep the wary eye
open for that night marauder, the earwig. Failure to spend one
evening with your plants at this stage could spell disaster and
all your work and good intentions be ruined. My evening’s
work at this stage would be a smear of Vaseline around each stem,
above the top pair of leaves, but about 12 in. down from the fattening
bud. Just a smear between thumb and finger worked around the stem:
you will be amazed how many plants you will do in an hour and
how adept you become. Just to make doubly sure, an oil can filled
with paraffin and taken to each cane that supports the plant is
the ultimate in the one-night battle with these pests. The operation
is simplicity; one squirt from the oil can into each open top
of the cane, earwigs die instantly when the oil reaches their
hiding quarters at the top of the canes and those with other lodgings
will not climb above your grease band of Vaseline in order to
sample your blooms.
Split canes
Make sure when you do your final ties to prevent the blooms from
hitting the canes or each other that you do not by-pass your grease
band and give the earwig a protected route to your blooms. As
a final precaution, I always dip the last ties in paraffin; it
only takes seconds to throw them into a bucket of oil the day
before you use them, Let them dry and they are well impregnated
with the oil, easy to use, and are a certain barrier against the
enemy.
It is a practice with many exhibitors to fix a split cane to the
stem of the bloom with three or four twists-its. These are paper-covered
wires, usually about 6in. long and are one of the industry’s
best aids to the gardener. They have so many uses - are cheap
and convenient. The practice of fixing split canes to stems has
many advantages, the main one being that it will straighten a
stem which, if not fully ripe and hardened, tends to wander about
in hot and humid weather. Make sure that the bud is in full colour
or you will find that the footstalk will still be growing in length
and your split cane will do more damage than good if your top
twist-it just below the bud is too tight. I often leave this top
twist-it loose and adjust it when it is ready.
Occasionally you will get a bud looking down or “clock-faced”,
which is far from ideal. A small cotton-wool pad fixed to the
top of a split cane by an elastic band and pushed up hard under
the bud when it is pliable will usually adjust it to the right
angle. There is no need to wait until you find a bud that needs
adjusting, get some pads fixed to the split canes during the off-season
while you are happily watching “Match of the Day” in
the winter; you will soon have fifty or so made up and all ready
for when you need them.
It is when we come to buds full of colour and beginning to flip
their petals that we reach the sometimes vexed question - to cover
or not to cover? There is no doubt in my mind which side of the
fence I come down on. I am a cover man. I cannot see the sense
in growing a magnificent specimen bloom to perfection and then
having it ruined by the vagaries of an English summer. There are
different types of shading or covering; mass covering of the whole
or part of the plot by means of polythene or translucent sheeting
supported on timber or Dexion framework, or, individual cones
approximately 18 in. across, covered with waterproof paper or
polythene supported with canes. Both methods have their supporters,
whilst others - and I am one -try to get the best of both worlds
and use a mixture of the two.
By now our show dates have arrived and it is no good having show-worthy
blooms and not having given any thought on how you intend to get
them to the show. Transporting giants needs a certain amount of
room and by the very fact of their size, public transport is out
of the question. A car with back seats removed, a van or something
similar is the answer to an exhibitor’s prayers. You will,
of course, need to put them in something and 5-gallon drums about
one-third filled with water are as good a bet as anything. Make
su~e you have drilled a series of holes around the top rim of
the drum, and that you have a piece of crumpled chicken wire or
similar in the water on the bottom of the drum. Your blooms already
sporting their split canes are fixed to the side of the drum by
means of twist-its through the holes in the top of the drum, and
the wire in the bottom prevents the stems wandering about. Blooms
transported in this fashion have been the length and breadth of
the country with rarely a mishap.
Blooms must not touch
Another method favoured by exhibitors is to carry blooms in polythene
bottles beloved by detergent and bleach firms. These are fixed
to hurdles or in a crate and if this method suits you, I can assure
you blooms have been carried like this long before our time and
very successfully too. Whatever method you use, certain points
are important.
Always try to keep the blooms in water as soon as they are cut.
When do we cut the blooms? Anytime between sundown and sunrise
will do for me; a good sharp knife, a slanting cut and straight
into water. Make sure that blooms cannot touch each other during
travel, and always give yourself plenty of time for travelling,
Time is an important factor when it comes to staging. Study the
staging of winners in the big classes: note how they keep their
blooms in line and levelled across, and how they generally make
sure that their exhibits are to their liking before they leave
them.
Make sure that you have a final inspection of your exhibit, front
and rear. Don’t be afraid to take the odd bad petal out of
the back of your blooms. Judges are quick to spot the few damaged
petals, but not so observant when it comes to the odd petal missing.
Make sure that your exhibit is not standing with the sun beating
through a window or roof light and if you cannot avoid staging
in this manner, keep them out of the way and in the shade until
the last possible moment. Finally, make sure that you have complied
with the schedule, named your exhibit and topped up your vases
with water.
Having started at a show selecting what varieties to grow, it
is appropriate to conclude there, but not before giving you my
selection of which varieties I will be growing, whilst suggesting
that some of these might also suit you.
Selected varieties
Certain varieties must go down as bankers and it is from these
that the beginner or exhibitor not growing for the really big
classes should take his choice: Bonaventure, Hamari Gold, Kidds
Climax, Wandas Capella, Alvas Supreme and Go American, would form
as solid a core of first-class, easy-to-grow exhibition giants
as I can think of. Close on their heels I would pick Night Editor,
Zorro, Mark Hardwick, Esau, Walter Hardisty and My Doris ‘R’.
These six, having certain problems with side buds and late flowering
varieties would not be quite so easy as my first-choice bankers,
but would make up a formidable second string.
My stand-by dozen will consist of Almands Climax, Lula Pattie,
Lavengro, Liberator, Playboy, Jocondo, William ‘B’,
Brain ley Sunset, Bull’s Pride, Cream Alvas, Margaret Duros
and Leycett. With this galaxy of talent you could take on the
world and probably would, but just in case you are worried, three
newcomers that would not let you down are Kenora Wildfire, Wandas
Sunshine and Bill HoIm berg.
When the demands of exhibiting around the country become too exhausting,
nothing I’m sure will give me greater satisfaction than attempting
to raise new strains of giant decoratives. It is a challenge which
I look forward to with pleasure.