In this part of
Scotland near to the city of Glasgow the weather is never
as severe as in other parts of the United Kingdom as far as snow
is concerned. However we suffer from late frosts in mid
June which causes havoc with dahlias.
This snowman was built during the winter of 1991 when we had
an exceptional fall of snow. The idea was taken from the
statues on Easter Island called Moai, standing about 14 feet tall
he lasted for many weeks.
If you take a show date of the 20th August and work back it is possible to calculate when you should take the Dahlia cutting for a particular variety. Let us take for example the variety Karenglen which is extremely difficult to grow here in Scotland. It is a late flowering variety and therefore the dahlia cuttings will have to be taken early, perhaps mid March. Karenglen does not produce a lot of side shoots when it is stopped. Since I need to take 20 blooms from each plant in order to keep the blooms within classification limits which would normally be impossible left to mother nature I will have to stop the plant twice. This means it will be even later to flower, three or four weeks later. The calculated date of mid March will have to be moved three weeks back into February. So, the dahlia cuttings are taken around the middle to end of February. They will take two weeks to root and will manage to live in their three inch pot for four weeks.
Mid April the dahlias be moved on up into five inch pots, it will take the plant three weeks to fill the five inch pot. Moving them on up into a nine inch pot will allow them plenty of scope to grow for planting either the first or second week in June. The dahlia plant receives its first stop on the 1st of April and the second stop on the 20th June, it will show colour for the beginning of August.
Other varieties such as Eastwood Moonlight I would take the cuttings on the 18th of March, again two weeks to root, four weeks in a three inch pot and at the beginning of May into a five inch pot. Come the first week in June the plant will be investigating the bottom of the pot, just in time to plant it into the ground. The biggest setback a plant receives here in Scotland is when it is planted into the ground. June can be really cold and I cover the plants with fleece at night.
This may seem a complicated process but I started out by saying
this is Scotland and growers have to adapt to their own local
environmental conditions when attempting to grow dahlias.
I propagate all my plants in a controlled environment room which was specially constructed for the purpose. The room measures 10 feet by 18 feet wide, it is difficult to take photographs in the confined space.
One wall carries three shelves made from Dexion.
The main floor area is taken up with two benches which will be used to root the dahlia cuttings. Each bench is lined with polysterene sheeting which is covered with a layer of polythene and two inches of the rooting mixture which comprises 50% of a multi purpose compost, 25% sharp sand and 25% Vermiculite. The sand is not ideal, it comes from a local quarry and is used in the manufacture of concrete blocks. It serves the purpose of keeping the mixture "open"
Next the soil warming cables ( 1, 2, 3 ) are placed on the prepared bed and these are then covered with a further 3 inches of the same mixture as before. One bench has the luxury of a thermostat to control the warming cable but the other bench does not require one because it maintains a constant 70 degrees.
Three mist heads are positioned down the middle of the benches. For a more detail description see "Creating an indoor growing room"