The Monklands Dahlia Society Late show is usually held during
the first week of October and can turn out quite competitive if
there has not been severe frost. This year there were 14
entries in the Dahlia Championship
Class (3x3). Tom Melrose
won the class using Kenora Challenger, B. J. Beauty and Kiwi Gloria.
The Basket of Dahlias
for Effect was won by Andrew Allan Jnr.
Back home and the tunnel is looking rather sad still a few blooms left these will be given away to neighbours. Tunnel one, two and three. The bed 1, 2 where the dahlia pot tubers are growing is still colourful on the 8th October. Insects are still busy trying to gather up the remaining pollen from the seedling dahlias. They completed a good job this dahlia seed pod is almost bursting with seed, after all it was the bees that helped to produce this dahlia seedling.
Such a short dahlia season last blooms are showing signs of the season drawing to a close. By the end of the month frost has blackened the dahlias and time to think about lifting them for the winter. The dahlia tubers are labelled and carried to the glasshouse in baskets. And so another season starts. The ground is dug over and left to mother nature to work on through the winter months. The dahlia tubers are cleaned and stored in five gallon buckets filled with Vermiculite.
Before I sign off here are three images the first one is of
a dahlia pot
tuber, then a dahlia field
tuber and finally a comparison
between a field tuber and a pot tuber. One is ten times the size
of the other. So, if storage space is at a premium think
about pot tubers.
