These flowers with lush motley color are able to decorate any flower garden, park or summer cottage. Varied in shape, all possible colors, different in size and height, with a delicious aroma and a long flowering period. Speech - about dahlias: perennial herbaceous plants from the family of Asteraceae (Aster). The genus includes about 40 species. In the wild, these flowers are found in Mexico and Guatemala. In the culture used about 15 thousand varieties. On the intricacies of growing dahlias in the open field, read below.
Perennial Dahlia
Dahlia is a perennial plant with a hollow stem that can reach a height of 30 to 250 cm and a large, powerful root system in the form of tubers. The size, shape and color of the flowers of the plant are very diverse. They can reach a diameter of 3 to 35 cm.
Depending on their form, there are 10 types:
- simple;
- nymphs;
- semikactus;
- cactus terry;
- pompon;
- spherical;
- decorative;
- peony;
- collar;
- anemonovid.
The leaves of the flower are also different in shape and color - can be from pale green to almost black.
Perennial dahlia flowers are characterized by a long flowering period, which lasts from July to November, more precisely until the first frost. At this time, they delight their owners and passersby with a variety of colors - there are no only varieties with blue and blue buds.
Despite its fabulous beauty, the plant is completely unpretentious in the care. Most often it is planted in open ground in flowerbeds, curb compositions, mixborders, however, some varieties are suitable for growing in pots, containers. Dwarf varieties used in rabatkah.
Did you know? The name of the dahlia was named after the famous Russian ethnographer Johanna Georgi in 1803. The Latin name Dahlia flower inherited from the name of the botanist from Sweden Andreas Dahl in 1791.
Growing conditions
The main conditions for the successful cultivation of dahlias are:
- selection of places in accordance with the requirements of the plant;
- providing the necessary soil composition;
- regular watering;
- properly conducted dressings;
- activities for the formation of the bush.
Lighting
In principle, dahlias can grow in any light. The only thing is that in shady areas they will be less decorative and reduce flowering time - the flowers will grow smaller and dimmer. The most beautiful are those plants that grow in light partial shade. If there is no such site, they should be planted in an open, sunny area, but protected from the winds.
Weather
Since the homeland of wild dahlias are warm countries, the plant is thermophilic. It should be planted when there is no threat of spring frosts, to a well-heated land.
It is because of heat-lovingness that by the winter the whole ground part of the plant dies off, only the tubers that need to be dug up and stored until spring remain alive.
We recommend that you familiarize yourself with the varietal variety and peculiarities of growing an annual dahlia.
Soil characteristics
In terms of soil, dahlias are also unassuming - grow to anyHowever, the best decoration is shown when grown in black soil, loam and sandy loam.
If the earth is acidic, the acidity will need to be reduced by adding lime, dolomite flour, ash. One of these means is scattered on a site, and then mixed with the soil. This can be done both in the fall and immediately before planting the tubers. 
In the presence of alkaline soil it should be acidified by applying peat.
In heavy soil, it is important to add a mixture consisting of leaf humus, peat and sand. So you can achieve greater air permeability.
Prerequisite is good drainage. For it use claydite or broken brick.
For planting dahlias will not be suitable swamped areas and with a close location of groundwater. It is strictly not recommended to plant them in the lowlands.
Features of planting perennial dahlias
To plant dahlias, you need to buy planting material. The stores are seeds, roots, cuttings, seedlings. Best when choosing to stay on tubers and seeds. Using the first to make landing easier and faster.
How to choose the right tubers for planting
When selecting perennial dahlia tubers, it is necessary, first of all, to pay attention to their quality and availability of the elements necessary for a successful planting and care: 2-3 cm pieces of stem, root cervix with buds, 1-3 nodules. All elements should keep well on the root neck and in no case dangle on it. 
Tubers should be chosen elastic, healthy looking - not shriveled, not dry, without rot, spots.
If the tubers are bought long before the process of planting, then they need to be saved in the same way as in the winter period. You can read about proper storage below.
Preparation of planting material
Before planting dahlias, it is necessary to germinate the tubers after winter or, if they are only purchased, prepare them for planting in open ground. Do it in need April-May. Dry roots are removed from them.
Then planted in containers filled with nutrient substrate or peat. The tubers do not penetrate deep into the soil - about 2-3 cm should remain on the surface. The tanks are placed in a bright room and left there for 10-14 days at a temperature of + 18-22 ° C. During this time should appear sprouts. Then the tubers are divided with a knife so that each part has a kidney and root collar. One tuber usually gives up to five such parts.
Parts are returned to containers with a germination substrate. Before they are planted in open ground, it is necessary to remove 10-centimeter side shoots. Planting in open ground is made after the shoots reach a height of 10-15 cm.
Important! Parts of tubers can be planted immediately in open ground, but in this case dahlias will decrease flowering period.
Landing rules
In the wells in which it is planned to plant the tubers, it is desirable to bring in small quantities of manure (compost), lime and ash. Top organic matter should be sprinkled with soil to prevent burns to the tubers.
The hole should be the depth of the spade bayonet. Then at the bottom of the pits gently lay the tubers and sprinkled with earth. At the same time, the root collar cannot be deeply deepened - this is fraught with rotting.
After planting, the ground should be well watered and mulched. Mulching, in addition to freeing us from further weeding and loosening procedures, protects plants from pests such as slugs.
Caring for flowers in the garden
Caring for dahlias is easy. It consists only in three acts:
- watering;
- dressings;
- shrub formation.
If you make mistakes in agricultural technology, you may also have to fight diseases or harmful insects: wireworms, aphids, earwigs, spider mites, bedbugs, slugs.
At the age of two or three, dahlias will need to be planted by division. Otherwise their flowering will shrink every year.
How to water the plants
The soil under the plant should always be slightly wet. After planting, for 7-10 days, dahlias are watered. daily. In the future, this should be done less often - a maximum of twice a week. Excessive watering is fraught with tuber rot and poor tolerance to the winter period.
Periodically irrigation should be combined with loosening of the stalk zone. 
After the plants have grown slightly, after each watering, their hilling should be done by 15 cm. Tall varieties should be tied to a stable support, since the empty stems in the middle easily break when gusts of wind occur. But even with a broken stem, the plant can be saved by immediately tying it to an elastic support in the form of a stick or branch.
Did you know? From Mexico to Europe, dahlias were brought in 1789. At first, the Spaniards wanted to eat their tubers as potatoes. However, having tasted that they were tasteless, they decided to plant them only for decorative purposes, and the monarch ordered them to be planted only in the royal garden.
Feeding Dahlia
To achieve the highest peak of ornamentation and duration of flowering dahlias should be fertilized. every two weeks. It is better to alternate the application of mineral fertilizers and organic.
At the appearance of the first buds, potash fertilizers and superphosphate are introduced into the flowers. Dahlias do not need nitrogen supplements.
The last fertilizer procedure must be carried out at the end of the summer. Otherwise, the tubers will be worse wintering.
Features of the formation of the bush
The formation of the bush is to regular breaks flowering buds and removal of lateral shoots from the bottom of tall plants. If the buds do not break in time, they will inhibit the appearance of the following buds and, therefore, will delay flowering.
It is possible to achieve large inflorescences, leaving only three buds on each bush.
Immediately after planting, with a clear selection of the main shoots, it is necessary to choose two of the strongest, and remove the rest. So you can avoid unnecessary snacking.
Side shoots break out before the formation of buds. All shoots are removed up to the fourth pair of leaves from the ground. The tops of the shoots from the fourth pair of sheets pinch, removing the main point of growth.
Later this staining is performed on the side shoots.
Tubers also reproduce buttercups, tulips, gladioli, daffodils, freesia, callas, cannes.
Digging and storage in winter
Starting from the end of September (it is possible later, depending on the climatic conditions of the region where dahlias grow), when the stems die off, the tubers need to be carefully removed from the soil and placed in the necessary conditions for the whole winter in order to plant them again in the spring. It is important to know that in the same place dahlias should not be planted for more than three years in a row. Stems are cut 10-15 cm from the ground. Tubers are dug out in dry weather. First, they are dug in at a distance of 30 cm around. For digging one should use forks - with them the tubers are hooked and pulled out of the ground.
Then they need to shake off, wash off the soil and dry for 4-5 hours in the sun or two days indoors. It is also desirable to pickle the tubers. For this procedure, potassium permanganate is suitable, or tools like "Maxim", "Vitaron". After dressing, the tubers also need to be dried.
Well dried tubers should be kept indoors with temperature. + 2-7 ° C either in the fridge. They are put in a box or plastic bag with peat, sawdust, sand. You can also wrap in cling film. 
Tubers need to be periodically aired and scanned for rot.
Important! When tubers germinate during storage, they must be removed from a cool place and planted in a container with soil, for example, in an ordinary flower pot. Roots should not be deepened, just a little sprinkle with earth.
Having planted the most beautiful dahlias of different varieties and colors in any corner of your garden or cottage, you can create a unique style of your yard. They are especially beautiful in combination with irises, peonies. Unusual for a single landing on the background of lawns.
To help them achieve the largest sizes of inflorescences, the brightest colors of the petals, the highest length and steadiness of the stem, to avoid diseases and parasites will help properly conducted agricultural equipment, which is absolutely simple and available even to people who first decided to plant a flower garden.
