Dahlias and Daffodils 

Last week, PostNL was a regular visitor on our driveway. Their big trucks were picking up the first Dahlias ordered in our web shop. This is always a special moment for us: When it suddenly becomes very real, and we know that soon, our dear customers will have their days brightened by the mailman showing up with their much-anticipated flower bulbs. I sincerely hope that you will have fun planning out your summer garden this season, and I hope your vision will come to life beautifully over the summer. 

I want to repeat a quick summary about what to do with your Dahlia tubers after you have received them. It is easy for us, and we often try to not send out orders until the moment you can actually plant them, but the Dahlias require additional explanation in order to really get the most out of them. Preparing Dahlias

As many people who read the English newsletter do not have English as their first language, I will try to explain preparing Dahlias as clearly as I can, but if you have doubts, you can always send us an email. So, preparing Dahlias is something most experienced gardeners do, but experience is absolutely not required in order to successfully pull it off. It’s actually quite simple, really one of those tasks where actually starting the job takes more time than the job itself. All you need is a bag of regular potting soil and those (usually plastic) pots with the holes in the bottom. The holes are important. Plant the Dahlia in this pot in such a way that the cut-off stem is just visible above the soil. Put the pot somewhere in a place that gets daylight, but where the temperature is around 15 degrees Celsius, at night as well as during the day. The temperature doesn’t have to be very precise, but if you go under 15 degrees Celsius, the growth of the tuber slows down noticeably. I planted this pot two weeks ago and showed it in my news blog then, and this is what she looks like now: You can see the start of its growth. This pot was housed in my personal greenhouse. During the day, the temperature consistently got to about 20 degrees Celsius, but in the night, it was almost always below 15. Here, you see a tuber I had to unfortunately torture in the name of science: I wanted to show you what the roots look like after the first two weeks. We can tell that the tuber has been busy creating roots. Before the end of April-the beginning of May, the entire pot will be full of them. You can then easily lift the whole tuber, roots and all, out of the pot, and plant her in your garden–possibly in the spot your freshly-dug up Tulips have just vacated. I hope your Tulips have brought you a lot of joy at that point in the future. 

Sometimes, I feel like I can just hear you think: Carlos and his ‘enjoying’ stuff, is he really such an optimist, or is it just the news blog? But I can tell you, it is sincere, especially today. I really am enjoying myself, because the Fluwel Special Narcissus Collection has been launched today. Over the past few weeks, I have spent a lot of time in my greenhouse, taking pictures of new varieties and making sure they can be uploaded to our website. Vlad and I have had a lot of fun putting together the assortment, and there are 370 different varieties from our own nursery. I hope you’ll have a look at everything this special flower has to offer, and I am as always very excited to see which kinds you love.Dahlia Big Brother

But to stay with the Dahlia: if you choose not to prepare her, and would rather just keep her until it is time to plant them in the garden–this will be around the end of April or the beginning of May–you have to be very careful to not let them dry out. If you’ve taken them out of their packaging, wrap them in newspapers and put them in a box. Keep the box in a room that doesn’t get warmer than 10 degrees Celsius. Dahlias are very prone to drying out, and while they don’t immediately die when they dry out, they will become very slow. Fresh, moisturised tubers will be much more lively. If you haven’t taken the tubers out of their packaging, you can keep them in there. Their packaging is made of a porous plastic material that is especially made to let oxygen in but also only lets minimal amounts of moisture escape. Keep them until there is no longer a risk of frost at night. I don’t know about other countries than The Netherlands, but for us, there is rarely any frost after we are halfway through May. The best thing might be to look for a reliable 14-day weather prediction: if that doesn’t show any frost, you are probably safe. Dahlia Lilac Time 

You can do the same thing with your prepared Dahlias: you can move them to the garden after the risk of frost has disappeared. Besides the advantage of the prepared bulbs blooming earlier, there is also the advantage of the Dahlia plant being less prone to snail attacks. Of course, snails will definitely still run towards your Dahlias at full speed when they see them, but the prepared Dahlias are less likely to be completely finished off in a single night. This isn’t to say there is no risk at all: snails are still your enemy, so you need to watch for them at least a little bit. Dahlia Platinum Blonde

Another option is to put your Dahlias in a pot. In the past, I have said that this is also a possibility, and theoretically, that is true. But over the years, I have seen that in practice, Dahlias in pots rarely do fantastically well. The problem with the Dahlia is that she is such an abundant plant, with tons of flowers, that all grow very fast, and this means that she is perpetually hungry and thirsty. Really. If you have your Dahlias in flower pots and leave your home to visit your great-aunt for a couple of days during a sunny August week, chances are your Dahlias will be very sad indeed upon your return. If they are weak and dehydrated, it might take you over two weeks to breathe some life back into them, and that’s a shame. I once asked my Dahlia friend Peter Komen what the best idea was for potted Dahlias, and he told me that everything would be perfectly fine if you just removed the bottom from the pot and then planted it in your garden. Other than that… they’ll suffer if you forget them for even a single day. Narcissus Mesa Verde, The Special this year, 3 bulbs for 9 Euros

But enough about the Dahlia, I’m going back to my greenhouse to enjoy my Daffodils some more. I would love it if you took a look at our new Special Narcissus page. Let us know what you think! 

Kind regards and until next week, 

Carlos van der Veek