Starting Dahlias - 20 Feb 17

Our first delivery of Dahlias tubers has arrived, and we are looking forward to the fabulous abundance of flowers that they give us through the Summers.
We grow Dahlias from tubers to replace any over-wintered plants that have succumbed to the Winters cold, and also to add more varieties and keep up with emerging trends.
The tubers are carefully unpacked and checked, then they are potted up in multi-purpose compost in 2 litre pots.
Each batch of a variety is labelled, then they are set out on a shelf in the polytunnel.  
The compost is kept moist so that they are encouraged into growth, and we will nurture them until they can be planted out in the ground.
Some will stay indoors in the polytunnel beds - generally the white and pale shades - where they will flower anything up to a month earlier than the ones outside.  
Most will go outside into well-prepared beds, after the last frosts.  We infil any gaps in the existing beds, and also replace varieties that we have found aren't so useful for cutting.  It's an ever-changing and evolving process!