Disappointing dahlias

Joe has potted up the dahlias which overwintered in the greenhouse, and these are now sending up healthy shoots and are already too tall to remain underneath the staging.  I have started to move the tubs outdoors, and soon they will be hardened off ready to go into the ground.  We are discussing whether to put the pots straight into the ground, for ease of lifting at the end of the season (Joe’s suggestion) or transplant them (my usual method).

The dahlias which spent the winter in the summerhouse, loosely wrapped in bark chippings or newspaper, have fared less well.  I got them all out yesterday and had to throw away four out of five tubers, which had rotted away.  A few others had small shoots, and a few more had firm tubers though no shoots.  These I have potted up in the greenhouse, and hope for the best.  I will be happy if at least one of each variety survives.  It would be a shame to lose a variety altogether.  I am particularly fond of ‘Tahiti Sunrise’ and an orange-flowered, dark-leaved variety whose name I am not sure of.

The lesson to be learned: either keep the summerhouse above freezing, or overwinter all the dahlias in the greenhouse. 

On the plus side, we did not lose a single plant to frost in the greenhouse, thanks to careful monitoring of the temperature and the use of a thermostatically-controlled electric fan heater.

Back-breaking work

Yesterday I took advantage of the state of the ground – moist but not soggy, after a week or more of heavy showers – and transplanted a shrub.  Having planted two leycesteria formosa some 6 years ago, about a metre apart, it soon became apparent that one instance of this large shrub near our wall border would have been sufficient.  A month or so ago I cut both back to 30 cms and they have been looking almost dead in the mainly cold and dry weather we have had since.  But now they are beginning to shoot again, from the cut stems and also, more prolifically, from the base.

I prepared the new site – in the back border, behind the pyrocantha that I pruned hard back in February.  Plenty of compost from the recently turned heap (incorporating a good deal of red sand) and a small amount of Derk Owen’s compost.  Extracted as much of the bindweed, ever a problem in this part of the garden, as I could find.

The shrub took a bit of digging out.  Its roots had spread wide and deep, some of them as thick as a finger.  I had to cut most of the larger roots but left as much on the plant as I could – some of them a metre long.  Eventually the plant came up and I replanted it without much difficulty, adding some bone meal and watering it in.  Since then we have had more rain overnight – good!

Now to prepare the site from whence the shrub had come.  That (neglected) end of the wall border is overrun with celandine – pretty when in flower, but very invasive and almost impossible to get rid of.  I dug up what I could, and dumped it at the back of the garden.  Then improved the soil with barrowloads of compost  and forked it all over.  A good base for the next day’s planting.