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Chopping down my tree dahlia
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Posted by Judith_Sydney NSW (My Page) on Sun, Jun 12, 05 at 22:05
| I've read somewhere that tree dahlias can be cut down to ground level once they finish flowering or when it's winter.
Does that mean I can do this now, even though it has finished flowering though still has some very healthy leaves....or should I wait until I literally have some very bald canes left sticking out of the ground.
Last year I waited till they were very bald canes, but feeling a bit impatient this year as keen to tidy up the garden. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Chopping down my tree dahlia
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| I usually wait until the canes are dry and browning off. I use tree loppers to cut them at the base, and divide them into sections containing 2 nodes each, then i take them to garden club meetings and share them. That way someone else might manage to get the benefit of the bloom, which has so far elluded me because of early frosts. |
RE: Chopping down my tree dahlia
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| Thanks for the response! I'll divert my attention to another part of the garden in the meantime! |
RE: Chopping down my tree dahlia
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| Don't be in a hurry to cut off the live stems, as they can often produce a second or even a third flush of flowers, as mine have been doing for the last week or two in inner-western Sydney. And if you want to get maxmum height next year (some growers boast 6 m or more), I would do as Sparaxis suggests and wait till the foliage browns, so that photosynthesis can continue to build up food storage in the tubers. |
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