Growing Gardens

with Anita Morton

Long-legged lovelies

April is the month for admiring the gorgeous tree dahlia (Dahlia imperialis). This month, the tall stems will be bursting into bloom and the huge yet delicate flowers will be nodding overhead. In ideal conditions it is said to be able to grow as tall as a two-storey house, but I'm satisfied to look up three metres to admire the flowers. They bloom in white and a watery bluish pink, which is more attractive than it sounds. There is also a double white version, but this variety seems to be less vigorous than the single-flowering kinds. In any case, the double flowers lack the simple beauty of the singles.

Tree dahlias appreciate a rich soil with plenty of organic matter. Their height makes them vulnerable to wind damage so they should be grown among taller shrubs for shelter. Camellias are their ideal companions, as they like the same conditions.

Nurseries don't often stock this plant, so the best bet is to talk to your local garden club members or just walk around the neighbourhood until you see those tall nodding stems crowned with downward-facing, saucer sized flowers. Gardeners are unfailingly generous and kind, and a request for a cutting will usually be successful.

Tree dahlias are propagated in winter when the stems are naturally dying back. Cut a section of the hollow stem that is at least two leaf-nodes long and lay it flat on prepared soil. Cover the cutting with well-rotted mulch and keep it just damp. The stem contains good reserves of food and should take root easily, and you will see shoots rising from the leaf nodes in spring. In the first year you should not expect to see very tall stems, but in the second and later years you will be rewarded with clusters of flowers waving overhead.

Lismore Garden Club News

The 2005 Lismore Garden Competition will be judged in the first week of September. So, if you have a nice garden and think you may want to enter, now is the time to start preparing and planting. For more information, please phone Mary on 6621 5293.

Just a reminder that the Lismore Garden Club April meeting/social outing will be held in the garden of Charlie and Dot Cox at Boorie Creek next Thursday, April 7, at 1.30pm. Visitors most welcome. For further information please phone 6621 4100.

Well, hasn't the weather been absolutely magic for gardening! Last week I stocked up the essentials to do my autumn planting. buying up on fertilisers, seedlings, potted plants and packets of seed.

I always think autumn, winter and spring are the very best seasons in the garden. Right now you can plant flowers - spring flowering bulbs, alyssum, calendula, candy tuft, carnation, clarkia, cornflower, delphinium, dianthus, everlasting daisy, forget-me-not, godetia, honesty, larkspur, linaria, livingstone daisy, lobelia, lupin, nemesia, nigella, sweet pea and wallflower.

Vegies - wong bok cabbage, cabbage, lettuce, parsley, onion, pea, radish, silverbeet, turnip, broadbean, carrot, parsnip, potato, rhubarb and tomato.

When you are preparing the garden for planting, why not do some seed saving from your summer flowers and vegies. All you have to do is snip off the seed heads and pods, make sure they are dry and pop them into paper bags. Put the name of the plants and the date collected on the bags and store them in a vermin proof container and you will have free seeds for next summer.

Happy gardening
Ron Burns