Table of Contents
Dahlia
Dahlia and Chrysanthemum are the best winter seasonal flowers in India, Both are good for cut flowers as well as garden competition and home gardening.
When it’s a matter of size dahlia flowers are the first number.
Their flower size varies from Button size to 25cm giant.
They also have different colors like pink, red, white, orange, Cooper, cream, greenish, dotted petals, and stripes.
They mostly increase the beauty of the garden as garden beds and hedges.
Also, get used to cutting flowers in flower competitions.
One can also earn by growing them in pots.
The weather requires mental and soil.
Dahlia loves a moderate atmosphere.
Still, if temperatures are down during flowering it’s good for them.
Be careful while snow may damage the plants.
Fertile, loamy, and well-drained soil is best for it. It requires a little bit of acidic soil with Ph 6.5.
For the best growth of the dahlia, open sunlight is very good and needy.
Dahlia plants have shallow root systems. Whenever you stir the soil, do just the upper layer stirring of the soil.
Dahlia varieties:-
It has different varieties due to nature and hybridization.
Like single, star, animon, kolorata, peony, decorative, Fansy, Pompon, etc.
Propagation
It can be propagated by tubers and plant shoot cuttings.
Or you can buy seedlings or young plants from the nearest nurseries.
If you grow Dahlia by seed, the character changes compared to the mother plant. That’s why Dahlia mostly gets propagated by the plant shoot cuttings.
If you want to grow Dahlia in a limited quantity you can grow them by tubers. Before planting these tubers you can treat them with 0.2% Bavistin or 0.1/% benlet solution.
Plants produced from tubers bear big flowers. But when it comes to commercial plantations they get grown by plant shoot cuttings.
To make plants from the plant shoot.
A previous plant needs to be cut just above the tubers in the soil, meaning at the soil level.
Then the plant grows new shoots to cut just near the tubers.
Now plant these cuttings by removing some leaves from the bottom and in the river sand bed, so you can easily uproot them. Or can be planted in coco peat-filled portraits also.
You can’t treat these shoots with IBA or Naphthalic Acetic acid 1000 ppm solution for better quick root development.
Chrysanthemum
After the rose chrysanthemum bears the second place in the flower world.
As the rose is considered to King of flowers, the chrysanthemum is the queen of flowers.
These flowers come in different shapes and colors. Such patterns are rarely seen in other flowers.
In Japan is a national flower.
There are two varieties of this flower in use one is C. Morifolium and C. Indicum.
Chrysanthemum morifolium is of perennial type and Chrysanthemum Indicum is a type of seasonal. Flower size ranges from button to medium-sized cauliflower balls.
The flower has a variety of uses like garland, pooja, gajara and veni (garland worn by women) making and as a cut flower, etc.
In south and western India white and cream, color varieties are famous.
There are two types of the Chrysanthemum.
Big-size flower varieties.
1. Single,
2. Animon,
3. Pompon,
4. Inkword,
5. Reflex,
6. Spoon,
7. Spider
Small-size flower varieties
1. Animon,
2. Korean,
3. Wild,
4. Button
Different types of varieties by colors of Chrysanthemum Flowers
A. White: beauty snowball, Innocence, Greengods, Ajin`a white, Premier William turner
B. Yellow: Chandrma, Supergiant, Evening star, Melodilan.
C. Violet and Pink: Ajina purple, Peter May, Pink cloud, classic beauty.
D. Wakknut red: Wilson, bravo, distinction
Small-cut flower varieties:
A. Cut flower varieties-
white: Birbal Sahani, Himant, Jyotsana, Horizon
Yellow: Basanti, Kundan, freedom, Sujatha
Red: Blaze, Jaya
B. Garland varieties:
Yellow: Basanti, Kundan, Freedom
White : Birbal sahani
C. Varieties for Pots
White: Mercury, Honeycomb, Shardmala, Sharadshobha, Perfecta.
Yellow: Topaz, Lilliput, Archna, Aprajita, Sharad shringar.
Watering :
During starting days of the planting, it required more water.
When plants start blooming make more intervals in between watering.
Dark red color Wilson, Bravo, distinction
Weather :
Light and temperature are important for the growth and flowering of this plant. Usually, it grows morphologically in a long day and short night span timing. And blooms on short days and long nights ( winter).
So it is categorized as a short-day plant.
Night temperature from 10 celsius to 12 celsius is good for it.
Soil-
It loves well-drained, goradu (loamy), besar, and medium black soil. Ph around 6.5 is best. Soil with good organic matter is good for better flowering.
Select the plot where you want to grow these seasonal plants. flood water it. Then after it dries to some extent remove the weed grown in it, now let it dry till you can softly dig the soil, and do shallow digging of the plot. after that let it dry for two to three days.
Now spread vermicompost, apply a very light dose of DAP granules with urea in 2:1 proportion, and now water it, You can now plant the seedlings or plants on the same day or the next day.
Now do shallow water daily but keep in mind not to overwater it.
Learn more about soil for garden
Propagation-
It is usually propagated by suckers, shoot cuttings, and seeds.
1. Suckers: This is the easiest method to grow chrysanthemums. Naturally, suckers grow around the main plant. This sucker needs to detach/uproot with roots without damaging the main plant. This can be used for new plantations.
The benefit of using this method is it has already grown roots system. Which enables plants to establish themselves quickly.
2. Shoot cutting –
In this method first, a well-grown plant gets pruned after harvest to size leaving 15-20cm. Then news branches start to grow. Frown these branches we have to cut 5-8 cm long top shoots.
Leaves from the bottom of the shoot need to remove, from around two to three internodes.
Learn How to start a garden
Now keep them in a 100ppm IBA ( Indol Butyric Acid) or 200pmm NAA (Naphthalic Acetic Acid) for half a minute. Now plant them in a prepared bed.
Water them regularly. The plant will be ready to plant in a pot, bad, or farm within 3-4 weeks.
Seed –
Usually, seasonal chrysanthemum varieties bear seeds. To collect disease-free seeds. Select a healthy infestation-free plant. Collect seed from it.
Dry them in the sunlight. Now pack them in a jar or box. During a new season in September-October, you can grow seedlings from it. Seedlings will be ready to plant in pot or farm around 4 weeks.
Planting
Perennial chrysanthemums can be planted by sucker or shoot cuttings during the last week of July to September. As per the variety, you can plant them in a big plot by a distance of 30*30 cm or 5*45 cm distance.
Usually in the state of Gujarat, seasonal type chrysanthemum is used for planting in Octo-Nov after planting seedlings and using a distance of 30*30cm.
Fertilizer Application
For a 10-12inch diameter pot mixture you can mix up to 100-200 grams of FYM/Compost fertilizer and as a base fertilizer before sowing or after settling of the plant urea can be given 20-30 grams of urea can be mixed into the soil mixture.
Dahlia and Chrysanthemum are among the best flower which grows good produce nice lasting flowers that have attractive colors and varieties, good for a home garden and for commercial use as cut flowers.
Referance: Fruit and Flower (ફળ અને ફૂલ), Sardar Smriti Kendra, Junagadh
Note: Use agricultural and gardening chemicals with expert advice, read the product manual before use and storing and keep away from children