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The May meeting. Brian is talking, and Ted is seated at the front.
Apologies for having no proper picture of the speaker, owing to a
camera (actually camera user? - Ed) failure.
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The talk at our May meeting was given by Ted Riches, who many will remember as a long-term member of the Club from a number of years back. At a well-attended meeting, Ted talked about Dahlias, which are a special interest for him as he has been exhibiting them nationally for many years. He gave us a number of tips, many of which were a surprise to us, for example suggesting the use of sulphur (available from most garden centres) as a dust for newly lifted and dried tubers, to prevent rotting and decay in storage. I also discovered that Ted uses the tubers stored from one year to the next only as a source of new cuttings which will be grown on for showing in the same year, and that the old tubers themselves are not then used as he cannot control how many flower stems are produced, and thus the quality. I had always assumed that you were expected to plant the same tuber each year and to watch it get bigger and bigger in order to get the best blooms - apparently not the case for serious Exhibitors.
Ted also described a system for growing Dahlia cuttings (of which he takes many), based on hydroponic techniques. This is the "Rootit" system, and is described online at
www.propagateplants.com. It may also be purchased online as well - just search for "Rootit".
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