Watch Gord Nickel as he shows you the types of fertilizer you'll need, and how to seed your own small Dahlia plants in the garden.

Video Transcription

Well another plant that you might not think about putting in a container is dahlias you know normally you see this beautiful tall full flowers and vivid colors but they are out in your garden, but really you can get some small ones that it will only going to grow around 16 inches high and I got a couple here. I got a nice one here which is although the picture shows that it is almost sort of an orangy burnt amber color. It is really more of a yellowish color to and this one is called Pablo and another one which they call it the blue set, which I do not see any blue in it at all, but they are both great for containers. Now plating them of is really easy, they need a lots of good humus they want very rich soil so what you can do is put a layer of soil in. I am going to put a small layer of organic fertilizer in there ones again and then I am just going to take my tubers and I will be setting them in. Now this guys, the important thing is you want a good solid tubers. Something that is not panky and if they fall a part like that, that is okay, stick them in. there is a few of them had been eaten up but you can see there is a good growth eye right there and I am going to stick that so that it is just forming just like that. Now I planted this one a little late so what I am going to do is I am going to put lots of soil over top. I am just going to cover it up and I am going to let that green stem stick out a little bit. And, actually, just remember I am going to stick a little micro rice in there. That is great to get the root system going and I am going to put that right on the tubers so when it produces roots it is going to contact with the micro riser and it will help to be able to absorb more nutrients from the soil that we have. Now, that I got it all set laid out, I can get a good shot of water and again best thing for this is put them in a nice hot area, get them going. Lots of sun, once they get going, give them a lot of sun and they will really start to come along. Now, after you waited a month or so what you are going to end up with is this beautiful and then this one actually happens to be the blue set and as you can see I do not see a whole lot of blue in it. This one keeps coming nice pruned quite a few times I actually taken the flowers off, I put them in bowls brought them up and they really make a great container plant. Now the other neat thing about putting them in containers is dahlias are slugs best friend, slugs eat them up like crazy and we got one here, this one was put out in a cover area, this is the Pablo and you could see there is a lot of slug damage, so when you get them in a pot, put them in an area were it is difficult for slugs to get out them. Do not have soil around it if you got your patio maybe lift the pot off the ground for the slugs cannot get underneath and you have a beautiful dahlia to enjoy for all the summer.