The Ultimate Guide To Planting Dahlia Flowers In Raised Beds For Beginners

Pinching and Disbudding for Bushier Plants

I remember when an experienced neighbor told me to chop off the top of my gorgeous, healthy 12-inch dahlia plant. I literally gasped out loud and thought she was completely insane for suggesting I mutilate my hard work!

But I trusted her, closed my eyes, made the clip, and that single plant ended up producing double the blooms of any other flower in my bed.

The Magic of Pinching Out the Center

Pinching dahlias sounds totally terrifying to beginners, but it is the ultimate trick to transform a tall, floppy plant into a bushy masterpiece.

When your plant hits about 12 to 16 inches tall and has developed four sets of true leaves, you simply snip out the very top center shoot.

This quick clip forces the plant to redirect its energy outward, rapidly triggering multiple strong side branches and easily doubling your flower yield for the late summer.

Disbudding for Exhibition-Sized Blooms

Now, if you want those massive, jaw-dropping dinnerplate dahlias to reach their full potential, you need to practice a technique called disbudding.

Dahlias typically produce clusters of three buds at the end of a branch, featuring one large central bud and two smaller side buds.

By gently rubbing away those two tiny side buds with your fingers, all the plant’s nutritional energy goes into that single remaining cutting garden star, resulting in an absolutely enormous flower head.

Once your plants are beautifully bushy and loaded with buds, you have to keep them safe from the creepy-crawlies that love to ruin our hard work, so go ahead and hit that next button below because I am breaking down my foolproof organic hacks for beating pesky slugs and earwigs next!