Fothergill's Dahlia Black Forest Ruby Seeds

Details:

• Botanical Name: Dahlia pinnata 'Black Forest Ruby', a premium, highly ornamental color-selected strain within the genus.
• Plant Class: Half Hardy Perennial (best grown as a half hardy annual), establishing with exceptional speed from a spring sowing to bloom heavily in its very first year.
• Dramatic Near-Black Foliage: Features a striking architecture of intensely dark, charcoal-black leaves and deep purple stems, providing a magnificent, high-contrast structural element to your garden design all season long.
• Vivid Ruby Flower Power: Bears an outstanding abundance of single to semi-double flowers in a rich, glowing ruby-red shade. The intense saturation of the petals creates a breathtaking, jewel-like contrast against the dark foliage.
• Perfect Compact Framework: Naturally forms a tidy, robust, bushy, and upright framework reaching a highly controlled mature height of 60cm (2ft). Its self-supporting nature means it requires absolutely no staking, making it perfect for front-of-border drifts, low bedding schemes, or patio pots.
• Pollinator Magnet: The bright, pollen-rich open centers of these stunning blooms act as an excellent natural fuel source, drawing bumblebees, honeybees, and hoverflies into your garden all summer long.
• Exquisite Cut Flower: Features strong, straight stems and exceptionally durable, intensely colored blooms, making this an elite choice for cutting to create striking, compact home floral arrangements.

Care Instructions:

• Sowing Position: Start seeds indoors from February to April by sowing on the surface of good quality, moist seed compost in pots or trays. Lightly cover the seeds with a thin layer of vermiculite or compost. Maintain a warm, consistent indoor temperature of 15–20°C for rapid germination. Position in full sun.
• Planting Out & Spacing: Once seedlings are large enough to handle, prick them out into individual pots. Grow them on in cooler but frost-free conditions, hardening them off gradually before planting out into their final garden positions in late May or June, once all risk of spring frost has safely passed. Space plants roughly 30–40cm apart.
• Moisture & Nutrition: Dahlias are hungry plants that thrive in rich, fertile, well-drained soil. Incorporate plenty of organic matter or well-rotted manure into the planting area. Water deeply and regularly, especially during dry summer spells, and feed weekly with a high-potash liquid fertilizer once the first flower buds begin to form.
• Deadheading & Maintenance: Pinch out the growing tips of young plants early on to encourage an even bushier habit with more flowers. Deadhead faded blooms regularly to stimulate a non-stop succession of fresh flowers. After the first sharp autumn frost blackens the foliage, the underground tubers can be lifted and stored in a cool, dry, frost-free shed to replant the following spring.