White Aster Dahlia Tubers

White Aster: Pom Pom Dahlia Tubers

After 120 odd years, White Asters are one of the best white pompom dahlias you can grow for your garden. The profuse, tightly packed pompoms are 5-6 cm across and mostly soft white, with a slightly creamier, faintly yellow centre. It is a superb pot plant and has a great vase life.
Browse our other Pom Pom Dahlias or our full range of Dahlias here.

Features

• Colour: White
• Flower size: 5-6 cm
• Type: Pompom
• Cutting: Superb
• Good in pots
• Height/spread; 75 cm x 40cm
• Flowering: July to November
• Outdoor Planting Months: March to July

Growing White Aster Dahlias

All dahlias do best in deep rich soil with good drainage in a sunny spot. If it is windy they will need staking. They are greedy, thirsty plants so will need watering in dry spells, and they will always flower that little bit better if there is a bit of soluble food in the watering can once every couple of weeks.

White Aster generally does not grow to more than 75 cm and if you pinch it out at about 30-40cm, you will get more flowers on a lower plant, which won't need staking in a sheltered location. Even so, a few canes and some string will protect it if you get a gale.

It is generally more convenient to put support stakes in at planting time, rather than leaving it until there is foliage in the way.

If you ignore seed, Dahlias can be planted at three stages: as tubers, rooted cuttings and pot-grown plants.

Tubers can be planted at any time from March onwards. The hole should be at least double the diameter of the tuber laid out on the ground. Incorporate about 25% well rotted compost and if drainage is in any way doubtful then add plenty of horticultural grit as well. Plant one tuber per hole, leaving 60-80 cms between plants (depending on final size) and make sure the tuber is covered with 10-12 cms (4-5") of soil. This is important as it will insulate the tuber against frosts in March-May as they will take a couple of months to show.

Rooted cuttings, which are available from early April onwards, will need to be potted up and kept in a sunny and frost free place until they are ready to be planted out in mid May. Their treatment then is the same as for tubers except they are planted level with rather than 10 cms below the surrounding soil level.

Pot grown plants are not delivered until June, and are then planted out immediately in the same way as an established rooted cutting.

The more you deadhead, the more flowers you'll get.

Did You Know?

There is another dahlia of the same name, a decorative variety introduced in 1879, that is widely thought to be the oldest surviving garden dahlia in commercial cultivation. This one is almost as venerable, bred around 1901, and listed in old books as Guiding Star.