Devoted to dahlias

Marty Eberle’s zeal for dahlias came later in life.

He always had vegetable gardens – as one of 10 children they were a necessity. And with his own family he continued the practice. A few marigolds may have been scattered across the garden, but no other flowers co-existed with the zucchini or tomatoes.

Then, six years ago, a friend introduced him to the Inland Empire Dahlia Society, and he’s been a devotee of the eye-catching bloom ever since.

“Once you start growing them, it’s like a disease. You can’t stop it,” he said. His wife Sandy said, “Yeah, last year he put in a few and said, ‘Oh, next year we won’t have as many.’ Well, then he moved the tree and we now we have twice as many dahlias as we had last year.”

Which is quite a feat, considering the couple lives in a condo with the typical postage stamp-sized yard. Yet 60 dahlias – as well as cannas, petunias, marigolds, roses and alyssum – fill the tiny space. Marty admits he does overcrowd a bit. The effect is an explosion of color. Two years ago, when Sandy considered the condo as a possible home, she received a few words of dissuasion. But now she’s glad she chose their cozy and colorful lot.

“A friend said, ‘You’re not going to like it because you don’t have room for gardening,’ ” she said. “Well, you don’t need a lot of space. I mean, even just pots, look at all the pots we have. And every square inch is used. We don’t waste anything.”

Marty offers advice gleaned from experience for small-space gardeners. Don’t do as he has done, he says with a smile. Don’t overcrowd, because then it’s hard to water evenly and move around to care for the plants properly. Do have lots of color, and many different sizes, with short in the front and tall in the back. Keep the soil healthy with compost and manure.

Dahlias can range from one to six feet in height. The flowers can be as small as two inches or up to a foot in diameter. Dahlias especially need a lot of sun or they will bloom later, as Marty can testify. In late August, he still had many buds yet to bloom. You can then enjoy these striking blossoms until the first frost.

“We were lucky last year. We had blooms until the last week of October,” says Marty. “By that time the nights are pretty cold. As it gets cooler, they actually get prettier.”