Galway gardener believes he has world's biggest Dahlia!
An Ardrahan gardener believes he has cultivated the world’s largest Dahlia flower which he hopes will secure him a Guinness World Record.
The giant pink Dahlia which appeared in Densil Joseph’s front garden last July measured 15.4 inches in diameter. From all records he has trawled the largest Dahlia ever recorded was 14.3 inches wide in Finland.
At the urging of astonished friends, he sent in evidence of his supersized flower to the committee of the Guinness World Record, which takes 12 weeks to adjudicate on each application.
Densil grows 27 different varieties of Dahlias in his front garden and every year they have returned bigger and stronger blooms than the year before thanks to a couple of insider tricks. Every second October he digs up the tubers and keeps them inside for over five months under a bed of sawdust to completely dry them out. He returns them to the soil in late April or early May and douses them with a homemade fertiliser created from seaweed that he collects from a nearby beach.
He places the seaweed in water, adds two spoons of sugar and keeps in a dark and airtight container in a warm location to aid the fermentation for 21 days. The fluid strained from the seaweed is then diluted with water at a ratio of 6:1 and fed to the plants every 20 days.
“The seaweed is pure organic and it prevents diseases and pests like snails. My Dahlias have the most beautiful colours and they last for ages – at least two-and-a-half months,” he exclaims.
He also grows 21 varieties of gladiolis but even with the careful staking of these tall beauties they tend to last just 12 days.
Densil and his wife Smitha moved from the Kerala district of southern India to Limerick in 2010. A year later they both got jobs in the Little Flower Nursing Home in Labane and settled in Ardrahan. Both qualified nurses, Densil works as a carer in the home while Smitha is now nursing in University Hospital Galway. They bought their home in 2016 so Densil could nurture his love of gardening after work on their very own patch of land. Their two children Anna Maria, 2, and Dionn, 7, delight in the presence of so many butterflies throughout the summer.
“My mum and dad are good gardeners in India so that’s how I got interested in gardening. I spend an hour every day gardening in April and May. I weed a lot. In July, August and September you don’t need to do much – just enjoy the colours.”