Topic: overwintering dahlias

[teresa]

Sorry not that I know of you could use Jeyes Fluid ?
Otherwise lift them out of the pot and dry off and pot or box up with fresh compost.
This makes sure no eggs are around to hatch.
I did have one last year left in a pot compost dried out compleatly not treated ( did not get round to it) left it on its side so got no moisture at all and it was fine. Just make sure no moisture gets down the hollow stem (hence thats why you leave them on their sides to dry) otherwise they rot the tubers and all is lost.

[viv]

Right OK I will experiment - certainly no weevils at oresent, they are all still flowering away like mad.  So I will turn the post over and see what happens.


Thanks!!

[teresa]

Viv,
Wait untill they have the first frost this encourages them to die back naturaly. So when they first blacken with frost then you can take them under cover and when mostly died back cut the stalks and turn on the sides to sleep over winter dry and frost free.
So enjoy the blooms while you can
Teresa

[viv]

Thanks Teresa, some of them are in the greenhouse as they have shared pots with pelargoniums or fuchsias, the others I will follow your advice.  I intend to treat my chocolate cosmos in the same fashion.

[Heldi]

I've not got any dry compost or peat to store my dahlias in. Is there anything else I could use?

Have brought them in and they are now on a piece of newspaper in the conservatory.

[vee]

I've just brought in my one and only dahlia(bishop of llandaff) which I got this year from the garden centre. It's my first so I'm glad this topic has come up! At the moment it's in my garage and has quite a lot of soil round the tubers which are really big and fat. Do I wait till the soil drops off or remove the soil now, and do I need to put on sulphur which I seem to remember hearing about? I really want to keep it healthy as it was so fantastic and flowered it's little heart out.

[GREENWIZARD]

I've not got any dry compost or peat to store my dahlias in. Is there anything else I could use?

i store mine in vermiculite in an old basin H

[Ceratonia]

I've left most of my Dahlias in the ground for the last couple of winters, without any problem. I reckon it's the wet they dislike more than the cold and we get pretty dry winters here. The old stems and a bit of mulch seems to be all the protection they needed. Maybe it will be different this winter, though?

They're tougher than they're given credit for. I had a number of good size tubers in cardboard boxes filled with dry compost, in the garage over winter. While clearing out the garage in July, I found them again - all a couple of feet high in the cardboard box and starting to form flower buds. This in spite of little light and no watering for 9 months.

[Heldi]

Thanks GW and Ceratonia.

I've got some vermiculite so will use that.

I left some dahlias which I grew from seed last year in the ground. One survived. It's very soggy though so I suspect it was the wet that did for them. I moved that one into the front garden and it has been left to fend for itself. 

The ones I've dug up this year I actually bought. I don't want to lose them if I can help it especially as two of them I never got to see in flower because my cat trampled them...grrr! They were just about to flower when the frost got them!

[Rosa_Mundi]

I agree with the comments about the wet - I planted a bed of dahlias many years ago, leaving them in the ground over winter. They survived until I dug them up, in spite of cold winters, BUT they were planted quite deeply (eight inches or so) and the soil is light and dry, with relatively little winter rain..