3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias

Good photos of good dahlias. Got our first frost Friday night so digging will soon be underway. Steve S.

A modest frost finally hit and the remaining dahlias have that forlorn dark green, if not blackish, foliage. My last group cut as the lights go out on season 2009. These are no Show dahlias, for sure.

I live in Southwest Michigan and my Dahlia's are still blooming. Do I have to wait till it frosts to cut them back for storage?

No. Just cut them off, let them sit a week and then dig up. If it gets cold, you might want to put some mulch or protection over the root zone though, not wanting to risk a deep frost before you can get them packed away. Enjoy your blooms!

Linda, I've read to cut away as much of the green moist stem as possible before storage, then let that cut surface dry. you don't want the tubers to dry excessively, just so their skins are dry to touch and toughened up a bit.

PD, I use styrofoam coolers every year, with tight-fitting lids. I don't know why a camping Coleman type cooler wouldn't work as long as you check the tubers periodically, as usual.

Still waiting for a frost here, but the digging has begun.

thanks all, I ended up unbagging the ones that I had wrapped up and the inside of the bags were damp...ish. so I'll let them dry another day or two and then bag them...again.

I didn't cut the tubers up last year before I put them away, just wrapped them loosly in plastic grocery bags and store them in plastic plant trays (looks like a lower rectangular milk crate) in a cool closet. I lost only 2 last year out of 80 so am going that route this year.

Our soil is soaked every year at this time. I use a transplant shovel to chop off any tough rat tail roots on 3/4 sides of the clump and then scoop up deeply underneath so the weight of the soil doesn't pull on the tuber necks. It's work to rinse the soil off, but doesn't hurt the tubers any.

I have lots of rain , but I also still have blooms. So I build a wine cabinet to take up my time till I can dig up the Dahlias.

You guys are going to be horrified with what I did last year then! Someone gave me some dahlia tubers last fall. I knew absolutely zero about Dahlias or tubers. He gave them to me in a plastic grocery bag and I just put them in a spare room, in the bag on top of a box out in the open. They stayed that way for months until I moved to a new house in January. When I came accross them again I decided to look them up to learn more about them. I felt ashamed when I learned what care should go into storing them. After that I put them in a shoe box with some newspaper and crossed my fingers. I planted them in the spring and low and behold they grew! All the tubers I had srouted and produced beautiful blooms that you can see on the thread I started "my first dahlias". This year I took better care of them now that I know more.

Indy, sometimes ignorance really is bliss as in your bags of dahlias callously ignored in a lonely room. Now that you know more, and are trying to keep them they'll probably rot or dehydrate! Isn't that the way it goes??? I hope not, for your sake, but there's always something that can go wrong or go well. I hope the latter for you.

I remember being aghast to learn about storing in Saran Wrap and further violating the theory that moisture and darkness harbor all sorts of fungi and bacteria by storing those inside a plastic bin or styrofoam cooler. Same for plastic bags. It seemed contrary to all gardening common sense. But it does work, and works well in most cases.

I use both those methods now with coarse vermiculite or cedar shavings in the plastic bags. The storage media are really not expensive if bought in very large bags. Our feed store carries them both in ~4 cu ft bags that will last for a lot of seasons. The shavings are packed tightly and go a long way. They smell good too.

Bottom line is to use what works for you and suits your time and space constraints. But it never hurts to try something new. I've saved individual tubers in aluminum foil and even newspaper rolled up and taped, just to see how they'd do. They're growing in the garden right now.

Wild guess on the white one- Snowbound. The picture on this link is yellower than any Snowbound that I've seen before- the form & size are right. I think Viking grows it so maybe he can have a look & compare.

Here is a link that might be useful: Snowbound

I found one that looks like it at in a Dahlia catalog online. Could it be a "White Kelvin"? Snowbound does look like it but I'm not 100% convinced its a match. The petals look a little pointier than mine maybe? Mine really isn't as yellow as it looks it is just the way the picture came out. Actually it's white on the outside and more of a cream color in the middle.

Here is a link that might be useful: Endless Summer Farm - White Kelvin

Flowergirl, I'm a bit confused about the mention of "I planned to cut them up and wrap them in saran wrap".
In what way was that meant to be taken?

There is a method that is explained in the "Dahlia Society" website which entails removing all the tubers from the clump and wrapping them in saran wrap AFTER allowing them to dry out for a day or so.
Moisture should not be cocooned with the tuber as it can set up mildew over the span of storagetime.

I have yet to try this method....I shrink from removing the tubers from the clump considering the loss of 'eyes' will prevent their re-appearance next spring.
The clump that is uplifted I treat gingerly so as to protect all the tubers from falling or being knocked off.
I then allow a couple days of storage before they are given a peat moss cover and stored in my coldcellar where they remain cool, dark, and dry.

Shrivelling is part of the tuber's drying out and unless it shows signs of softeness, or mold, I trust it is in good shape for storage.

The time of digging is as you point out....letting the plant be touched by a killing frost which blackens the foliage. Then, all that is removed and the stem is cut back, except 6", serving as a good handle to lift them out when unearthed.

You use a refrigerator to store the tubers.....so I assume then you remove all from the clump, saran wrap them, then store them.

Question: have you had passed success with them doing this way?

The tubers that were planted last spring grew in numbers over the summer. What clump went into the ground at that time, is not the same size that came out. Do you not have large volume of tubers doing it this way---the refrigerator.

Yes, I have used the saran wrap method before with good results. There is no way to wrap them up without cutting them up. I split the stems so as to have eyes for the tubers. Of course they multiply, I save the best looking ones and trade with my friend. This year I only had 13 to dig, so there won't be an overabundance of tubers to begin with. I am not blessed with a cold cellar, and it freezes in my garage. I was just amazed that they started to shrivel up so soon.Oh yes, I dust them with sulpher before I wrap them. The 13 I dug are all new ones. All the older ones I leave in the ground, cover the stems with heavy duty foil, and then mulch with grass clippings.I seldom loose any leaving them in the ground. The new ones I dig so I can trade. Thanks Poochella.

Neather do I. Just thought you might be a woodworker like me. All though I don't turn pens. I make pen boxes though. It looks like frost for me tonight.

I really don't worry any longer about water in the stems. However, back when I fretted over making little foil caps or cutting at the nodes or pushing a screw drive down through the whole clump, I piked up a neat trick on another group from Buddy Dean at Hilltop Dahlias in North Carolina. His technique was to fill the open stem with the foam insulation that comes in an aerosol container.