3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias

What are the names of the two dahlias in pic??? How are your dahlias doing presently? When will you start to dig them and divide the tubers?

"Ruthann" is in the foreground and that is "Summer Night" behind her. Summer Night bloomed like crazy by the end of Summer. Its dark color makes the other dahlia colors in an arrangement pop right out. I started cutting stalks last week and began digging yesterday. In my experience, I've found that by cutting the stalks and then waiting several days before digging, it is easier to see the eyes. Sunday night was our first hard frost.

Very pretty red !! Good for you, raising them from seed.

Thanks for sharing and good luck with the tuber saving.

Marsha

That's nice. I do like the darker foliage.

There are many different types of dahlia, and many different sizes. Some of the smaller ones would be ideal for patio gardening. I have actually used some of the 4 foot dahlias in large pots as well for a spectacular show.

Here are some contacts for you to explore

Vancouver Dahlia Society:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vandahlia/
http://dir.gardenweb.com/directory/vds/

Canadian dahlia information
http://www.members.shaw.ca/hydahlia/

Yes, there are conflicting articles about how to save your tubers over the winter. Without going into all of the articles ( which would be too confusing to most, as well as too time consuming), we can only say what works for us.

Check out the link below. There are a lot of ideas about saving the tubers, and also separating the tubers, as well as getting them started in the spring.

Here is a link that might be useful: splitting and storing of tubers.

Hi Karen - I live in NJ and have quite a number of my dahlias with the same problem - I believe it is from lack of rain (ones that weren't getting sprinkled seem to have more dead leaves), although I have a few that are right in the path of the sprinklers and they have the leaves dying as well. It doesn't seem to necessarily affect the blooms though, and I have noticed new growth coming out after I have trimmed off the dead leaves.

Nothing like a good rain (not just water and sprinklers) to make the dahlias thrive - maybe the acid in the rain?? Not really sure - but we got totally drenched yesterday and today the flowers are blooming like crazy!

I cull regularly. If I don't like it, it becomes compost or gets traded. If I get too many of one kind, they get traded.

If you have a dahlia that is not vigorous, I would cull it. Put it on the compost pile, and don't give away. Most likely, the tubers from it will not be vigorous, either, and you don't want that to carry on. I cull anything that doesn't grow the way it should, or shows sign of any disease. Mildew, however, is not an internal disease and they shouldn't be culled because of this, if that's the only thing wrong with them (response to an earlier post).

Teresa

Not necessarily. My guess is that there is something going on with the leaves. Mildew or some other fungal things. This year I stripped the bottom leaves off my plants, the bottom 6" or so, as suggested by some others on the forum. It was to promote better air circulation. It seemed to make a difference. Several plants were bothered by mildew this year, they were dusted with sulpher.
Were the stem(s) healthy? Did you cut off ALL the leaves or just the affected ones.?

IMHO, don't give up on the tubers. At least until you get a good look at them.

Freezing- 32 degrees or freezing & thawing a number of times during the winter will rot them. Also standing water- when the ground freezes, gets ice on it & won't let the ground drain will rot them. You've been lucky if you haven't lost them at 19 or 29 degrees- it depends how deep they are planted as well- maybe since your cold spell was short-lived the ground didn't get a chance to freeze deeply enough to get the tubers.