After reading this forum this week I learned that I should have done some pruning of the plant as it grew last year. Is it necessary to do this, or is it only for aesthetic reasons?

Thanks for any advice!

See if you can pick off a few easily severed tubers that show an emerging eye or actual shoot and cut enough collar tissue behind it to give the shoot some support. After that, sky's the limit. A machete may come in handy. Or you can plant the whole clump again.

I dug up some clumps that overwintered at a bed I keep in a warmer area in town, but they were already well-sprouted and very hard to divide. Even though it's cold and damp, I prefer winter dividing for sake of ease.

Good luck. Remember they are tough and the drive to survive is pretty great.

I think at this point I will plant the clumps as they are. I'm afraid to try to divide them since they have new growth. Our growing season is short enough without setting the plants back because of a mistake. We seem to be in a little arctic microclimate at our house. Flowers that have faded in some parts of town have barely begun to bud at my house.

And just for fun, I think we'll label the tubers this year. My husband dug them all up and stored them as I said above, but didn't think about labeling at least for color. Like I said, too much to do, too little time to do it well!

If anyone has any links that are especially good for a newbie regarding dahlias, especially dividing, or even links to threads here, I'd appreciate it. I do searches but get so many hits I don't know where to look first. Thanks!