Hi Jim-
I love your dahlias, very pretty! You got hammered with snow yesterday, huh? Time for a little ice fishing, winter has arrived! We just got a dusting in the capital region. Do you have to dig these up in the fall and store them?

Here is a link that might be useful: Dahlia forum posting

Hi shimla!

Yes, I do dig the tubers each year. But this unusual warm weather hasn't been conducive to cold weather storage. I don't do the Saran Wrap method of storing. Some day I'll give it try. I leave them in clumps and store them in boxes filled with peatmoss.

I had a wonderful cold storage area when we lived in Syracuse. We moved to the burbs 3 years ago this past Dec. The first year here I lost almost all of my tubers in the unheated garage.

Last year I had enough room to put them in the basement but it was to warm of a medium although many did well. I built a small frame structure around one of the basement casement windows but with the temps in the 50's and 60's I'm almost afraid to look at what's in the boxes. Their probably budding :>)

It's astonishing to think we had flowers blooming in an above ground container up until this last snowfall. I don't think they'll survive 11" of snow very well.

I hope we have a fair weathered Spring.

Jim

Hi there
Mind if I ask what's the saran wrap method of storing? I was just looking at my dahlia tubers the other day and they have gotten quite dried out/dried up.

Hi aurore!

I don't know if I can actually be of any help as I've never tried the Saran Wrap Method. I know that individuals swear by it and it apparently is a space saving means not having to store in a medium such as peat-moss etc. and then have boxes and boxes sit around all year long.

But the down side to me is, it does takes time to look for eyes, then have to cut and separate and then wrap. So you have the time consuming part of it.

aurore, what I would suggest is, go to the Dahlia Forum and search the Saran Wrap Method.

For the problem you are facing now with the tubers drying out you can add moisture by spraying. But don't over wet. Tubers are more resielient than you think.

I opened one of my boxes on 12/5 and found a few unknowns sitting on the top and all shriveled up just like yours. Just for the fun of it I placed them in a plastic grocery bag, sprayed with some water and loosely tied the handles and checked ever so often.

On 12/13 I had eye growth and placed them in the bottom of a gal milk container. Just around Christmas I had to take cuttings and root growth started on 1/07 and then I placed those in a soil medium.

As I said the above is all for fun at this point as I don't think I'll be able to preserve them 'til Spring as I don't have a Greenhouse. My DW would frown on me trying to place them on the windowsill :>)

A little blurred on this shot but just to show you; an image of the root system is below this one.

The root system:

{{gwi:633674}}

Hope this helps your situation.