Who’s growing Dahlias this year

[Onionbhajisandwich]

What varieties are you growing this year? I’ve got some Babylon Bronze and Kelvin Floodlight (among quite a few others) that I’m really looking forward to growing this year!

Cafe au lait still going very well, bishop of llandaff (sp?) I have hoiked out and about to mulch.

Mine are looking better now than they have all summer - but they only started blooming end Sept. I'm not taking them out till the bitter end - in fact I might not take them out at all as we're on thin chalk so they'll be dry-ish all winter

My 'bitter end' was yesterday @WishIWasACavewoman mine were flapping around in the wind and looked quite straggly.

in case anyone is interested, here's how to prepare dahlia tubers for storage.

Unless you live in a very warm part of the country, or can mulch like crazy, they do recommend digging up the tubers and storing them in ventilated crates, with either straw/animal bedding or scrunched up balls of newspaper not the Daily Fail

Dig them up or remove from your pots.

carefully remove the large clods of soil around the tubers.

lay them on the ground.

using a hose clean off all remaining soil so the tubers are very clean and whit, so they don't rot during the winter.

put them in a cool dry place for a week to make sure they full dry off.
* my photos are currently at this stage, they still need to be trimmed back *

lay them in the crates, ensuring the tubers don't touch each other.

put scrunched up newspaper between the tubers and lightly cover so there is plenty of air circulating round them.

check them at least monthly and remove any tuber roots that look like they are rotting. You may loose a couple of the roots, but most survive.

in Spring you can divide them up using good sharp secateurs, which will double or quadruple your stock. Replant them in April/May.

I admire your resolve in digging them up now! I can't bear to while there's still any sniff of a bloom. Might regret that of course....

Have to admit that while the work ones are still flowering, they don't look so happy after I came back in from a week off. I'll do one last feed and see what happens

Mine were all in pots this year, but I think I will plant them in the border next year . As soon as flowers and plant don't look at their best, it's off with their heads! I can't face them looking all droopy.

Looks like the work ones are coming out next week. Not decided on home ones yet, not helped by currently not having garage or greenhouse to put them away in

You can store the crates (or even Amazon boxes with a few holes punched in the sides for ventilation ) in a cool spare bedroom, cupboard under the stairs or any free space away from direct warmth and sunlight.

Will sheltered shed be too cold, do you think?

That's really useful @daisychain01

One of mine was really battered yesterday (Yorkshire) so I decided to cut the stems and dig up the corms. The stems actually came away from the corms easily when I finally found them, so maybe in my patch they are almost ready to be lifted.

Washed them and have left them to dry in the garage. Was amazed by how big the corms were

Do we think they will be ok in a net bag, or do I need to wrap them in an approved newspaper?

So, over the next week or so I will lift the others. I tried leaving them in the ground last year but no joy.

They have been so lovely this year, hopefully they will survive the winter in a dry place and I can add to them next year

Do we think they will be ok in a net bag, or do I need to wrap them in an approved newspaper?

The way you store them is important to ensure ventilation, protection and prevent the tubers from rotting (rather than corms which are the little hard structures eg anenome). The other consideration is the risk of mice getting into the crate or box and having breakfast lunch and dinner from your prize dahlia. Net bags are good for all the former but your rodent population will make short work of nibbling through the netting I'm afraid.

Lightly wrapped in newspaper is good. Unfortunately is a choice of the Torygraph, as a broadsheet or the local rag, or the Sat Times. I'm sure I'll get told off for my choice of papers but my dahlia come first on this lol

When I pack my tubers this weekend I'll try to take some photos 👍

Shed is good yes, but still do all the prep work with the cleaning plus newspaper and ventilated crate or box.

Key think is that a shed is likely to be accessible which makes it easy to look at them regularly over the winter to ensure no signs of tubers rotting. Any rot, just chop that bit off with a sharp knife or secateurs so it doesn't affect integrity of the tuber in general.

^ Thank you!
Unorthodox, but I'm going to add in some chilli powder to try to dissuade any mice from having a chomp.

Looks like I'm doing the work ones next week. Owner wants to keep some in pots but we haven't space

Just dug up my dahlias the leaves on the plant looked diseased, like they had mildew on them. Put all the plant waste in the compost. Have separated the tubers and wrapped in paper. Now in the cellar hopefully not too tempting for any mice!

Lots of the leaves will look naff by this point in the year- as long as the tubers didn't have any gall or anything. Can always add chilli powder to keep the mice out. How damp/ dry is the cellar?

Harrysmummy246 it's pretty dry so am hoping will be ok 🤞

I trimmed off all my tubers today, they've dried nicely and look clean and free of any disease so ready to put away. I put some sheets of newspaper in the base of the crates and lightly layered the tubers, being careful to ensure they had gaps between them, then put scrunched up newspapers between and around them to keep them apart.

Ive left the crates stacked up in the greenhouse under the staging, but once the night time temps dip to near zero I will move them to the upper shelf in the garage, hopefully out of reach of those little 4 legged rodents 🐭

defintely putting some chilli powder onto the shelf just in case....

I’ve just dug half of mine up. I planted seeds earlier in the year, I had no clue so many would do so well!

Weirdly though is the very different sizes. The plants were all pretty much the same size and the size of the plant gave no indication of the size of the tubers
but look at the difference!

Also is the white on the tuber in the 2nd pic something I should be concerned about or is it just the beginning of new growth? I really can’t tell, even with my readers on.

I can’t believe I still have another 20 odd to dig up!

I've not worried about the white bits (although I'm not sure what exactly they are) and will see if I regret this next year. Dug about a 1/3 this weekend as DS (he's 5) actually wanted to help brush them off. Work ones came out last week. They'll look awful overwintered in pots, some had gall, and some will easily divide come next spring. Shame as some are just producing blooms now as well

I finally had the time to go and check if they were fully dry to wrap them up and was gutted to see a couple of them with mould on already! Obviously the air in our shed is too damp for them so I’ve checked them all, got rid of the mouldy ones, washed off all the others to make sure there are no more mould spores and now have them drying again in the garage. I can’t dig the rest up until I’ve got this lot sorted.

Once they're dry is it an idea to spray or dust them with fungicide?

I wouldn't but then I try to avoid using anything unless it's absolutely necessary (or boss person garden owner decrees I must but that's a different story)

Although it's been cold here, we've not had a frost, so I've still got a couple flowering, including Café au Lait. I was at Wisley last week and had a look at the Dahlia trial. A lot of them had gone over, but some of the taller ones were still flowering. There was a beautiful Penhill Dark Monarch. Their Café au Lait. was flowering at last, having not been flowering in September I think (I posted previously) but it wasn't very tall – mine, from Sarah Raven, in about a metre high.