Dahlias

[Snugglemonkey]

I bought a beautiful selection of dahlia tubers earlier this year. I spent a good bit of money. Maybe stupidly as my house was on the market. House sold, dahlias arrived with no garden to put them in and no desire to increase pots to move. The moving bit took forever. So they languished in a cardboard box in the garage with the garden stuff and are just coming to light. What do I do with them? Should I plant them v out of season? Should I just bin them?

No harm in trying to plant them. Mine, planted in mid-May, are just starting to bud up now, so if you have a while before your average first frost you may (if you're very lucky!) see a bloom or two. And if not, at least the tubers might multiply. But if you don't plant them, they won't be any good next year, so I'd give it a go and see what happens

Don't bin it hem!
Plant them anyway and see what happens

I would save them until next year.

Dahlias are quite easy to propagate from cuttings so I'd be focusing on the best way to get decent cutting material for next year. You might or might not get some late blooms this year, but they'll be a bonus.

I'd d be maximising my chances by putting some in the garden and some in pots where I could mollycoddle them a bit more. If you have lots to spare, perhaps keep some tubers back as well (though I think you'll probably have to be very lucky to get a decent plant from a two year old tuber).

Slight tangent but when is the best time to plant them? I love them and have just got a garden for the first time-already starting to plan for next year!

No, they need some growth to replenish the energy wasted in abortive shoots.

I put mine in late this year as my garden was partly flooded, so I would bung them in water them well and then cut back and lift in November regardless of what growth you get.

Whereabouts do you live? I've got lazy about lifting them in winter and with lots of mulch they seem to survive mostly, even after -7 last winter!

Definitely chuck them in the ground now though, even if some come up that's better than none.

And last year mine flowered until November, so you still have time to maybe get something out of them this year, with lots of water and plant food.

They’ll almost certainly grow. I’d start them off now in pots and plant them in the ground when they’ve put on some growth (but I do this because of the huge number of slugs and snails here; chunkier plants are more likely to survive their attentions). With some luck, they might even flower but, even if they don’t, the tubers will be bigger and stronger for next year.