When do you dig up your dahlias?

[Settlebettle]

I know a lot of people leave dahlias in the ground over winter these days, but I’ve decided to dig mine up- not so much because of the frosts, but because I suspect any new spring growth would get absolutely decimated by the marauding snail army in my garden. From what I’ve read I should wait until the frosts fell them, but they’re currently still hanging on in my garden, looking a bit straggly now but still flowering. Compared to last year it’s been so mild and wet where I am, should I still be hanging fire on digging them up even though we’re mid way through November?

I was wondering when to do mine.
I’m sure I had dug them up by this time last year. I know they say wait for the leaves to start to die down, but they are looking really awful at the moment yet not quite starting to die yet.

You leave the leaves to die down to get as much 'food' into the tubers as possible, however if there's a risk of frost, or the ground becoming water-logged lift them now.
Cut of the stems and remove as much soil as possible without damaging the roots, and leave them to dry out a bit on some newspaper. Then hide them away 'til next year.
In the spring, try getting some of them started early in a shallow pot to take some cuttings, it's an easy way to propagate them.

Thank you so much @Ifailed, there’s been no real frosts here yet thankfully, but it sounds like I should dig them up in the next week or two just to be on the safe side.

I'm planning on leaving mine in the ground for the first time this year. Will wait a week or so longer then will mulch very thickly with some manure and then maybe some bark or something and hope they survive - I think the will

Christopher Lloyd used to say the right time to do a task in the garden was when you had time and were in the right mood.

FWIW I’ve taken most of my dahlias out of the pots, the bedded ones will be coming out on Saturday, and the staying in the ground ones will be mulched over the weekend).

We had a frost in October which killed mine so I lifted them at that point.

I took mine up at the beginning of the week as we had frost predicted and anyway the flowers and buds were blackened. I left them in last year and lost all except one, despite loads of compost so went early. And the people on Beechgrove took theirs up a few weeks ago.

A gardener told me to wait until after the first frost but before the second. He said the leaves should be going black. Then removing as much soil as possible and leave to dry on newspaper as described above. Then wrap in newspaper once completely dry and put them into the shed, where they won't get frosted on.

Thank you all. Looking at the -2° temperatures predicted overnight tonight I’ve dug them out and they’re currently drying out in the shed. Feels weird digging out fabulous, still blooming flowers, but some of the leaves had blackened so fingers crossed I’ve timed it right!

My leaves on some of them were black this morning, yellowing and drooping on others.
Ive cut the ones in pots back and put them in the cold frame, there’s a couple I dug up because I put them in quickly but want that spot for something.
The rest, around a dozen, I mulched. I imagine I’m going to regret it, I grew them all from seed last spring and they’ve been spectacular the last couple of years. However, it was just too cold to be hosing tubers off today and I’m knackered!

Just done mine. They are drying in the potting shed am about to put them to bed.

I brought the ones I grew from seed in yesterday. Some sort of dwarf mix, if they survive I'll give them another summer but I'm not sure I like them. They're drying out in their pots. Others that I had some in larger pots that got annihilated by molluscs, some rallied but a couple didn't manage more than the odd leaf before the slugs got them again and one grew well but looked a bit diseased by summer's end. I've decided I'm going to shop for some new ones next spring.

And I've just remembered I had an agapanthus in a pot, are they hardy 😟?

Annoyingly I lost my agapanthus to frost last winter, after about 3 years happily growing in a pot 😩