Broken Dahlia

[maisiedaisy64]

Planted out my dahlias today, and one has been snapped (by the dog, I assume) clean off at ground level. Google tells me pot it up with rooting hormone, but I’m wondering do I need to remove leaves and buds?

It has buds because I had it in the tunnel and should have been planted out weeks ago!

Any advice gratefully received!

Hello Maisiedaisy64,

The challenge you have is keeping the broken off stem alive as it does not have any roots.

I would pinch out all of the flower buds as you don’t want them to develop you want to encourage roots.

I would follow as though it was a basal cutting propagating from the tip end of your broken stem.

https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/grow-plants/how-to-take-basal-cuttings-from-dahlias/

Happy gardening

TheSustainableGardener 👩‍🌾

I had a potting mishap and snapped both full stems off. Raging, I continued and just left the tuber in the new pot as though it was freshly planted and its sprouting again