Dahlias

[Gryfon]

Getting ahead of myself here, but when they do die down and I take them up (they're in pots) do I seperate the bulbs then before I store them?

If they were in the ground I wouldn't bother but I didn't seperate last year and the pot is near bursting

[nick the grief]

Hi Gryphon,

The usuall advise is wait till the first frost blackens the foiliage, but itf they are in pots this could be risky as the pot may get frosted as well. So, if' you have a greenhouse I would lift them in in late October /Early November & put the pot on its side & let the compost dry out & the tops will die off as well. When this is all gone you can leave it in the greenhouse so long as you can keep them frost free.

Then around January/Feb time take them out of the compost & make sure they are clean & there is no vine weevil grubs on them & either

1) Cut them into peices (Each peice needs part of the stem attached as this is where the new shoots come from) dust with flowers of sulphur & allow to heal over (a couple of weeks) then boxe them up in to pots or the blue mushroom trays in fresh compost or

2) Box the whole tuber up in fresh compost

Apply some gentle heat to the tubers & they will start to sprout then if you follow method 1) grow on as before or if 2) Take as many cuttings as you wnat & grow these on instead. Then whenthey are all growing well disgard the original tuber. There is another thread I did on Dahlia's if you haave a search just incase I missed anything or you could have a look at Dave Bates website as this has loads of info on.

http://www.dahliaworld.co.uk/