Dahlia-no tubers?

[greenjelly]

Last year I purchased some dahlia plug plants from Halls of Heddon - they were very expensive but I thought my lovely new garden deserved them and we figured they would be an investment.

When they arrived in April I followed the instructions exactly - they lived nice and cosy in our polytunnel until the optimum planting out time.

After they were planted out I must admit to being slightly disappointed - they took a long time to get going although during the last 2 months they have bulked up and flowered constantly.

We've had a couple of frosts in the last 2 days so today I have dug them up and given them a good haircut prior to storing them over the winter - I have noticed however that 3 or 4 of the plants don't have tubers, they have long thick fleshy roots but not the usual fat tubers that I was expecting - have I done something wrong? will they die? or are they supposed to be like that?

[rustylady]

I never have much luck with Dahlias if I dig them up to overwinter. I just leave mine in the ground.

As for the size of the roots, they do vary depending on variety, but I am wondering whether the plants with the smaller roots maybe didn't grow as well as the others.

[Aberdeenplotter]

I never have much luck with Dahlias if I dig them up to overwinter. I just leave mine in the ground.

As for the size of the roots, they do vary depending on variety, but I am wondering whether the plants with the smaller roots maybe didn't grow as well as the others.

No way could we leave ours in the ground up here. The frost would nab them, no doubt about that. What problems do you have if you lift them Rusty? I know some folks have problems with mould and rot. Drying them off under cover and then removing any soil and giving them a dust with flowers of sulphur sorts that for me

[Dusty Rhodes]

I think you might want to store the ones without tubers in a manner similar to storing strawberry transplants. I wonder if the tubers might have come loose when you dug them up? I grow Dahlias here and they always have multiplied tubers during the course of the year. Perhaps the goofy weather never let them produce tubers...

[rustylady]

No way could we leave ours in the ground up here. The frost would nab them, no doubt about that. What problems do you have if you lift them Rusty? I know some folks have problems with mould and rot. Drying them off under cover and then removing any soil and giving them a dust with flowers of sulphur sorts that for me

They usually go mouldy and rot ABP, either that or they dry out too much and never get going again.

[horticultural_hobbit]

I think mine are written off. I sank them during the early summer, during the course of lot deluge of rain after a the threat of frost had passed. But nothing has come up, at all. No shoots or anything. Unless i see something come up next, I'm going to pout angrily about it.