Show off your beautiful Dahlia collections .

[Shades-of-Oregon]

@Branching Out very nice dahlias you have posted. They are stunning . I am going to remember them for my next order of dahlias. The large plate dahlia is so delicate in color and shape. I have had Yevonne sometime ago. Also sundown is perfectly shaped, looks like a water lily type?
Do you dig you dahlias in the fall and how do you store them?

 

[Branching Out]

@Branching Out very nice dahlias you have posted. They are stunning . I am going to remember them for my next order of dahlias. The large plate dahlia is so delicate in color and shape. I have had Yevonne sometime ago. Also sundown is perfectly shaped, looks like a water lily type?
Do you dig you dahlias in the fall and how do you store them?

It looks like Alpen Sundown is a formal decorative, and Yvonne has a water lily form. The water lily dahlias are great for viewing from above, whether in the garden or in a bouquet. Their upward-facing horizontal blossoms are perfect for the centre of a vase. So many dahlias bloom with a vertical profile, like the dinner plate ones.

I love dahlias however I am finding that they take a lot of time and energy in September, a time of the year when I am busy harvesting vegetables and dry beans. Part of me wants to reduce the number of dahlias that I grow, but I get kind of attached to them-- so for now I'll keep as many as I can.

In terms of storage, my dahlias stay in the ground through the winter. The last few years I have cut back the stalks in November, and then I cover the clump of tubers with compost, a layer of thick plastic (empty plastic garden sacks or large lids from take-out party trays work well), the chopped up dahlia stalks, and finally a thick layer of autumn leaves. Sometimes I put a big rock on top of the plastic before burying it in mulch, so winter winds don't blow it around. The dahlias remain covered until late spring when shoots start to appear; I usually start peeking under the mulch in late April. I adapted this in-ground storage method from the one used by Jenny Love, at Love'n Fresh Flowers, https://lovenfreshflowers.com/2020/11/08/overwintering-dahlias/.
She tarps entire beds of dahlias for the winter. In my garden the dahlias are planted all over the place so I cover them individually with compost and a vapor barrier, and then mulch heavily over the plastic. We typically have an exceptionally wet climate from November through April, and keeping the crown of the dahlia dry seems to be enough to prevent the tubers from freezing. When I used to dig them and bring them indoors I lost a lot of tubers to mold or drying out; it was also a lot of work (and seriously unpleasant digging up the garden in November). I have only lost one dahlia over several years when I've left them in the ground. This fall I hope to divide and move a bunch of them to new locations in the garden before I winterize them; I think that will be a good idea, so soil-borne disease doesn't build up over time.

 

[Shades-of-Oregon]

Great advice .Thank you.