Dahlia ?

[marydmjj]

Sad news...I pulled out my dahlia tubers and lost probably 98% of them. 1/2 of those lost were dried out and the other 1/2 were rotted out. This is the 2nd time I've lost the majority of them after storing. Ugh.

My question is this. Can I leave them in the ground and cover over the top of them with a large tarp? Everything I've read about them says you need to dig them so they don't rot.

 

[Snowwark]

Sorry about your dahlia tubers, Mary. Everything I've read about them talks about lifting, drying, and storing, covered with dry peat moss or vermiculite. Any ideas as to why yours aren't surviving?

They're relatively inexpensive up here. I'd probably just buy new ones every year, and save myself the grief.

Any other ideas Buds?

 

[bobbiwoz]

Hi!

Your post prompted me to check mine out, and this year it seems as if I may not have any viable dahlias. Don't know why, they were dried and placed in vermiculite. This had worked for me for many years, but last spring I also had problems.

Bobbi

PS. I had been lucky when we lived in Bucks County PA. I had them outside with a southern exposure and they came back regularly each spring with no special care at all. I was spoiled. It took me 4 years to get wintering them in the basement right, and now it seems I've lost the touch.

 

[dandave]

I'm sorry to hear you lost your dahlias!

I never dig up anything. I figure whatever will be, will be.
In GA I had daffs, tulips, calla lilies, gladiolia, etc., which I never dug. They always came back, though. My next door neighbor had gorgeous dahlias by his pool, which he never dug, either.
I'm more confident that I would kill things by digging them up and "messing" with them, than I am afraid they will die if left to their own devices.

 

[marydmjj]

I'm thinking leaving them in can't be any worse than my luck at storing them. This year I dug them, left them out in the rain for a couple of weeks (kept telling myself mother nature was washing them for me), put them in the garage to dry, and then stored them in a cardboard box filled with peat moss. I used to be very very attached to them because they were my dear MIL's, who we lost 8 years ago. I've proceeded to lose the original one's given to me, replacements given by my father in law, and new one's given to me as gifts. I've learned to not be so attached to perishable things and take lots of pictures.

 

[Tulirose]

When Soceromickey sent me dahlias in the flower exchange last year, she said she just buys new ones each year. I didn't dig up the ones she sent me and I doubt if they survived this winter. I thought I read somewhere once that in warmer climates it is not necessary to dig up but where I am (Zone 6 or 7) it is necessary to dig up every year.

If you leave them in the ground and put a tarp over them, wouldn't that cause them to stay damp and rot quicker? I don't really know but I don't think that would work. You would want them to have warm sun beating on the garden spot as much as possible, IMO, not shaded by a tarp.

 

[marydmjj]

Hmmm, good point. I'm really not sure what to do. It rains here from Sept-March (or so it seems), so leaving them in the ground would seem risky. Would covering the bed in straw or something like that keep it less wet but also let it warm up?

 

[CajunDixie]

Somewhere I read that some people store bulbs in onion bags (netting type material) hung in their basements or garages. Not sure if they were dahlias or another kind of bulb.