Dahlia Tubers

Plant them in a pot and keep in your greenhouse until mid to late April. This way you should miss all the frosts that the weather may throw our way.

You can take cuttings from these as they grow but I would suggest either borrowing a book from the library or looking it up on line.

I keep mine in the green house as they get going then put them out. Big showy flowers that should see you through until Oct at least.

I plant mine in John Innes 3 so that the tubers are about 1-2 below the soil with the dead stalks left in place. keep them in the greenhouse until all frosts gone. during nice frost free days i put mine outside so they dont get over warm and bring them in at night. watch out for slugs though in the early days of growth. dont let them dry out or get too wet. I plant mine quite deep in their pot so I dont have any problems lifting them in the autumn.I just let them dry off laid on their side. they sit in the frost free garage till about now and then repot and off we go again.

out of curiosity which varieties did you get?
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Hi Seaburngirl, When you say that you "plant mine quite deep in their pot so I dont have any problems lifting them in the autumn" are you saying that you plant them in their pots in the ground?? When you put them in th garage in autumn do you bury them in compost, or just dry them off and store them dry?

I plunge the pots plants and all where i want them to flower. come the frosts when the leaves turn black i just lift the pot and let them dry out. typically i use 3-5 litre pot depending on size of tuber. they have plenty of room and 'food'. i also do a similar thing with lilies so i can put them anywhere where there is a gap. lazy so and so that i am.

Planting in pots and plunging them into the flower beds sounds like a brilliant idea. I have a large garden so anything that makes life easier is OK with me. I will certainly take your advice on this one as I would hate the idea of lifting the tubers from the soil and of course there is the risk of "spearing" them. Mine was a Sunday Telegraph offer : 3 each of Rip City; Bishop of Auckland; Thomas A Edison; Jescot Julie and Chat Noir. There was a Sarah Raven article on 20 of her favourite Dahlias and the above 5 were included in her list, but The Telegraph offer was a more reasonable than buying them directly from the Sarah Raven nurseries, which I find is very expensive.

they sound wonderful. i just bought a lovely yellow waterlily one in a rich egg yolk yellow. have written its name on its label which is in the pot but i cant remember what it is without trailing down the greenhouse.

The dahlias in my collection are all magenta and pink tones. I shall add to these next year when I see the outcome of these. Let's hope they will be safe in our greenhouses as last night it reached -1ºc here in Shropshire. It is much milder tonight but the forecast for Thursday night mentions -2ºc I have covered mine in a double layer of fleece, so I hope for the best.

it tends to be the combination of cold and wet when they are in the ground. In the past i have had -10 and they have still come through. I have a brilliant red pompom one called bright eye. my youngest sowed dahlia showtime seeds 4 year ago and of the 3 that we kept all flowered elastoplast pink [really weird].