Lifting & Storing Dahlias

Dahlias are easily my favourite flower of all time but they do tend swing back and forth on the fashion pendulum. Back in the 1800's they were known as Georginas and were frightfully expensive. They were a real status symbol costing one hundred pounds a tuber. Wealthy families would plant large borders full of them and invite guests around for afternoon tea to show them off. By the 1950's they had come down in price and in the drab era of brown and beige lost their attraction. They were considered showy and vulgar and many of them were lost.

Every year gardeners up and down the country report that their Dahlias are slow through the summer or that they have short stems. I assure you this is normal! Dahlias are at their best in the early autumn - in the UK this is September time. They originate from equatorial regions such as Mexico, Columbia and Central America, where the days and nights are equal lengths. So the autumn equinox which falls on the 23rd September is the time they love the most. Not too hot, not too cold and equal day and night.

Cafe Au Lait

Dahlias

Dahlias

In my last Dahlia blog "Growing Dahlias" I gave a general overview of all aspects of Dahlia growing and propagation . This time I will focus on what you need to do in Autumn to store your Dahlias for the winter and ensure that you can re use as many of them as possible next season.

Lifting

In areas which do not suffer too much from a hard frost lifting is not necessary but for those in colder regions it may be wise to lift and store them to secure your tubers for the following year, or if you have wet clay soil/poor drainage which will rot the tubers through winter.

In some southern parts you can experiment with leaving a few in the ground to see if they do make it through the winter just ensure they have a good covering of mulch and free raining soil. We do find that on our field that they do much better lifted as otherwise they would rot.

Dahlias need to be lifted out of the ground just after the first frosts or in the case of very late frosts when they stop being viable and producing blooms. You can even wait for the second frost before lifting as this will give the tubers more time to mature which will help them through the winter time - This is usually by mid October where I live in the South of England. You will know instantly when you have had a frost as the leaves will all be turned black. You will then need to cut down all of the stems & leaves, leaving just 10cm or so of a main stem to help lifting.

Using a garden fork loosen the soil around each dahlia and lift the whole tuber out of the ground. Try to do this on a dry ish day so that the excess soil can be easily brushed off. Take as much soil off as possible without damaging the tubers, so bashing them on the ground is a no no!!

Dahlias

Dahlias Dahlias

dahlias

Dahlias

Labelling

If you only have a few tubers and are growing in the garden at home you won't mind too much about correct labelling but if you want to grow and propagate them by colour then correct labelling is a must. It's actually like an obsession and I don't think I have had a single year yet without at least a handful labelled as "unknown variety". It's frustrating and this year is my worst ever with over half of mine labelled like this - my own stupidity as I transported them to the field all the pots were knocked over and got mixed up. I've also had the birds pull by labels out of the ground and I've heard of mice gnawing through the string when tied to tubers! So I have found that double labelling is the most successful.

Firstly I label each tuber with a marker pen when they are in storage over winter ( Jan or Feb time) I don't do this straight after lifting because they are too wet and the marker pen gets clogged up. I then label each pot when pre sprouting with a label which follows the tuber into the field and then when the flowers can clearly been seen I double check all the labels in the soil and add another label tied around the main stem of the plant. Then I'm absolutely exhausted !!!

Dahlias

Drying/short term Storage

Once all of your Dahlias are lifted store them in a cool dark place which is frost free until you are ready to wash and split them.

You are essentially removing them from the ground to ensure that the frost does not damage them and putting them somewhere safe out the way to dry out a little bit. I store mine in plastic crates in my garage for a few weeks until I have the time to deal with them.

Dahlias

Preparation

Once you are ready to store your tubers for the winter you will need to give them a good wash with a hoze pipe jet. It's a dirty job and the power from your regular kitchen tap will not be strong enough to clean the tubers well. You can see from the picture how clean the tubers should get. This is essential to ensure any creatures and soil are washed off so they wont be eaten in storage.

They can immediately be split for winter storage or stored as whole tubers !

Dahlia Anatomy & Splitting

Each plant consists of a stumpy stem or stems and will have several swollen parts attached. They are really not the prettiest things to look at ! These are called tubers and to grow into a successful plant each Dahlia needs a tuber with at least one eye. The section where all of the tubers and stems meet is called the crown. Dahlia stems will grow from buds/eyes on this crown. Look very closely all around the crown of the tubers for the eyes and you will be able to see small freckle like spots. Some tubers will have lots and others just a few. At this time of year that are not easy to spot and you need to look very very closely! They are easiest to spot straight after lifting and again in the spring just as they begin sprouting.

dahlia tuber parts

dahlia tubers

dahlia tubers

Remember the tubers are not roots – they are a food store for the plant and if a tuber does not have an eye then it will not grow no matter how much care and attention you give it.

It can be difficult to know where to start but if you begin by splitting a tuber in half across the old main stem you are half way there already. Try splitting between the tubers so that you get less wastage, but inevitably you will end up with a few which have been sliced through. Make sure that you throw these - they will just rot in storage and put the rest of your stock at risk. You can then split both of these halves again so you end up with four quarters if your tuber is really big.

Now it’s easier to look at each tuber and decide if it’s viable or not. Carefully check the crown of each tuber looking for at least one eye. Some will have none – these can be discarded but others may have many. Then simply cut this tuber away from the rest taking care to cut it away with the eye and some crown. Repeat this for each tuber in turn. If you are unsure if you can see eyes or not then there is no harm in keeping them all and checking them in spring when the eyes are much easier to see.

If you have any tubers which are a bit wobbly and broken remove these ( Middle picture below) and do not store them - they may rot. At the same time you can also trim off all of the fine roots as these will not be needed for winter and new ones will be produced next season.

Dahlia tubers

Once you have discarded all the parts without an eye and done your trimming you will be left with a bunch of nice neat looking tubers just like the picture on the left. From that one clump which you planted in springtime you can get as many as 10+ viable tubers which will in turn make a huge clump of tubers for you to divide next year!

Storage

dahlias

There are a few different ways to store tubers but the below method is the one I have used for years and it works well for me with minimal loss.

You will need a container to store them in such as a lined bulb crate or a plastic box/bin, and a medium to cover them. There are so many mediums to store tubers but the most important thing is to keep them hydrated and frost free. You can use vermiculite, peat moss, spent compost, wood shavings etc. I now use wood shavings - the kind you can buy from the pet shop for rabbits. Simply take your container and put a layer of your medium in the bottom - just a couple of cm's is enough. Place each tuber onto the medium and ensure that they are not touching then cover the tubers with another layer of your medium. The label which you used for short term storage can then be placed inside the container.

Once you have done this store them away in a frost free place at 5-10 ℃. It’s a good idea to check on them once a month until spring time. If the tubers are looking shrivelled then a light misting with some water will help to keep them going and using a plastic box with a lid also helps. They should not be left to dry out too much or be left wet or they will rot.

I check mine after 2 weeks first- yes every single one unpacked from storage checked and then packed back again - this is to remove any rotting ones as otherwise the rotting may spread throughout the crate all winter long. I then check them monthly/bi monthly after this and remove any rotting tubers. After the first check it is rare to find many rooting ones but its best to be safe. If you suffer from rodent attacks it is also wise to ensure you use something with a lid !

I have experimented using shrink wrapping film instead of storing in a medium but it rotted all of the tubers by sealing in the dampness. They really do need to be bone dry when storing like this and I haven't managed to get it right as yet so I will continue with the wood shavings for now and experiment with the cling film.

During one of my checks - usually in Jan/Feb is when I then label each one with a marker pen! This is when they are dry enough, before that the the market pen just wont stick.

Small numbers of tubers

If you only have a handful of tubers then its not necessarily worth the effort splitting them at the end of the season. This way you can wait for springtime to divide them when the eyes have started to form.

To browse our Dahlias varieties visit our web shop The Hampshire Seed Company - Dahlias

If you would like to read more about growing Dahlias or any other flowers visit The Hampshire Seed Company for beginners and expert guides to growing cut flowers

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dahlias

dahlia crown

dahlias

dahlias bouquet

dahlias in jars

ombre dahlia

Guide to Growing Dahlias

Dahlias are easily my favourite flower of all time but they do tend swing back and forth on the fashion pendulum. Back in the 1800's they were known as Georginas and were frightfully expensive. They were a real status symbol costing one hundred pounds a tuber. Wealthy families would plant large borders full of them and invite guests round for afternoon tea to show them off. By the 1950's they had come down in price and in the drab era of brown and beige lost their attraction. They were considered showy and vulgar and many of them were lost.

My mother had oodles of red pompom types in her garden when I was young (Which I actually detested due to my aversion to the colour red even from a young age) but nowadays there are so many varieties available to choose from that they do not need to be dramatic in a vulgar way. Café au Lait for instance is just a delight, creamy white luscious petals which work so well in tonal arrangements with peach and burgundy. Even just having one of them in a bouquet gives an aura of sophistication.

Dahlias are at their best in the early late summer & early autumn, in the UK this is August/ September time. They originate from equatorial regions such as Mexico, Columbia and Central America, where the days and nights are equal lengths. So the autumn equinox which falls in late September is the day on which they should be at their peak. In reality many regions in the UK will have already had a mild frost in some years. For our plot in Hampshire, in 2018 this was Sep 25th and in 2019 it was Sep 7th !!!!! eeeek!!!! but in 2020 we had a bumper year and it was so late at the end of October that I can't even remember the date. Frost protection in their peak month is the key to keeping them blooming for as long as possible.. Some varieties are also a little more tolerant than others. I have found Arabian night to be the most tolerant of colder temperatures (2-3 degrees) where all my others varieties will not go down below 3 degrees before they bigin to complain.

Frost protection early in the season is also key. We lost around two thirds of our tubers a few years ago due to me forgetting to bring them in on a frosty night at the beginning of the season. Luckily we managed to salvage enough to start again and it also gave us the chance to buy a few new varieties to trial.

We generally take our tubers out of storage in early May. Some varieties take much longer to get going and you can usually start to see signs of bud growth as soon as the weather warms up a little - variety dependant. Cafe au Lait being the slowest to get going and often not flowering until September!

Once out of storage we pot them up into shallow trays of compost with the crown just above the soil level to get them going. We keep them warm and slightly moist to encourage growth. These trays are kept in a greenhouse and protected from frost. You can use a little bottom heat to get some of the more stubborn ones started if needed and once they show signs of growth they are potted on individually into large pots and generally kept indoors until the risk of forst has passed. It at this stage that you can also try your hand at propagation.

Cuttings

Dahlias can be propagated in spring by taking cuttings. These cuttings will often be much more vigarous than the plants formed from a tuber and you may be able to get 10-20 cuttings from just one large tuber - and they will flower in their first year. Simply pot them into shallow trays as above. When your Dahlia tuber has sent up a handful of stems and they’re about three inches tall, cut some of these shoots off where they meet the tuber’s crown. If you can get a little bit of tuber to come off with the cutting all the better as these will have a higher success rate.

Snip off the lowest set of leaves and pop the cutting into a pot of light gritty potting compost. By placing it at the edge of the pot so that the roots grow touching the pot’s sides you will also increase the success rate as it will encourage budding at the roots. (You can also use some hormone rooting powder on the tips to encourage root growth)

To conserve moisture seal it in a plastic bag, but ensure that you turn the bag every few days to release any build up of moisture. It will only take a few weeks for the cuttings to root at which point you should remove the bag. Plant out when all risk of frost has passed.

Cuttings can be tricky and if you keep them too wet or too dry then your success rate will be low. It is actually far easier to propagate by division, especially for a beginner.

Division Dahlias can be propagated at planting time by dividing the tubers. It is important to know the different parts of the tuber and know what they are for to be able to divide them. Each tuber is actually made up of several individual tubers with roots comeing from them and a crown at the top where they all meet. Dahlia stems will grow from buds or eyes on the crown.

Using a clean sharp knife separate the tuber into pieces. Each piece must include at least one swollen, dangling section and a piece of the main stem with at least one eye. Be sure to include at least one eye in each division otherwise the tuber will not have any way of sprouting.

If you are having trouble identifying the eyes then you can wait until they begin to sprout new growth before you divide the tuber. Plant the divisions in individual pots with the eyes at the top and the dangling swollen part at the bottom, keep them warm and slightly moist.

If you have bought new Dahlias the beware as they will have already been divided by the farm which grew them ready for sale on to you, so it is unlikely that you will be buying a very large tuiber which has lots of eyes. Chances are that it will only have a few tubers and one or two eyes. You may be able to get a few cuttings from it in year 1 but you will need to wait at least another year to be able to divide it.

Collecting and sowing seeds

As Dahlias have an octoploid tendency they have 8 sets of chromosomes !! This allows for large variants from seed. So do not expect plants grown from seed to be identical to the parent plant as they will have cross pollinated.

Wait until the pod has dropped all of its ray petals, the pod will be brownish green and the seeds inside should be a grey/dark brown colour. Cut off the pod and let it dry before separating the seed from the rest of the pod. Allow the seeds to dry thoroughly before storing ready for sowing the following year.

In early spring to germinate the seeds sow thinly on the surface of a well drained seed compost and cover with a light sprinkling of compost. Water lightly and keep damp at around 21 degrees. Pot the seedlings on into individual pots once they have their true leaves and harden off, plat out when all danger of frost has passed. Do not be tempted to sow the seeds too early as they detest cold weather and should not be planted out in the garden until June.

These small seedlings will have grown small tubers by the end of the summer so they will need to be lifted and stored over winter. The following spring they can then be treated like tubers.

Whether sowing seeds, dividing or propagating from cuttings it is important to encourage the plant to make more branches and promote a bushy shape to give more blooms. So after the shoots appear or the cuttings have taken and formed several sets of leaves, pinch them back by simply sniping or pinching the stem off just above a lower pair of leaves. This will encourage the pant to form new stems from the node just below.

If more than five shoots sprout from the tuber remove them so that only five remain. It may seem counterintuitive but in the long run this will actually result in more flowers than if you had allowed additional stems to continue growing. It will also improve air circulation through the mature plant.

Dahlias can be planted directly into the garden when the danger of frost has passed.

To read more about propagation and growing cut flowers Visit the Growing Guides at The Hamsphire Seed Company

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Edible Flowers

There is nothing better than wandering through the garden before breakfast eyeing up the delights which can be feasted upon throughout the day. Planning which flower colours and flavours will go with the special lunchtime salad with friends or a luxurious desert to wow your guests. As it happens it is best to pick the flowers on a dry morning before the sun gets too hot, this way the colours and flavours will be more intense. Flowers can be left in the fridge for a few days and can also be dried or frozen (though these are best used cooked as they will not have the same form as fresh flowers)

Generally speaking only actual petals are eaten, so remove them from the body of the stem. The bitter “heel” at the base of stems should also be removed. This is with the exception of umbel flowers such as Fennel & Dill which can be used whole. Bees and other insects can be removed by dipping flowers into a bowl of salt water.

With Edible flowers still growing in popularity it pays to stay safe and know exactly what you are eating. Flowers have been used for culinary purposes since 140 BC but the risk of eating the wrong thing scares many people into not using them at all. If you are in any doubt, then do not eat - accurate identification is a must. Also anyone susceptible to allergies, especially pollen, should not eat flowers!

Many seed suppliers now have dedicated sections on the website for edible flower seeds so this is a really good way of eliminating the guesswork for any novice. Many of them are the most common and well known ones, from Borage to Calendula and Violas. But you can also eat Dahlias, infact the whole plant is edible including the tuber! The Aztecs grew them for culinary purposes but but by todays standards they are not considered that tasty and todays cultivars look much better in a vase or with the petals adorning a beautiful cake.

Flowers add the most wonderful colour, flavour and texture to both sweet and savoury dishes and my favourite way of using them is on cakes, as they never fail to wow guests! Check out my Courgette & Thyme Cake recipe which looks particularly stunning with fresh flowers. Home grown flowers are best as you know exactly what they have been watered with and that they have not been sprayed with any chemicals. If you have bought your plants from a garden centre then they will need all flowers to be cut off and then to be grown on for at least three months to reduce the risk of pesticide residues. No one wats to eat chemicals on their cake!

There are no pesticides which have been specifically approved for use on edible flowers for use in the home garden so the best way to control insects and disease are to run a truly organic garden or at least have a special edibles section which do not get sprayed.

Flowers should also be protected from animals is much as possible. I have tried telling the neighbours cat not to use my garden as a litter tray but as they have to date not taken any notice of my repeated squeals and banging on the window so I do have to resort with protection in the form of twiggy branches. For the same reason it is also a good idea to avoid using flowers gathered from the roadside – not to mention the dust and pollution which may have settled on them.

Some of my favourite edible flowers are those of vegetables and herbs which I am already growing for culinary purposes and so using the flowers is just the next step. The uses of their flowers mimic the same uses as for the leaves; Basil flowers with tomatoes, dill flowers with fish dishes, chive flowers in salads etc. Borage and pansies look particularly stunning inside ice cubes for a BBQ . Garden peas can also be picked at the flower stage and as young shoots to be added to salads. We eat all of our peas raw in our house……. none have ever made it as far as the pan. They are shelled and popped in the mouth at source!

Great for use in cakes and biscuits I love lavender and rose which also both make the most amazing flavoured sugar which we use on fresh strawberries in the summertime. Nasturtium I use throughout my veg plot to attract bugs and deter them from eating away at my veggies but find that I have so many that I can easily use the non infested stems in salads and pasta dishes. Here the whole flowers can be used in addition to leaves, buds or just the petals for a milder flavour. Violas and pansies are perhaps the most commonly recognised edible flowers, and with their striking beauty I grow masses of these to be used in salads, summer drinks, cakes & on pancakes.

More edible flowers which you can grow yourself include:

Alpine pinks (Dianthus) – Clove-like flavour – Cakes, flavoured sugar, oils and vinegars

Bergamot – Strong Spicy Scent – Savoury dishes and teas

Carnations - Spicy Clove Flavour - Great for salads and cakes

Cornflower - Sweet & Spicy Flavour - great for deserts

Clary Sage - Gorgeously scented, there will add an intoxicating aroma to a salad

Courgette - Sweet Nectar Flavour. Great stuffed with cheeses and other fillings, battered and deep fried or sautéed and added to pasta.

Crocosmia - Can be used as a yellow dye, to substitute saffron substitute for colouring foods Daisy – Not a strong flavour - Garnish for cakes and salads Day lily – Peppery flavour - Stir frys, salads and soups

Dahlias - Flavours range from water chestnut and spicy apple to carrot - great in salads and on deserts.

Elderflower – Sweet & fragrant - Wine , cordials & lightly battered

Fennel - Liquorice flavour - Goes well with fish, meat and vegetable dishes also fennel flower oil

Hibiscus – Citrus- Flavoured tea (enhanced by rosemary) Hollyhock – Use crystallized petals as a garnish Lavender – Flavoured sugar, cakes and biscuits Nasturtium – Peppery flavour - Salads and pasta dishes

Pansy - Fresh Flavour - Great in salads and on cakes Pot marigold – Peppery flavour - Soups, stews and puddings. Petals can be dried or pickled in vinegar or added to oil or butter Primrose - Use crystallized petals as a garnish or frozen in ice cubes

Rose – Sweet & Fragrant - The more fragrant the better! Petals can be crystallized, used to flavour drinks & Sugar.

Scented geraniums –Crystallized or frozen in ice cubes for summer cordials Sweet violet – Delicate flavour - Sweet or savoury dishes. Use candy violets and pansies as a garnish on cakes and soufflés

Wisteria - Floral flavour - Great for making aromatic wine

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