Storing dahlias over winter

Well I won’t be doing this again. These dahlia tubers are expensive play things. I baulked at buying them for years and years as I grumbled at the expense of the tubers.  And then I also thought it was a faff to lift them, dry them, store them, and then haul them out in spring and start all over again.

But the flowers…. they are very productive and dramatic when you have to come up with at least seven bouquets a week.

Andrew keeps his dahlias in the ground and I dithered. We are much higher in altitude and colder than his amazing flower garden.  To lift or not to lift?

He just mulches heavily over the top of the plants for winter. Could I do the same?

But I also have the added fun of a pesky mole rat which munched his way through half my tubers in the first growing season.  I had planted them all in pots and plunged them in the ground. And it worked brilliantly. the rat ate the swiss chard plants instead.

Eventually I decided to lift them and store them in the potting shed.

And here was the dramatic reveal.

And it’s a bust.  Half the tubers are mouldy. Some have rotted to slime. A bit of a fiasco if you must.

So I have managed to salvage five tubers out of the dozen I put down. I’ve learned my lesson.  These are going to stay in their pots in the ground from now on.

After all, here are the bulbs that have overwintered happily in their planter in the courtyard. Gladiolis just poking through. I’ve learned my lesson.