Dahlia tubers

[mint]

Earlier this year, I bought a few dahlia tubers from some old French codger and stuck them in the garden.

Indeed, the blooms have been magnificent all summer but OH needed the space they were taking up to plant 3 climbing roses in the hope that they would climb up the walls to balcony height.

Since the tubers have been dug up, we could see that they have multiplied exponentially and we now have 2 massive clumps of tubers.

My question is this:  Is it best now to dry the tubers thoroughly, separate them out a bit and then put them back in the ground in the spring?

We had very big and showy dahlias in our old house but, when we brought some of the tubers here and planted them, they didn't grow up to be plants, nevermind bear flowers [:(]

So, your advice please, all you green-fingered types out there!

[andyh4]

pack them in barely moist peat (certainly not wet) and store in a cool but frost free place until spring.

Then divide them and replant.

[dave21478]

Exactly as you say - seperate them out a bit and re-plant in the spring.

One of my clients had a magnificent load of dahlias and I had to do this every year for them as they found out the hard way that its too cold and wet for them to survive the winters up here.

I never took particular care to dry them out, I just cut of most off the stems leaving a few inches, and spread them out on a polythene sheet on the ground in a corner of their hanger. Back in the ground each spring and they came up lovely year after year.

[mint]

Thank you, Andy and thank you, Dave.

Fortunately, we have 3 good-sized sous-sol rooms that are cool, airy and frost free and there is plenty of space to store them.