[This is part 1 of my 2025 dahlia season story.]
It is exhausting at the end of the growing season to look upon rows of dahlias, usually frosted by November and melted into green goo, and think “now I have to dig all these up and clean them and cut them and store them, arghhhh” and I run screaming from the room.
I also don’t like working in the garden when it’s cold.
I have dear vegetable farmer friends who do a little flowers on the side, and they overwinter their dahlias with great success [we’re pretty solid US Zone 6b, (-5°-0°F/-20.6°–17.8°C)]. Granted the last few winters have been fairly mild for our area, but it is still a risk. Last fall, I wondered “hmmm, am I digging or overwintering my dahlias?”
November 2024
My growing season last fall extended well into October; since I still had flowers growing I was still selling. It was a long season, especially because it was my first year with tulips so the picking and selling started in late April/early May instead of the end of June as I was used to. [You can read about my tulips here.]
I was really tired of the garden and kept putting off digging up the dahlia tubers, debating whether or not to overwinter them. Finally I decided to overwinter them and naturally waited until the weather got nice and cold. 🥶 AKA the last minute possible.
Once I decided to overwinter I hedged my bets and dug up one clump of each my favorites. If this experiment didn’t work, at least I wouldn’t lose everything.
A landscaper friend brought me bales of hay from a job (used to hold back water from a hill), so I spread a fluffy 8″ or so layer over the rows and adjacent walkways. There were 3 20′ rows of dahlias, all next to each other. I also put three foot of hay at the beginning/end of the rows. It looked like this:
Next I covered the whole thing with a tarp (Mr. Bee helped) and put rocks around the perimeter of the tarp to keep the tubers warmer and dry through the winter. I made sure the tarp didn’t have any holes, because the real killer (IMHO) would be for the tubers to freeze and thaw in wet ground.
Then I prayed.
A LOT. Because we suffered through the COLDEST winter in years. Usually we have scattered single digit/low teens degree days, but last winter we went weeks in the teens.
In March, I gave up hope.
Spring 2025
I patiently waited until May 1st to uncover what used to be my dahlia rows. The days were warming up to 60°F and I wanted the tarp to warm up the ground too. It was surprisingly easy to use the pitchfork to lift the matted hay.
WHAT TO MY WONDERING EYES SHOULD APPEAR? A TINY MIRACLE SPROUT!!!
Over the next few weeks, more sprouts appeared! One row, the one closest to the edge of the tarp, did not have any tubers overwinter. But the other 2 rows were a spectacular success!
Here are the plants after 11 and 20 days. I was over the moon with joy.
I am happy I planned ahead and dug up some of the tubers- they aren’t cheap and I missed the ones that didn’t make it through the winter. But still, I think we tend to underestimate the resilience of plants.
Join me for part 2 of the 2025 Dahlia story coming soon. I’ll share pre-sprouting thoughts and how the overwintered plants compared to the spring planted tubers.
Until then, I’ll leave you with my first dahlias picked on June 27th! Considering I didn’t get my first dahlias until mid-August last summer, this was craziness!
Are you a dahlia lover or are they just too much work for you? Let me know! Hugs, Pam 💐