Last year I simply dug up the dahlias, stored them in the basement, and replanted the whole clump in spring. This year, I decided to try dividing the clumps so I can [presumably] increase the number of plants.

You can read about planting the dahlias in spring 2022 in this post.

A few weeks ago I labelled each plant while they were still blooming. This way, when you cut the plant back you can see who is who! They all look the same without flowers.

I decided which dahlias I want to keep, and which to toss. I composted a white border dahlia [too short] and a white decorative dahlia. It was pretty but with thin stems that couldn’t hold the flower upright.

[If you are curious about the different kinds of dahlias, Longfield Gardens has great descriptions.]

Below are favorites from this summer- Pink Sylvia, Cornel Bronze [I think], and Chilson’s Pride. The creamy yellow dahlia in the arrangement is Cafe au Lait, a dinnerplate. Dinnerplates can be huge, but mine grew small this year, so I could use them in bouquets. I purchased these tubers from Dreamland Flower Farm. Merrie grows amazing dahlias!

I can’t get over how prolific the Pink Sylvia is! ♥

Enough gushing over the flowers; on to the dirty part, haha.

I broke out the gardening fork to start digging, being careful to dig far enough away from the stems to avoid damaging the tubers. Once the clumps are dug up, it’s time to rinse them off and set them aside to dry off. It’s important to keep the labels on, if you want to remember what you are growing next year.

At this point, you don’t want to dilly-dally about dividing the clumps. See how plump the tubers are? They will start to dry and shrivel in just a few days and then you risk losing the plant.

IMPORTANT! WINTER BEE GARDEN DISCLAIMER:

From this point on, I have no idea if what I did is correct or not. I will not know until next spring when the tubers sprout, or not… it’s gonna be a crap-shoot, my friends.

I watched many, many videos on dividing tubers, and my take-away was a viable tuber consists of the body, a neck, and an eye [which will be the sprout next spring].

First tuber looked like this. I cut away all the roots. I can see the body, the neck. What the heck does an eye look like? I can see round, pokey spots in the part that looks like a collar. I assume those are eyes and start hacking it up. The very brown, wrinkly one underneath is the mother tuber and I’m supposed to throw that one away.

Next tuber.

I CAN’T EVEN.

I want to cry so I text my flower farmer friend Jen for moral support. She says ‘You got this! Just start at the top and work your way down.’

ALL the rest of my clumps look like this. There are tubers growing off tubers. There are fat ones with no neck. Some are so scrawny I don’t know if they actually are tubers. Why don’t my tubers look like the ones on YouTube?

I just start cutting. I am praying that somehow I will end up with at least two viable tubers for each cultivar next spring. It takes hours. I take a break and eat chocolate.

Here are the final divisions. If you are a dahlia dividing expert and you look at these and sigh, please don’t tell me.

I let the cuttings heal overnight. Packing the tubers with the ‘wet’ cuts can cause them to rot.

I did more research on storing the tubers and decided to store each cultivar in Ziplock bags, covered with vermiculite. At least they look tidy. The bin holds ‘Mikayla Miranda’ which are big and I had more tubers than the others. Those are in vermiculite as well.

I put the Ziplocks and bin in a tub, covered it with some landscape fabric to keep them dark, and stored the tub in the basement for the winter. I’ll check on them periodically, looking for rot. If they seem to be drying out, I’ll add a spritz of water.

This is what went into the compost pile. It seems like an awful lot! I probably tossed a zillion viable tubers, but I did my best. Experience is the best teacher, amirite?

The theme for this year is “Mistakes were Made and Lessons Learned” and I’m choosing to be optimistic about my success rate this spring. ⚘

Have you tried something new lately that was a challenge? Did it work out in the end? Let me know in the comments! Please send some encouraging vibes to my tubers too.

‘Til next time, gardening friends.

💐 Pam