Are these dahlias dead?

Posts

• Plantminded Posts: 3,580

  January 2022

  Just cut the stems down to ground level, tidy up and apply a mulch of bark or compost to protect the dormant tubers.  If we continue to have a mild winter, depending on where you are, they should reappear from about early May.  Protect the emerging shoots from slug damage though.

  Wirral. Sandy, free draining soil.
  
  
  

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• Fairygirl Posts: 55,117

  January 2022

  Dahlias can overwinter in the ground - if your conditions are suitable -ie you live in a  warmer/drier/frost free area, and the soil is free draining. A mulch over them is also beneficial as back up.
  Otherwise they should have been lifted to store somewhere frost free after the foliage was blackened and dying off.
  You could cut the dead stems off and mulch them if you don't want to lift them, but in cold wet areas they won't make it [they'll rot]  and the damage well have already been done if that's the case. 

  It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
  
  
  
  I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...

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• Pete.8 Posts: 11,340

  January 2022

  The top growth will die off as soon as it gets frosted.
  The tubers under the soil hopefully are ok and they'll start to grow again in late spring - mine appear sometime in May.
  Keep an eye out for slugs at that time as they love to eat the new shoots.
  As soon as it starts to warm up they'll grow quickly and be bigger than last year.
  
  I leave a bit of the dead stem on mine just so I know where they are planted.

  
  Billericay - Essex
  
  Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
  Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

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