Thanks! I do have rooting hormone. I had pinched these plants heavily because I wanted them to be very short and bushy for containers. They are "windowbox" dahlias. I have 4 inches of "trunk" left in the pot, fortunately branched near the base. The storm was Monday night but the victim is still looking very bruised and battered, with limp leaves. Soil is soggy too from that rain plus another drencher 2 days ago. So now I'm anticipating rot too! I already have one of these, a different one, limp with what I assume is rot, from before this wind storm. The pot has drainage but somehow the holes have become plugged. It is ceramic and has a permanenetly attached saucer, so I can't get anything in there to ream out the holes. I have the pot on its side to drain out, hopefully. All the potted dahlias on the deck were damaged, but with the others I was able to stake them up and trim off small broken parts. Only one was flung totally upside down to the ground.

Why not try to root it? You probably would have better results if you give the cutting some protection from the hot sun for a while ( in a pot), and then you could transplant it when the roots have formed. Many of us do stem cuttings in the spring. You should also get more tubers in the fall.

Three days ago, main stem broke when I neglected to properly secure it my plant, it rained and weighed down everything causing this. Unfortunately the break is on a stem that has half of the flowers and was the most vigorous. The break was about 2/3 clean snap and 1/3 connected remaining. I panicked and just made do with what was handy, mostly because I didn't want it exposed to the spores in the air and microbes that the rain carries in the wind from the leaves of the higher trees around. Maybe I just made it a breeding ground, but so far, choked or not, it appears mending. I think one more day with the cut tube and I'll undo the wires, hoping scar tissue has the wound protected and then I'll better support it and see. Don't know if this will help or if it was a mistake, but take a look in case it gives you and (good) ideas if it happens again.

If I were you, I would Tie it even more above the tear and likely it will heal itself. Tomatoes are surprisingly strong plants, and they can come back from the brink. I broke off a main stem on one of my plants accidentally this year and I freaked, this was about 4-5 weeks ago. It had the biggest fruit set of all my plants, and was about 16 inches long. Nevertheless, I put the broken end in some moist soil and after a week it was growing again. And the fruit ripened! Now, the plant is around 5 feet tall and growing vigorously.