I have managed to overwinter dahlias several times and I've come up with a method that seems to work pretty well. There are two main things that dahlias don't like when they are dormant: freezing and sitting in soggy soil. So here's the method I use to deal with these two issues: 1. Plant the dahlias in raised beds of some sort so that the clump will not sit in water over the winter. 2. Cover the bed in the fall with a thick layer of dried organic material (leaves, pine needles, planer shavings, etc.) for insulation. 3. Cover the insulating material with clear plastic. This will shed water off of the insulating material (wet materials have poor insulating value) and off the tubers. The clear plastic allows the sun to shine through periodically throughout the winter to help keep the mound thawed.

Why not try more? Digging and dividing dahlias is hard work! If they do freeze, replacements can be easily bought. How much is your time worth? Some hints: Be sure to mulch the plants with several inches of compost or dry leaves. Make sure they are not in a wet area as they will rot in cold, wet soil. Consider digging them in the Spring every few years and dividing the large clumps. As clumps get too large, they send up too many sprouts and the plants will become too crowded an be spindly. Be sure to control slugs and snails in the Spring as they will lay eggs on the clumps and the hatchlings will eat the sprouts before they come up. By the way, you can easily move clumps around in the Spring and they will do fine when re-planted.

If divided they will bloom as well as the first year. As the clump grows & doesn't get divided the plant starts to get lazy & live off the clump & not try to put out blooms to propogate itself, so blooms get fewer, weaker & smaller. Stems suffer, too & become weaker so they can't hold up the blooms. If you leave them in the ground for the winter you could dig them in early spring, divide & replant all in one go -- & have extras to pass around to friends or put in different parts of the garden.

Yep -- they do fall into the same catagory as cannas --but again you can give them a head start by planting them in gallon pots. Mine have been in pots for about a month and range from just peaking to almost a foot tall. I hope to have blooms by the 15th or so of June. But as a cut flower vendor -- I need as much luck as I can get. Cathy