Gale Borger's Books The Books, The Author, and the Musings

Happy Thanksgiving, fellow gardeners! I hope you have pulled your dahlia bulbs and have them ready to store for the winter. Are you ready to put your dahlia bulbs to bed? It’s easy, and if you over-winter dahlia  bulbs, you get a big spring bonus! 

 

You will notice that the single lobe I planted last spring has sprouted into a many-lobed mass. This bulb has been cleaned and dried, and is ready for division. I like to divide my bulbs in fall rather than spring because it seems to me they are easier to cut. The point of this exercise is to cut the bulb up into viable pieces; each to be planted next year. To do this you need a sharp cutting tool (I use my most excellent bypass pruners or an exacto knife), and a good eye–literally!  

 

You just have to look deep into your dahlia’s eyes. Yes folks, your dahlias have eyes. Notice the little bumps at the top of the bulb below? If you can’t see them look at where the green sprouts out of the top of the bulb. These are called eyes. From each of these eyes will grow a shoot. Look closely at your bulb. Where the lobe meets the stem, you can locate these eyes. Cut the bulb cleanly so each eye has a lobe attached.

 

 Be very careful you do not cut the eye itself. In this picture you can see I now have four lobes with eyes that will produce four separate plants next spring. 

 

Each of these sections will be stored buried in peat in a plastic container.  Now some gardeners wrap their bulbs in newspaper and store them in paper bags. One winter I tried four different types of storage containers and media. I used vermiculite in one, I wrapped some in newspaper, I wrapped and stored some in a refrigerator in a summer house, and I buried the rest in peat, and stored them on a shelf in our basement. By far the bulbs in the peat in the basement faired the best, and after many years, I still use this method. Though our basement is a little warmer than it should be (most people’s basements are), aside from a couple sprouts, they winter over very well.

 

Some gardeners cover their bulbs in fungicides, but if you clean, dry, and store your bulbs correctly, you should not have problems. Another thing you need to do is not allow your bulbs to touch each other in the storage bin. Make sure the peat completely covers each bulb. Check on them a couple times over the winter and remove any bulb that might have soft spots (usually black), as these will not make it until spring, and they will rot the others in the box.