Upturned buckets still covering sleeping Dahlias. These will all be checked over in the next few weeks.
@Oreti I am in love with your landscaping !! So pretty !! Please tell me how well that "bucket over the Dahlias has worked for you. I have left Dahlias in ground over winter here but if we get too much rain, they disappear. Does the bucket really help keep the tubers from being soaked in winter?
Hi there @Anniekay . I have always left the Dahlias insitu, unless like this year I have dug a couple up, divided them and overwintered them in the greenhouse to plant out in May. I have about 40 I think and have never lost one.....yet! I cut them back once they have been frosted ..around early Nov. then cover them with mulch and dry leaves and place an upturned bucket over them topped with a brick to stop the buckets taking off as we live in a bit of a wind tunnel. I make sure to only cover them up during a dry spell in the Autumn.
Thanks so much for that information !! I am going to try the way you do it when I get some more tubers. I lost mine all last year and was going to give up on them but now, you've given me hope that I actually can overwinter them in situ. I don't have a greenhouse so, I have to leave them in ground.
Good luck @Anniekay It comes down to your climate of course as well. We're right on the South Coast here so compared to most gardeners northwards we can get away with leaving them be. Is your soil well draining or on the soggy side.? Some of our garden is thick clay ( the area use to be a clay mine making bricks until about 90 years ago.) I did try growing some Dahlias in the clay borders, they were OK but perhaps didn't produce the same amount of blooms, I couldn't bring myself to take a chance by leaving them to overwinter there, I think they would've rotted. Love to hear the outcome from you please.
I do have very sandy soil which I have been amending with compost for the last 4 years, but when we get weeks of rain in winter, there is a clay bottom which varies from 1-2' down. I believe that with the cold and wet, that clay traps the water and the tubers just rot. I will let you know the outcome next spring, for sure !! Thanks again !!
I really don't want this wisteria down below in the photo. because it sends root runners into my yard. S. Georgia is one of the places it grows rampant. Can't get rid of it because it already growing prolifically all outside my back fence. But it is pretty and smells good. The little brown flower is from my Paw paw tree. I have three, two different varieties.
This is one of the hedges at the front, I think the striking colour of the flowers throws the wheelie bins into sharp contrast and counterpoints the surrealism of the refuse system
