Cold Comfort Corner: Dahlias

JUDY RUMBELOW of Cold Comfort Plants has agreed to provide Pembrokeshire.Online readers with some gardening advice whenever she has the time. Thank you, Judy. You will inspire us all to have a go.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, or at least by customers of Cold Comfort Plants, that dahlias are difficult. Today I am going to try to persuade you otherwise – which I hope will give you access to a wealth of possibilities for pots and your garden that offer beautiful, vivid blooms well into autumn, and get better and better each year, all with the minimum of fuss.

The main issue that puts people off dahlias is that they are tender. All this means is that they dislike being out in winter, especially if it is cold and wet. To a certain extent this is an advantage as plants that don’t like our winters are often well equipped to cope with any hot, dry periods we might get in summer, and don’t need excessive watering.

So let’s cut to the chase. What will I have to do to preserve my dahlias over winter? It’s very simple. If your dahlias are in pots, in late October or early November, they will start to die back. At this point take them out of the pots and you should have a large clump of tubers that look like small potatoes.

Simply shake off the compost, put them back in the pot, cover the pot with an old sack or a bit of newspaper and put them somewhere dry, mouse-free and dark, where they will get a little bit of protection from any frost. We keep them in an unheated garage, but a cold conservatory, a shed or a porch would do equally well.

As the days get longer and warmer, usually in March or April, the dahlia tubers will start to sprout, and that is the point at which you put them back into pots in new compost.

Put the pots back outside when the danger of frost has passed. And that’s it. You will be richly rewarded with beautiful pots that flower for months. They benefit from being regularly deadheaded and a liquid feed every month or so.

In Pembrokeshire, our mild climate also allows you to grow dahlias in the ground if you prefer. Plant your dahlias once danger of frost has passed and enjoy their flowers across the summer months. As they die back, usually in October of November, cut them back to the ground and cover with a mulch of some sort. We use grass cuttings. Cover with something semi-permeable, such as the weed-retarding plastic that comes on a roll, and leave them alone until spring when you should be greeted with new shoots.

They make excellent cut flowers and are some of the easiest and most effective plants for pots. This year they have been a bit slug prone, but in a typical year it is quite possible to protect your pots by putting them on feet  and keeping an eye out for – and removing – invaders. You can buy a myriad different tubers online or wait until summer and buy fully grown plants. They are also surprisingly easy from seed, forming full-sized plants in the space of one season.

I would definitely urge you to give them a try. I think you will be pleasantly surprised by the result.

Judy Rumbelow runs Cold Comfort Plants with her husband, Paul, and help from their two daughters. Cold Comfort Plants is a micro-nursery selling mainly hardy perennial plants.They grow everything here on their farm from seed or cuttings. Their plants are all accustomed to Pembrokeshire weather so have the best  chance of surviving in your garden.

Contact: judy.rumbelow@gmail.com; 07809 560409.

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