Is it too early to cut back dahlias?

I was slow off the ground with staking in my dahlias this year and most have now overgrown my poor efforts to support and manage them. The result is a lot of overlarge plants flopping all over the place, smothering other plants and generally getting in the way. They are still flowering but I am itching to give them a good sorting out and allow everything else some breathing space. Is it too early to cut back the foliage and dig up the tubers? I'm intending to store them in the outhouse over winter but I don't want to risk losing the tubers with over-eager removal.

 

Hello 2nd bassoon
Two schools of thought here. Some swear by allowing the frosts to kill the stems to ground level then lift but I dont do that. If I waited for frosts to do that I possibly would have to wait until late winter.
I have never had a problem cutting dahlias back early. I always do it

Let the stems dry out thoroughly by placing them upside down in a well lit airy spot. When they are dry, maybe in a couple of weeks, check the tubers are free of pest, disease and dirt and put them in your storehouse if it is dry and frost free. Lots of different ways but store in cardboard boxes and newspaper or straw, or wrapped in fleece and they will be fine.
Check now and then they are nice and plump but dry and in spring pot them up into decent size pots and bring into the gh. I use dryish compost.
I have already cut back some dahlias........some have been promised and some are in the way
I also divide them now......pulling apart and potting up

 

Thanks @Verdun I had read the same about waiting until first frosts, but being a sheltered garden in the middle of the city we're a bit of a micro-climate and may not get proper frosts until well into the new year - we seem to speicilise in warm and wet winters round here. I've been itching to give that corner a good tidy up for weeks now so that'll be a good afternoon well spent!

 

Go for it....have fun :rasp:

 

I dont think a dahlia s mind too much if they are cut back or the top is killed by frost, to the plant it is pretty much the same thing.
Only reasoning I can see about waiting for a frost is that the tuber gets a longer growing season and a shorter dormant season.

I tend to find lifting tubers a pain when its freezing cold and the ground is sodden, you can do a much better job when its reasonably dry, and the tubers dry out better for storing.

Having said that, mine are still flowering, so I'll leave them a bit longer.

 

100% agree with Verdun except because of where I live the frosts usually make up my mind as to when to cut off the top growth. However there have been occasions when miraculously we didn't get a good going frost by the time I wanted to sort out the garden for winter and chopped off the top growth will no ill effects. I do exactly as verdun describes and once dry I store mine in cardboard boxes with no extra covering. The only thing I can add would be that once the tubers start back into growth again I usually soak the tubers in a water butt for about 24 hours as they can get a bit dried out over winter. i have tubers which I was given over 25 years ago and they are still going strong so seems as tho verdun and my method works fine. Like Pete mine are still flowering very well so will keep them going as long as possible.....winter is long enough without hastening it to arrive by clearing all the colour from the garden

 

I have several clumps well over 6' tall and looking majestic ......they will perform for a good few weeks yet

 

Never lifted any of mine last year, guess what, they have been fantastic this year. Still getting a great show from them. Don't know if I will bother lifting them this year.

 

Bear in mind it was a mild winter last year! I got some from silu this year and although I was rather late in getting them in the ground, they are still flowering I couldnt bear to lose them so will lift later this month.

 

Thanks Loofah....thet's sorted what to do with those in pots for me.

 

My dahlia's have been battered the past couple of weeks with the wind and rain. I keep putting the broken stems in a vase with most of the leaves on still, they seem to last long.

Nearly had a frost the other day, some say we had a grass frost I'll enjoy what left of mine while I can, I do need the pots though for spring bulbs so will be chop back and removed by the end of the month.

 

Touch wood all my dahlias, despite their size and height stand up well to wind and rain.....I stake dahlias as I do my runner beans, viz., early and securely.
Funny how we change our thinking about things.....used to regard dahlias as old men's flowers all colour, bamboo canes and huge blowsy colours. Now they are indispensable....still avoid the most in your face ones though.

 

Maybe, just maybe ........you are becoming an 'old man' Verdun
The one year I dug up all my dahlias to store them in a nice dry warm place, the bliddy mice ate the lot! They stay put now, there`s a better chance they will survive, and it makes a lot less work

 

Hey! Actually the realisation did occur when I wrote that
I tend to dig up those that get too big and it is nice to give plants away.:rasp: