Dahlias are tireless summer bloomers that enchant the gardener with new flowers from July until the first frost. Dahlias are easy to care for - most of the work involves digging them up in the fall and overwintering them indoors. This is how you overwinter the daisy family, also known as georgines.
How do you overwinter dahlias correctly?
To protect dahlias in winter, dig up the frost-sensitive tubers after flowering and overwinter them in the basement at 4-8 degrees. They can also overwinter in dry, frost-free rooms such as a garage or garden shed. Lightly moisten the tubers regularly to prevent them from drying out.
Dahlias do not tolerate frost
The shoots and flowers of the dahlia freeze even at temperatures slightly below zero. That is why georgines must be kept indoors over the winter. Only the tubers are overwintered. Leaves and flowers cannot be kept over the winter because there is a lack of light and warmth in the cold season.
For overwintering, the tubers must be removed from the ground or pot. It is best to overwinter them in the cellar.
Courageous gardeners try to overwinter the non-hardy dahlias in pots or even outside. Here, however, the losses are usually quite high and are not suitable for high-quality dahlia varieties.
Dahlias are best overwintered in the cellar
A cellar offers the perfect temperatures for the georgines to overwinter. Here it usually doesn't get warmer than four to eight degrees and the humidity is neither too low nor too high.
If no cellar is available, other rooms are suitable for overwintering georgines:
- Utility room
- Dry, frost-free garage
- Garden house with frost monitor
The temperatures should not rise above ten degrees because the tubers will then begin to sprout. Dahlia tubers should not dry out either, so spray them occasionally with a little water.
Tips & Tricks
Old wooden boxes without coating are ideal for overwintering dahlia tubers. They regulate moisture so that the roots do not rot or dry out.
