It seems to be colder than we normally experience here in Florida this go around the sun. We've had multiple freezes that have killed back what were happy and budding-up dahlia plants. All those beautiful buds, about to burst open with dahlia blooms are womp womp, dead.
This is just part of the "fun" 🤪 of trying to grow dahlias in Florida. In the summer, it's too hot for them to thrive even with shade cloth as we battle spider mites. Our sweet spot is the cooler nights and under 75 degree days. Which means late fall, early winter and early spring if we don't have freeze that kills back the plants. In warmer winters without a freeze we would be enjoying oodles of beautiful dahlia flowers.
But a las, not the case at the moment.
So what does our winter dahlia management look like?
Tubers stay in the ground (7 Gallon grow bags in our case)
In Florida, we do not dig up our tubers, there's no way to store them without a specialized cooler to keep them dormant, so we just keep in the ground year round. Tuber loss happens, yes, but much more tubers make it than when attempting to store them. (And by ground, we mean in our grow bags.)
Deep watering ahead of a cold snap
Watering gives the plants some protection when it gets freezing, but if it's really below freezing for a long time, it's not going to save the day.
Cover when it is going to get below freezing for several hours
This typically is only during the 1am-6am window of time that we'll see below freezing temps. If it's just going to be an hour or two of 32/31 degree weather, we don't cover. But if it's going to get lower than that for several hours we bundle the plants up in cloth.
We take cuttings in the fall/winter to keep rooted cutting backups indoors
As a backstop against losing varieties of dahlias to freezing weather, we take cuttings to root and overwinter indoors. We don't have space to bring all of our dahlia plants inside when it gets below freezing, but we do have growing space for rooted cuttings. Any extras we don't need, we offer for sale.
For other growers in warmer zones, these tips can help get your dahlia plants through cold temps. In cooler zones, super freezing temps will kill your tubers, so you'll need to dig them up and store in a cool, dry, dark place.
Easy summer flowers exist, like Zinnias...
For less dramatic summer flowers to grow, Zinnias can provide a lot of the same visual punch (though they'll never be as captivating as dahlias). So if all this sounds like way too much work, Shop our Zinnia seeds for an easy, heat-loving annual.
