The winter of 2024-2025 in Virginia has been notably cold, with early January temperatures ranking among the coldest starts to the month in many years.
As mentioned in our previous blog post, we chose to overwinter many dahlias in the ground this year. We still dug, divided, and stored several hundred clumps like we normally do, but given the mild winters we've had recently, we felt comfortable taking our chances leaving some in the ground.
Many mornings of temperatures in the low single digits left us resigned to the fact that the tubers left in the ground had been lost.
Temperatures yesterday were in the mid-50s, and out of an abundance of curiosity, we dug a few clumps to check on their viability.
Unbelievably, all clumps were recovered without any rot or frozen tubers! The risks of leaving the clumps in the ground include rot (from excessive moisture), frozen tubers, and predatory animals (voles).
Our winter has (to date) been rather wet and cold, yet the tubers we dug came out unscathed. We did protect the dahlias with several inches of organic matter. We used shredded leaves, grass clippings, and straw. This was an unexpected surprise that demonstrates the former "must dig" mantra may no longer be correct in this part of the country.
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