spring dividing and replanting?

I saw some leaves coming out today on my large dahlias - I'm in zone 7 - could I still dig them up, divide and replant them, and have blooms this summer? They're the tall ones. Help!

Yes, you can. Happy digging!

pirl? You can really do that? I would think they would be so set back that they wouldn't bloom this season. Amazing.

Some folks are lucky and can keep them in the ground from year to year but they do have to be dug up and divided every two to three years depending on how energetic the gardener is...or isn't.

Son of a gun. I have to dig and store mine every year.

Me, too! From now on I'm growing from seed and will skip the fall/early winter digging.

pirl, do you think you can get big enough plants from seeds to have blooms in that season? I have started (cloned) about 25 dahlias this year so am guaranteed that they will look like the original. I have heard that sometimes seeds don't 'breed' true.

Yes. Let's hope this all works out or I'll have a big vacancy.

Just by their very nature of being seeds they won't come true but they'll share the dark foliage, which is what I'm hoping for by growing them.

I still have more than 100 dahlias downstairs but the energy to plant them all is missing.

I am fairly new to dahlias and was planning on digging them up every two or three years. Many of my in the ground ones have sprouted - I dug a few up, and couldn't figure how to cut or divide them easily. Guess I should have dug and divided earlier, before they sprouted. For the dahlias that I am leaving in the ground as is, do I let all the sprouts develop, or pinch so that only a few stems remain? I'll have to post some pics tomorrow.

I am not expert but you pinch back to a few stems if you want big flowers, and you don't pinch if you want a nice bush and lots of little flowers. In the fall (uh, do you guys get frost??) you let them die down then dig up and divide keeping an 'eye' and a part of the crown (stem) on each division.

Arlene, you have 100 dahlias!! That makes me exhausted just thinking about it. I guess you don't have a slug problem. If I plant mine in the ground it's like a slug call. Am going to try the diatamataceous (sp) earth this year. Hope it works for the Dahlias as well as the hosta.

soils - it would be hard to know about the value of pinching since you don't need or want more branching. I think I'd just let them be for this year, then dig and divide in fall and then replant.

We do have slug issues here, Mary, and I did have over 100 dahlias but most died downstairs overwinter and I'm not upset. It was too much at this stage of my life to dig up each fall. My husband planted the seeds for the dark Bishop's Children and they all germinated so I'll still have lots of planting to do 6/2 and 6/3, rain or shine.

I tried the DE but it did not work for either the slugs or earwigs. I rely on Ortho's Bug Geta Plus.

Oh, do you have Bishop of Aukland or Bishop of York? either one. I love the dark foliage. I will take a pass on the DE and just go for the Bug Geta Plus per your suggestion. Wouldn't your dahlias in the basement have lived -- or rather wouldn't the tubers have survived -- oh, unless you dug them up and stored them. That is a lot to lose, but I agree that past a certain point the garden starts to own you and it stops being fun.

These are just very generalized seeds called "Bishop's Children", so I have no idea which of the children are included, Mary, sorry.

My helper, Neri, and I dug each one (with the label), washed them, dried them out in the sun for a few days and stored them but I should have sprinkled them with water during the winter and I didn't. You're right about the garden owning me. At least with seeds I can plant the seedlings, watch them grow, enjoy them and never dig again - just plant more seeds next year. Two of the tubers did survive and have sent up shoots.

I did break down and bought a few bags of tubers but not many.

I fear I approach your record of 100 tubers. I think this year I will only save two of each type; I do as you do to store, but need to 'shake and bake' them in a powdered fungicide then wrap in saran. I got really good results with this year before last; last year I was really sloppy and didn't bother with fungicide; many rotted. Not sure if I even ended up with one of each type. Won't know til they bloom. so I propagated like crazy in case I only had one of each. I need to find those marking pens that you can write on the tubers with as I always seem to get them mixed up when I unwrap and plant them. I don't think our growing season would allow me to plant seeds and ever see a blossom; I would especially wonder about the really big ones like dinnerplates -- if they would ever get really big.

We'll give it a try if they're available next year. We do have a package of the cactus type also growing.

It was too much work with the digging, etc. so to face cutting them up, labeling and wrapping would have been a step too far for me.

Can't say I disagree.

question- i just planted a few dahlias in containers last year, i did not split them (did not know how or that i even should). so i am thinking i should divide them after this blooming season. is that correct?

Yes, it is.

thanks. is there a way not to do it or are they like irises and you just split them off?

Here's a thread to tell you and show you exactly how it is done:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/662385/

wow that is great. thank you so much

You're welcome. It's not an easy task so don't get upset if things don't go smoothly.

oh dear so much to learn at the expense of my plants