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Can I move dahlias now?

Our first hard frost means all my dahlias have finished and I usually leave them in the ground (free draining chalky hill in the SE so they're fine) but I want to move a few. Should I wait until spring or could I do it now?
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  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,046
    move them now,  you know where they are, in Spring they might be hiding. 
    Devon.
  • I moved mine a couple of weeks ago, definitely easiest to do when you can see where they are!
    East Yorkshire
  • Brilliant, thank you. If it ever stops raining I will get out there and swap them around.
  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 13,691
    Just my opinion, but planting Dahlia tubers into soaking wet ground, does not seem like a good idea. I think there may be lots of losses of tubers left in the ground this year, because of the weather.
    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,046
    @punkdoc, I agree about moving them into soaking wet ground but OP said she has 
    "free draining chalky hill "
    Devon.
  • Good point. I think if the weather stays mild we will be ok because as soon as it stops raining our soil will dry out very quickly. I'm assuming the tubers can cope with mild frost, is that right? 
  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,046
    Nicola149 said:
    Good point. I think if the weather stays mild we will be ok because as soon as it stops raining our soil will dry out very quickly. I'm assuming the tubers can cope with mild frost, is that right? 
    so long as the ground in which they're planted doesn't actually freeze, they should be ok. 
    Devon.
  • Yeah, I think you should move them now.
  • For the sake of space efficiency I was wondering if anyone does a preliminary step to find out which tubers will grow.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 29,114
    Start them in pots?   That's what I do with new ones anyway but now I have to decide whether to lift and dry and store this year's new ones or risk them outside.   Not all of last year's new ones came thru winter and it's supposed to be mild here.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
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