This year I decided to lift and store my dahlias in crates, and I used Westland’s Gro-Sure vermiculite as my storage medium, which was very nice and easy to work with.
I’ll admit that I was a bit concerned when I lifted the dahlias because some of them had quadrupled in size and were fairly huge to deal with. We disposed of the ones that had viral diseases and crown gall, and then cleaned and placed the rest in storage for the winter.
If you are in a moderate climate or the south of the UK you could mulch and take the risk of overwintering them in the ground, but with us being in a soggy, Welsh environment I did not want to risk them rotting.
The vermiculite is really light weight and easy to use which makes moving the crates around and stacking them very easy.
I am also looking forward to using the left over vermiculite for my seedlings this year. Vermiculite helps to retain moisture and aids better germination. Many gardeners also like to use vermiculite for lightening soil because it does not break down very quickly, and that’s something we’re going to experiment with this year.
Let me know what you do with your dahlias in the winter by leaving a comment below.
In closing we would like to say a huge thank you to Westland and Charlies Stories for collaborating with us on this project.