Cutting back Dahlias

Here at the main herbaceous border at St Erth, We're well into our cutting back stage.

The dahlias as you can see have just freshly been cut back we leave a little bit above the ground to die back we don't want any rot going down into the tubers.

There's a fair bit of confusion in Australian gardening when it comes to dahlias, in the northern European tradition of dahlias growing, they get lifted out of a frozen soil so that they don't get damaged or waterlogged and rot away over winter. We don't need to do that in our conditions we can leave them safely in the ground. 

This will be mulched so the mulch works as an insulation layer in winter stops the frost from directly hitting the ground.

You can see this beautiful black soil that we have that we've built up over time, now the black soil itself and when you have that organic process happening in your soil also creates its own warmth, so you don't need to lift your dahlias, you just need good drainage good well-worked organic rich soil and when you've done all the work come in and top dress with a mulch.