Can anyone deliver my dahlias from a fate worse than limbo?

I have always had a passion for dahlias, their striking appearance, jovial presence, and infinite variety. Every year, I suggest we should grow some and, every year, the idea is rejected because Mrs Lab states (categorically) that slugs and snails “literally JUMP on them and devour them even before they are born!”

Do any of you share my love of dahlias and might you have some ideas or stratagems appertaining to security and protection with which I might persuade Mrs L. to have a go next year.

There is a moving link to the love of them having re-entered my consciousness; our late neighbour's sister has just brought us a bouquet of them (as we thought [*]) (below) from her garden in Wiltshire (together with a crate of white wine), as gifts far in excess of what little we did to keep an eye on his house during the ten months it took to turn it around and pass it on to the new neighbours who moved in a couple of weeks ago.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Lao

[*] we have now discovered (thanks to an app on Mrs Lab’s mobile phone – a remarkable thing [the app, not the phone]) that these flowers which we had thought to be a rare variety of dahlias are in fact Common Zinnias which we had never heard of but like very much; do snails and slugs also jump on them?

 

I will be saving my tubers from my first season of growing dahlias.

They would never overwinter here. And I have now watched far too many you tubes about collecting their seeds and am totallh frustrated that mine don't seem to have any.

I am finding that the ones in hanging pots don't suffer much, if any, insect damage. And like @JWK my hostas seem much more desirable to my slugs.

 

Perhaps your benefactor could be persuaded/asked to gift you some tubers on the qt......

 

Put a top dressing of Strulch around them. Works brilliantly. I covered the floor of my cold frame with Strulch and I haven't lost a seedling or plug to slugs and snails.

 

I grow mine in pots to avoid slugs and snails and overwinter in a cold greenhouse.
I have a couple in the ground, but they are both strong growing species and grow faster then the molluscs can eat them.

 

Thank you all for the good advice and especially to Jocko for bringing to our attention the deterrent connection between slugs, snails, and Strulch, of which we were not aware.

O excellent Jocko, where were you when I posted “Snails are vile, except on a plate ... Please HELP”?


How I wish they would put all the snails and slugs in Great Britain – nay, the world – on a dedicated road and have you drive over them with all the busses you have ever driven!

It would, at long last, dignify and define the dubious expression: Thrown under the bus!

 

If you like the taller, bulbous types of Dahlias, they win snails and slugs 1-0. The trick is to pot the tubers up in April/ May indoors and let the plants grow and acclimatise until it's time to plant them in the ground around early June. By that time they should be about a foot tall and sturdy, way too much for the SS patrol to demolish.

Then in October/ November, dig the tubers up, dry them a bit and store in garage (wrapped in newspaper) in boxes. Do label them well.



Now, what to do with the hole in the ground? Perfect size and timing to plop in some Tulip bulbs that will bloom before the next spring Dahlia plants are ready to go back in. Winter bedding plants or early flowering hardy annuals are also an option, but the Tulip-Dahlia swap has so perfectly elegant timings and dimensions that I go for that.

My ever expanding lot originates from a couple of tubers bought from Wilko's 70% off sale years ago. I paid around £1 for two tubers.

 

I love Dahlias and have a fair few. All mine stay put in the ground over winter, I just cover the base of them with a thick layer of mulch then a layer of leaves and finally an upturned frost hardy pot is placed over the entire pile.
I start checking for new growth about April and as soon as it's spotted I clear away most of the protective mulch and ( unless very cold ) the plants then spend their days uncovered. During the night ( and on wet days) I place large clear plastic bottles ( base removed) over them to protect the very young shoots from slugs and snails, I find once the new shoots get to 22- 25 cms they don't bother with them anymore and the plants can safely remain uncovered to grow on.

I have grown some new ones this year, these spend their first year in pots and are then moved into the unheated greenhouse for their first winter. The following year they are planted out in the borders and from then on are treated the same way as the older ones are.

I now have about 30, all where grown from seed except for one which was grown from a cutting taken from one that was in my parent's garden. That one has now been made into 3 plants.

 

All replies have been extremely useful and have persuaded Mrs Lab to have a go next year; and we are going to order some Strulch!

Many thanks to everyone.

 

Personally I prefer Zinnias, they grow better in hot dry weather, dont need so much feed in the soil and the flowers last longer.
They are not quite such a slug magnet either.

Having said that, I do like Dahlias, the smaller flowered ones are best as heavy rain weighs down the flower of the larger types.
I do like the pom poms that @JWK mentions.

I've grown from seed, but they are relatively easy to propagate, (cuttings), and my personal thoughts are getting some tubers of good varieties are a better option in the long run unless you are treating them as mass bedding plants.