Watch Debi Holland’s step-by-step guide on how to turn one dahlia tuber into multiple dahlia plants through taking cuttings.
How to take dahlia cuttings
Read the transcript
If you love dahlias, here’s how to turn one tuber into several plants by taking cuttings. It’s a perfect job to do when it’s raining outside.
Take a heel cutting. Choose healthy shoots around 10 cm long. With a clean, sharp knife, slice off a shoot with a thin sliver of tuber at its base. This is called a heel cutting. The piece of tuber helps stimulate root growth. Remove the lower leaves and cut the remaining leaves in half. The cutting still needs some leaf surface to photosynthesise, but reducing it helps slow moisture loss through transpiration.
Pot it up. Use a plastic pot to help stop the cuttings drying out too quickly. I mix Richard Jackson’s Easy Compost, which is peat-free, with some horticultural sand for a gritty, free-draining mix. Fill the pot and tap it down. Make a hole with a dibber, your finger or, as I do, a tent peg. Pop the cutting in and firm the compost around it.
Water and watch for new growth. Give the cutting a good water and keep the compost moist. You can put it in a propagator. Fresh leaves growing from the top are a sign that the cutting has established.
Try a stem cutting. You can also snip a shoot directly from the plant, just below a leaf node. Try putting it in a glass of water. You should see roots within two to four weeks. When they’re around 2–5 cm long, plant the cutting in a pot of compost so the roots can establish.
If you haven’t got a dahlia to take cuttings from, head to the Richard Jackson Garden website to see what’s on offer.
