Propagating dahlias is an easy way to save money on tubers, multiply favorites, and easily grow more flowers for your flower garden this season.
I’ve fallen in love with dahlias ever since I saw my first one bloom. With names like Ferncliff Passion, Fascination, and American Dawn, and all the striking colors and forms of this single flower, it’s not hard to understand why dahlias are the queen of the cut flower garden and beloved by flower gardeners all over the world.
But tubers can be quite expensive, especially for rare dahlia varieties.
So what can we do to multiply our stock? Two things.
Divide healthy dahlia tuber clumps as shown in this post, and plant the divisions.
Second, you can propagate dahlias with cuttings. All you need is a healthy tuber or clump of tubers and a few extra weeks before planting.
The process is pretty simple.
- Wake Up Your Tubers and Take Dahlia Cuttings
- Snip and Dip the Dahlia Cuttings
- Transplant and Wait for Blooms
Dahlias root readily and are easy to grow once they get going.
Did you save some dahlia tubers from your garden last fall? Get them out of storage and propagate them.
Dahlia propagation is a great gardening project to tackle in the spring when you’re antsy to start growing something, and you’ll be able to produce more plants for your cut-flower garden in the process.
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When Dahlia Tubers Sprout in Storage
Some of my dahlia tubers are “light sleepers” and wake early on their own, sprouting well before it’s safe to plant them outside. This naturally happens to the ones I keep overwintered in my unheated garage around the end of February.
If your dahlia tubers are sprouting in storage and you’re not ready to plant outside, pot them up and let them grow indoors under a strong light.
You can take cuttings from them in the meantime and easily double your stock to keep or give away. You’ll also get dahlia blooms even sooner this way!
Tools and Supplies to Propagate Dahlias
Before you start, you’ll need these tools and supplies for propagating dahlias.
- healthy dahlia tubers to take cuttings from
- small cell trays for rooting dahlia cuttings
- pots (any kind) large enough to hold a tuber or tuber clump
- rooting hormone
- sharp, clean snips
- potting soil
- humidity dome (link is for a kit with clear trays, cells, and dome)
Step 1: Wake Up Your Tubers and Take Dahlia Cuttings
Begin the propagation process by getting the dahlia tubers to start sprouting, or waking up.
Isn’t that a funny term for sprouting dahlias? Waking them up? I love it!
Dahlias don’t take very long to root, but some tubers are heavy sleepers and can take a little while to wake up. And others are light sleepers already forming eyes when I take them out of storage!
Because I like to have well-rooted cuttings to plant out after my last frost date at the end of April, I usually begin waking tubers around the end of February if they haven’t begun sprouting already.
To wake your tubers, pot up the dahlia tubers in damp potting mix. I like to leave the top of the tuber (where the eyes are) exposed so that I can easily find the base of the growing dahlia stems.
You can leave even more of the top exposed than I have shown here in the photo. The mother tuber doesn’t really need to be covered this fully.
Do not water the tuber again until it begins actively growing.
Dahlia tubers are prone to rot if they are kept in soggy soil.
Keep potted tubers near a grow light or on a windowsill and wait for the dahlia eyes to sprout.
Step 2: Snip and Dip the Dahlia Cuttings
Allow the dahlias to grow under bright lights until sprouts have two to three healthy sets of leaves and are about 3-4 inches tall.
The sprouts in this photo are healthy, but I would pot up the clump and allow the leaves to develop before taking cuttings.
They’re perfect to snip at this stage. Sprouts that are too short may rot before they root, while sprouts that are too tall get leggy.
How to identify a good cutting: Look for firm, upright, healthy green shoots growing from the top of the tuber, where the eyes are. Avoid shoots that look thin or pale.
How to take a cutting: Use a clean, sanitized pair of scissors or snips. Cut the shoot at the very base, as close to the tuber as possible. Cut just above the lowest node or joint so you leave a bud behind on the tuber. This allows mama tuber to keep producing new sprouts to take.
If a tiny bit of tuber comes along with the cutting, that’s a good thing. You don’t need to trim that off. This little bit of tuber can give the cutting energy to draw from while it roots. It’s not strictly necessary. I don’t do this, but wanted to include that tidbit if you were wondering.
Prep the cutting: Remove all but the top two sets of leaves. If those leaves are large, trim them to half their size to reduce moisture loss while your cutting is rooting.
Dip and plant: Dip the cut end of each prepped dahlia cutting in rooting hormone and plant them immediately in cell trays or small pots filled with light, well-draining soilless mix. A combination of half potting mix and half perlite or vermiculite works.
Mist the cuttings and wait for them to root. You can cover them with a humidity dome to ensure good moisture levels. It’s important not to let the soil dry out completely while the cuttings are rooting, but mist the leaves lightly if they look droopy.
Give your dahlia cuttings at least 14 hours of strong light per day. I use the same grow lights for dahlia cuttings that I do for my seedlings.
Leave the mother tuber in its pot and wait for more eyes to sprout.
Repeat the process of snipping and rooting sprouts if you’d like. You can keep snipping as long as your tuber keeps producing sprouts. If you want to grow out the mother tuber in the spring, then leave at least two healthy shoots for it to use. Most tubers will produce between 4 and 7 cuttings over the course of a few weeks.
Step 3: Transplant and Wait for Blooms
After a few weeks, you may find the dahlia cutting roots poking through the bottom of your cell trays. If you plan on transplanting them soon, you can leave them in the trays, but you’ve got a while to go yet, up-pot the cuttings into larger containers.
Feed dahlia seedlings with a diluted liquid fertilizer as you would with seed-grown plants. Continue providing 14 hours of bright light per day. Add a fan to promote good airflow as well.
You can find more details on seedling care in my guide to seed starting indoors. Although the post is about growing from seed, much of the care applies to propagated cuttings as well.
Once your last frost date has passed and the weather is warm enough, begin hardening off the rooted cuttings.
Hardening off is the process of getting indoor-grown seedlings used to the outdoors. Expose seedlings to direct sunlight and the elements for an hour the first day, slowly increasing each day until seedlings are able to handle a full day outdoors.
Transplant the cuttings into a well-prepared garden bed with compost and a sprinkle of slow-release organic fertilizer.
Water transplants right away and provide supplemental water until the dahlia plants are established.
In a couple months, the dahlias should begin to bloom!
You’ll hardly notice a difference between propagated cuttings and dahlias grown from tubers.
At the end of the season, your cuttings will have grown beautiful tubers ready to be lifted and stored.
My post on overwintering tubers for cold climates can show you how I save tubers each year.
Dahlias would be the perfect focal flower to grow alongside the flowers in my Magic 7 Cut Flower Garden Plan. This plan is a completely fleshed-out system showing exactly what to plant, when, and where. Choose from 5 different color palettes and grow magical flower bouquets all summer long.
See more about my cut flower garden plan here if you’re interested.
FAQs: Your Dahlia Propagation Questions Answered
Yes! Each rooted cutting, once planted out and grown through the season, will produce its own clump of tubers by fall. A single cutting grown in the field for a full season can produce multiple new tubers that you can then dig, store, and replant. Or divide and propagate again the following spring. So that one pricey tuber you bought keeps multiplying year after year.
Most dahlia cuttings root in two to three weeks under good conditions — warm temperatures (65–75°F), consistent moisture, and adequate light. You’ll know rooting is underway when you see new leaf growth at the tips, or when you gently tug the cutting and feel a little resistance. If your cuttings look healthy but aren’t rooting after a month, the most common culprit is day length — make sure they’re getting at least 14 hours of light per day.
Technically yes, dahlia cuttings can root in water. But most experienced growers don’t recommend it as your primary method. Water-rooted cuttings often develop fragile, thread-like roots that struggle to adapt when transplanted into soil. Rooting in a well-draining potting mix with rooting hormone gives you stronger, more established roots and a better survival rate after transplanting.
Dahlia cuttings are best taken in late winter or early spring from tubers you’ve brought out of storage when the sprouts are young, vigorous, and full of rooting potential. Autumn cuttings are possible, but stems taken later in the season can be hollow, and losses tend to be higher even under ideal conditions. If you’re determined to take fall cuttings from a friend’s plant or to save a variety, take twice as many as you think you need. Spring is always your best bet for success.
Both methods produce plants that are exact clones of the parent. Either way, you’ll get the same flower color, form, and habit. The main difference is yield and timing. Dividing tubers is faster and requires less setup, but you’re limited by how many viable divisions a clump has. Taking cuttings takes a few more weeks but lets you multiply one tuber into many more plants. This is especially useful for rare or expensive varieties you want to grow in quantity. Many gardeners do both: divide large clumps and take cuttings from the divisions to really build up their stock. See my post on dividing dahlia tubers here.
Your Turn to Grow
As you can see, propagating dahlias is a simple process. All you need are healthy tubers, good potting mix, and time.
I hope that this post gives you all the information and confidence you need to propagate your dahlia tubers and grow more flowers for your garden.
Please let me know in the comments if you have any questions or additional tips on propagation.
Thank you for reading, and happy gardening!
Related Dahlia Posts
How to Divide Dahlia Tubers to Get More Plants
How to Overwinter Dahlia Tubers to Grow Next Year