Dahlias are a beautiful companion plant for the rose shrub. In this post, we discuss roses vs. dahlias in the autumn home garden.
Dahlias VS Roses In The Autumn Home Garden
Chances are if you grew up in the Midwest like I did your grandmother grew dahlias with her roses in the home garden. Dahlias are a beautiful companion plant for the rose shrub. Both roses and dahlias obvious require a little maintenance. If you live and grow in the U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 8-11 the dahlia grows as a perennial. My garden is in zone 5b and the dahlia tubers must be dug up for winter storage. The roses get a nice fresh layer of mulch, remove all the dead leaves and pruned back to about 2 feet tall by October 1. Removing all the dead foliage on the roses will help prevent fungus and bad bugs from moving in.
Dahlias and Roses After The First Autumn Frost Video
I made this video after the first frost advisory.
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Dahlias and Roses Grow Tips
The roses and the dahlia take turns showing off ( adding color) to the landscape. In early spring the dahlia is just starting to show green after being planted as an annual while most of the roses are forming buds and starting to bloom. The dahlias seem to take the temperature change better then the roses in late Autumn so they make perfect companions. In the photo below I show the Fireworks Gomphrena blooming in the background. with a gold dahlia.
Growing tips for both the roses and dahlias are very similar. They do require a little time in order to get the results I share in this post. Below I’ve shared a few growing tips that are important to remember.
Dahlias
Please don’t forget the tubers of the dahlia need dug up and moved into a warm location before a hard freeze occurs in garden zone 3-7. I have had a few tubers left behind and they surprisingly survived a mild winter. Wait until after the first or second hard frost to dig up the tubers. As long as the ground isn’t frozen during this time the tuber will be fine. Store in a cool dry location for the winter. I have a post about how to store the dahlias on my website.
Roses
Try to prune the rose shrubs back about 3 weeks before the first frost date. You can check the USDA website for details on when your date is. I like to prune mine back to about 3 feet tall (or less) and add new mulch to the landscape. Remove all dead leaves and any signs of black spot or disease. If you are lucky you will get a few blooms before the hard cold arrives. These blooms will turn to rose hips that are wonderful for wildlife to enjoy during the colder season. If you grow organically you can use the rose hips on teas. My rose hips are left for winter wildlife.
Let’s Connect
Do you grow dahlias or roses in your home garden? I would love to hear from you so please leave a comment so we can connect. I’d also love it if you left me a message on my contact page. I can’t wait to share more about dahlias and roses with you.
Happy Autumn Gardening,
13 Responses
Beautiful, Bren!!
Thank you Kimberly!
Very Pretty!!!
I will do my best to document the dahlias I’ve grown ( with names) just for you Teresa! I’m a huge fan of your garden in Indiana via your website The Garden Diary.
I love that… Plant them both because they go well together!
I appreciate all the tips you give us, Bren. I’m not currently growing roses, and I’ve never yet grown dahlias (but I think of you every time I see one!), but I’m taking in the info and … someday … 🙂
Thank you so much for stopping by Jean – it makes all the work I put into this post worth the effort! Happy to help you grow dahlias someday soon. Keep me in mind for help with your future dahlia garden!
I have yet to grow Dahlias successfully, but I do try because they are so lovely. Thanks for the great photos in this post.
Happy to help you learn how to grow Dahlias. IF you remind me next spring I could send you a dahlia from my stock. We can grow them together – happy to walk you through what I’ve been doing successfully for the past 8 or so years in my Ohio Home Garden!
Hi Bren, I love your slideshow feature! I plan to add some slideshows to my website (as soon as I figure out all the ins and outs of WordPress). Like you, I too am smitten with roses … still learning about dahlias. They are so beautiful and diverse. Thanks for GardenChat and all of your great tips and photos!
Hey Laura – thank you for stopping by! I can’t wait to check out your site as well. I still need to verify that the slide show isn’t slowing down my load speed of the site. I will keep you posted on that! Dahlias are so easy to grow however they can require a little time. If you live in the cooler states like me, you will have to dig the tuber up for winter or the plant dies. It isn’t too complicated to dig up a few favorites. I have an addiction to these plants so I am up to close to 200 I dug up last. I am working on easier ways to dig the tuber up so stay tuned.
Thanks for putting this up it has given me the confidence to plant dahlia’s and inspired me to plant them with roses in my garden.
Thank you for stopping by my site and leaving a comment. I appreciate that you took the time to let me know this helped you. I look forward to hearing more about your dahlias and roses so be sure to stay in touch. – Bren