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So once the ultimate flower has faded you ought to dig up your gladdies, as Dame Edna would say.

Trim away all but a couple of inches of foliage, shaking off as much soil as you’re able to, then leave them to dry for some days until whatever remains of the stems has shrivelled.

At this stage you could trim off the old stem and pull the old corm away to bare the healthy new corm.

It’s a good option to dust them with a fungicide powder, which you’ll buy at garden centres, then you definately should store them in paper bags or in newspaper-lined boxes in a groovy, frost-free place until you are prepared to replant them in March.

Gladioli should be lifted before the primary frosts, or they are killed off by the cold, but dahlias are fine for one more month or so.

In fact, many gardens are still enjoying the ultimate fanfare of colour and the surprising form of styles and sizes that dahlias are available at the present time.

Back in fashion for several years now, you could pay £4 or £5 a tuber for them in spring, so it’s worth taking care of your stock and propagating new plants.

You don’t need to try this until the primary frosts, though, because even supposing they’ve finished flowering the dahlia tubers will still be growing.

Once the leaves and stem have gone black from the cold, cut each plant all the way down to about six inches, or 15cm, and dig up the tubers.

Shake and wipe off any excess soil, then stand them the other way up in a cardboard box in order that the moisture drains out of the hollow stems.

You can support them in some wide-holed mesh excessive of the box, or between screwed up balls of newspaper.

At this stage, if any of the tubers have gotten new shoots on them cut the tuber into slices, ensuring each has as a minimum one new shoot popping out of it.

It’s necessary to use a clean, sharp, knife or scalpel to restrict the potential of disease.

Put the cut slices in a tray, cover them with damp vermiculite and keep them in a dry, frost-free place equivalent to a shed, garage or unheated spare room.

You deserve to check them in the course of the winter, though, to maintain the vermiculite damp in the event that they seem like they’re shrivelling up.

After every week of drying out the remainder of the tubers, trim off any ragged bits of root and cut the stalks right down to about two inches, or 6cm, then sprinkle them in fungicide and pack them into the card box between layers of crumpled newspapers.

These tubers may also have to be stored in a dry, frost-free place and checked on every few weeks that allows you to cast off any that begin to rot.

In early spring, put the tubers in pots of compost in order to start growing again.

The new plants can go into your garden borders, or into bigger pots, from about May – after the chance of frosts is over.

Of course, should you live within the balmy South or South West, you’re able to not must dig up your dahlias. Often they’ll survive underground with an additional mulching of compost or shredded garden waste.

Then you simply must keep your fingers crossed that winter doesn’t turn Arctic again!