That's how I've stored some of mine in the past, but in my unheated greenhouse, and I didn't lose any to rot or dessication.

I can't offer any advice on dividing tubers but I'm sure others can. My only thought is that perhaps dividing really large tubers on plants that are several years old will boost the vigour of the plant?

As to pinching buds, I've only heard of people doing that when they're preparing Dahlias for flower shows (pinch out the flower buds below a main bud, so that all the energy goes into producing one large flower per stem). What I do try to remember to do is to pinch out the growing tips several times so that the plants make lots of side-shoots, grow bushier and give more flowers.

I also have lots of 'Bishop's Children' grown from seed last year. They went in the ground far too late last year, having been neglected and pot-bound for months, then had to endure an unusually cold winter (the ground froze solid several times) with probably inadequate mulch... but they've all come back! Some of them were still so small when they were planted that they didn't manage to flower last year, so I'm waiting excitedly to see what I'll get. They really are beautiful plants, both for foliage and flower colour.

Thank you so much for your answer!

I actually have a little space for planting in the front yard, and since 29 of the 30 seeds I started have turned into robust little plants, I feel that I have enough Dahlias to turn this into an experiment:

I'm goint to plant the Dahlias with the least purple/bronze in them in the ground and leave them there for the winter. My front yard stays several degrees warmer than the back and it slopes enough to keep the soil from getting completely saturated like the flat back yard. With some rain-resistant mulch -- like fern fronds, which I have plenty of -- I'm willing to bet that they survive the winter.

The darkest Dahlias are going in pots and overwintering in the crawlspace, the medium ones are going in the ground and getting dug up and stored as usual in the winter.

This thread will be long gone from this forum by next spring, I'm sure, but I'll come back and let everyone know how it went.

Thanks again!