Dahlia question

I bought several bags of Dahlia tubers at Home Depot and WalMart this past week. I'm still a couple of weeks away from safely planting them out. Can I pot these up now to get them started and then put them in ground in a few weeks? Is that too much shock once they've started growing? It just seems like my Dahlias always bloom Soooooo late and I was wanting to give them a headstart hoping for earlier blooms. Brenda

You could just plant them in a deep pot and leave them in that and sink it. I have found in cooler climates like ours, they do best if you plant them in really good soil and keep adding soil as the shoots grow, sort of like mounding potatoes.

Great idea, Michele!! I'll give that a try. Does it have to a large diameter pot? I'm assuming the roots would get bound up in the pot after the spring/summer growing season. Brenda

But in order to really make a nice mess of new tubers I would recommend you get them right into the ground. Dahlias will bloom in two months after planting, so langbr , I would think you would have plenty of time to plant your dahlias. I don't even start planting here till mid May and we have blooms by August if not a bit sooner. Our first frost is usually in October and so we have a pretty good blooming season here.

Lenjo---thanks for the advice. I've only had Dahlias a couple of times before and either failed to pull them before frost or they didn't store well. My other problem is that the last one I had seemed pretty fragile and the stems broke as the blooms started to open up even though I had it staked. I think I should have pinched it back early on to make it sturdier and bushier. Does that sound right? Should I pinch them early on? Brenda

There is a lot of info here. http://www.botany.com/dahlia.html I hope it loads faster than it did for me.

Excellent and thorough website. I've bookmarked it.

Yes, definitely pinch them back. We have discovered by trial and error that storing them in peatmoss in a cool like 40 degrees , dark environment has worked for us. Here in western Oregon we don't get severely cold weather so we could leave dahlias in the ground but then we get so much rain that they could very well rot. If you don't dig your dahlias they advise cutting the stem below ground level as that hollow stem just acts like a siphon for the water to go right into the tubers and make them rot. They also advise mulching them heavy if kept in the ground. I also think that when you consider how much sometimes one spends on annual bedding plants that a dahlia tuber for let's say $3 is still a good buy because it produces a whole bush and blooms and blooms till frost. It likes to be picked. And even if you get just one season out of it, it is worth it. Now I must admit to you that my hubby and I grow about an acre of these commercially on our farm.

i love dahlia's. i decided last year that they were going to become annuals too. i would spend the time digging and storing and they would shrink up to nothingness, no matter what i did. sooooo annuals they are. i love them and feel that the $2 to $3 each, is a gorgeous plant and wonderful flowers to bring indoors. i have some on order as we speak. perhaps one day i'll do a co-op on them. now that would surely get me into trouble. ;)

i always pinch them, when they reach about 4 inches. take the top right off. i have never had a problem with the stems breaking and i've had some big blooms.
when you cut them, they say to put them into 120 degree F water immediately for 1 hour. this helps them last much longer in the vase. i just put in hot tap water, never measured it. works for me.
so many pretty things, only so much garden space.
debi z
pic is of papagona or kidds climax