Growing dahlias

Per the head Dahlia fellow, who gave the lecture at Hofstra University 4/15/05:

Treat them as annuals and buy new ones every year. This is hard for many of us to do so:

If you want to try to save them think of the old root cellars where people kept food safe. Cool and damp, NOT WET.
Put each one in a plastic bag with damp NOT WET peat moss. LABEL THE BAG WITH THE NAME

Check them once a month during winter and sprinkle a little water if the peat moss is dry.

When you wake them up in February to March just put them on one of those flat black trays (sold in Agway) with a little potting mix around them: NOT BURIED! Put them under lights to grow.

They'll develop eyes: called "eyed up". When these grow toward the light, about a few inches, they can be cut from the mother tuber with a tiny piece of the tuber and you'll have a clone. You don't have to keep pieces you cut off if they get too leggy. They'll develop another shoot from the same spot.

Instead of tall stakes this guy uses tomato cages, upside down, with the metal pieces (normally going into the ground) turned outwards.

The most critical thing, said he, was in the curing. After you dig them up turn them upside down FOR A FEW DAYS UP TO A WEEK UNTIL THEY ARE TOTALLY DRIED OUT. MOST LOSSES COME FROM NOT CURING LONG ENOUGH AND THEN PUTTING THEM INTO DAMP SOIL TO KEEP THEM. THEY HAVE TO BE PUT INTO THE PEAT MOSS AND THEY HAVE TO BE CHECKED EACH MONTH AND SPRINKLED VERY LIGHTLY WITH WATER.

MARK EACH BAG ON THE OUTSIDE WITH THE NAME OF THE VARIETY.

Check out on the web: midislanddahlia.com

They have more than one site and you can go to each one. They show how to take cuttings, etc.

RE CONTAINER GARDENING WITH THE SHORTER DAHLIAS: even if you don't want to try it we can all remember the words he used for arranging a container:
You want the thriller for the center plant,
the filler (s) going around it but leaving room for
the spiller (s) to droop down over the edges. It was just such an easy way to remember it that I thought I'd pass it along!

Plant them 4 to 5" deep, in good soil, not where they'll rot because it's too damp.
Put the stake in the ground first and then put in the dahlia in front of the stake. If you wait until it's three feet tall you may hit the tuber with your stake.
They want full sun.
Feed weekly weakly: half strength every week
When buds appear you can clip off the two smaller ones to allow the remaining bud to provide you with a larger bloom than if you left all the buds mature. It's not required and many people aren't growing them for shows and exhibitions, just for the enjoyment and for cut flowers.
Enjoy them all summer.
When frost hits you can still wait a few days before digging them up very carefully and turning them upside down for up to a week (or more) to drain out any water. During this process it's easy to lose the names so be prepared with named tags. Then proceed as he said for curing and storing.

Arlene, that is GREAT ADVICE... thank you so much..

Do you know... I have an uheated attic which usually stays above freezing except for two years ago where temperatures during the coldest days (minus 5 outdoors) reached 30F for a few days...

would this be ok, or do the dahlias always have to be absolutely frost free ??

My heated basement is probably too warm (65F)

Kdjo,
I use the space above the garage for the glad. bulbs and dahlia tubers for winter storage. My son put a ladder to the crawl space up to there and I store all kinds of junk. It gets warm when spring comes but by then, I take them down and see what tuber has eyes. Also plant the no-eye tubers in flats with a small amt. of soil to see if they will produce eyes.
I think the attic would be a great place to overwinter the tubers. Just check on them every so often tho.
Carol

I save my dahlia tubers every winter. I keep them in an attached garage that stays in the 40's and 50's.

The biggest problem I have is dividing them in the spring after they have started to sprout. I have read that if you divide them in the fall in the first 4 or 5 days after you dig them up it is easy to see/feel the eyes. Not all tubers will have eyes. Even if they grow roots, if they don't have an eye they will never sprout.

I have also read/been told that they must 'cure' in the ground for 2 weeks after a killing frost. If you dig them before that, they will rot in storage.

A lady from the local dahlia society told me that she cuts off the blackened foliage after a killing frost leaving about 8" of stem. She then covers the stem with aluminum foil so no rain gets in it to rot the tuber before it is dug.

I think Ernie probably has some tips he could share with us - he is a real pro with dahlias. Ernie, where are you?

I'm no pro! I was just repeating what the guy from the Mid Island Dahlia Society told us. When he said "think of the root cellars" he was talking more of the temperatures that NoH20 has: ideal - 40s and 50's.

You might be able to put them in a box, then wrap with insulation and put in a larger box. Freezing is not healthy for dahlias and other living things:-))

Two years ago I made the fatal error, while waiting for a killing frost, of cutting the tops off and leaving about a foot of stem. I didn't know that water would collect in the stem and kill them. It did. That's just one pointer everyone can learn from. With our own forum we could be much happier dahlia growers.

As for wrapping each stem with aluminum foil - I guess if you have 10 or 20 it's one thing but my friend with 800 would grow weary!

Where is Ernie? We'd all like to meet him.

Arlene

Arlene, that's a great piece that you wrote on dahlias. I'm going to copy this into my garden file.

Thanks so much

Joan

NoH2O, I've never heard of leaving them in the ground for 2 week after cutting them down. Will make a note of that.

Thanks.... Joan

Here are some sites with information:
http://www.gardenaction.co.uk/garden_diary/garden_mini_project_september_1_dahlia_overwinter.asp

http://www.dahlias.net/dahwebpg/TuberStor/TuberStor1.htm

Ernie is Eweed.

Joan: the part about leaving them in the ground for two weeks after a killing frost could be the start of the curing process. I think I'll try it this November. Then I'll follow with two weeks of upside down and then pack them away.

arlene, thank you for the info. i wouldn't know what to do with them after the season and all if not for your post. one is blooming now, though nothing spectacular just yet. i have forgotten what they look like (from the package's photo).

annapet

Quite welcome. When he showed how to use a dahlia in the center of a container and then how to fill in, it was both fun and easy. In very large containers he uses capped water bottles at the bottom so they can be moved easily. Great guy!

I keep mentioning the nice guy at the dahlia society and finally got his name:
Steve Nowotarski

It is the Mid Island Dahlia Society and you can find them at:
midislanddahlia.com for more hints.

cutting D bulbs in the fall is easy just look for the eye. I wash then with a gentle hose and limit the number I dig to what I can cut in one day. The eyes showing go away in a short time. Some varieties show better than others and if you can't see the eye all is not lost just cut bulbs that are plump with thick necks that are not broken and have that hardened skin that looks like the main stem. Ernie

Ernie, do you use a special knife to cut them?

Ernie - next time you have a cut-up session would you please take photos and show us step by step? Thanks.

Here is a link to a very helpful dahlia site. Good info and helpful pictures too.

http://www.gardenaction.co.uk/garden_diary/garden_mini_project_september_1_dahlia_overwinter.asp

I read every word of the site and it is helpful information. I would love to see it being done in person so I could see how they separate tubers, including a piece of the stem. The first time is always a bit nerve wracking!

I use two a long stiff one and a serated edge paring knife and a pair of good sharp pruners. The thing is sometimes you just need to understand you can not save all the bulbs sometimes even if they have eyes some times you need to cut the clump in half or quarters to get them to the point where you can save what is there.

I store mine when I dig them in a friends root cellar I pack them in nothing but an open plastic bag. Works for us . Ernie

Well Ernie you probably have solved my question. I always try to save too much. Just realized today, looking at the dahlia site, that I have three pots in the basement that I haven't checked or even seen in more than a month.

Arlene

so if you have a dahlia bulb that doesnt have a visible eye...is it dead? Or do you have to get it to "eye" like a potato?
I have a couple of dahlias last fall and I did a pitiful job of digging up and storing them...I did luck out with a few survivors though. I would like to do better this year.

I bought 2 in the coop and one rotted....hmmm...not off to a very good start..am I :)

It has to have an "eye" to grow. My understanding is it also has to have a piece of stem. I don't know if that really means a piece of the big fat stem that it grew on or a piece leading from the tuber towards the center.

You can't do anything to force it to have an "eye" as far as I know and from the sites I've seen and read about.

They will rot if they're too damp. If they're too dry they'll shrivel up but with a very light watering they'll plump right up again. Moral: dry is better than damp.

I shall continue to strive forward :)

As I will also do. All the dahlias are reaching for the sky: the ones I started downstairs, under lights on April 14th. All except one stubborn one whose eye must be tired. It has grown, maybe, 1/4" whereas the others are over 2' tall.
Patience is so hard to come by.

The eyes of the dahlias are always up on the stem. And like Ernie said if you separate within a day after digging the eyes are visible but will fade in a short time. After digging just hose them off. I store my tubers in crates and very slightly dampened peat moss. They are in an outbuilding and if the temperature looks like it could freeze in there I just plug in a little heater. It doesn't take much to keep it above freezing. If you separate right away they sure take a lot less room for storing. I use a lineoleum knife and a clippers to separate the tubers.

In fact I just finally got all my in the ground today. I have about 130 varieties and planted about 3 of each. Some more. We did have a small dahlia business but we gave it up as we just didn't have the heart to do all the promotion and marketing.

Ernie, where do you buy tubers mostly? Have you ever come down here to Swan Island Dahlias or have you visited Connell's up closer to you? It would be interesting to see a list of what you have and I could do likewise. Maybe a trade in the fall?

I wish some of you were closer because of I still have lots of tubers in the building that aren't planted. But I just won't be able to ship any more. The eyes are really sprouting and wanting to grow and so they are so fragile right now.They would break in the mail.

Charlotteda,
If the tuber doesn't have a visible eye, it could still have one with time. A few of mine didn't have eyes awhile ago, so I put them in a planter with soil and covered them with sawdust. Quite a few of them started to show their eyes then.
I don't know what your weather is like there but if is it colder than here in the west, the eyes still have time to develop.
Lenjo, I should come up to Mt. Angel to relieve you of some of your dahlia tubers then, if you have so many. I did get some from mgh, Mendy, which are from you originally. Let me know if you want to give any more away.
I plan on going up to Swan Island this August to see the dahlia fields finally! But someone will have to hold my hand so I don't get too many, lol!
Carol

Lenjo, I shipped sprouted tubers from Ohio to Everson, Wash a few weeks ago. Some of the sprouts were 8 to 10" high. They arrived in fine condition. I rinsed off all soil and wrapped a damp paper towel around the tuber and roots. Then I slipped a sandwich baggie over the paper-towel wrapped tuber (leaving the sprouts exposed to the air) and put a rubber band around it. Or you could use plastic wrap and scotch tape. I laid the whole thing flat on a sheet of newspaper and folded it up the way florists wrap flowers. I put a label on top and taped it shut with the label. Put them in a box with packing peanuts between them and sent them priority mail. So if you do decide to ship it can work.

You don't happen to have Sugartown Sunrise, do you? (Hint, hint)

No I don't have that one, NoH2O, what does it look like?

Daisyruffles, talk to mgh and you can have some more if you want to make a trip up. We did actually plow under quite a few. My youngest graduates high school on Friday and later this week will be crazy for me. So the sooner the better.

Ok, I will stop by Mendy's tonight after work and will let you know. Maybe I can come after work tomorrow.
Can you e-mail me a map on how to get to your place or will Mendy know?
Next year, both my kids will graduate, one from college and one from high school. So the empty nest soon, oh, how sad!
Later, Carol

I haven't seen it in person yet but the pictures look lovely.
http://www.connells-dahlias.com/connells_dahlias_web_page_272.htm

NoH2O,
That dahlia sure is pretty. I like the way the color fades into the center.
Carol

NoH2O
That Sugartown Surprise is just beautiful. I don't think I've ever seen a dahlia so pink.

Joan

Yes those colors are beautiful. But when I google it I find that the color can vary...sometimes the pink is more lavender which is pretty but not as pretty. Photos can be deceiving which is why I would like to grow it and see for myself. It sells out fast so it must have something going for it. LOL