Well, I've been thinking of adding Dahlia to my tender perennials list. What's one more addiction? and btw Pirl takes excellent photos.

Thanks, Evan.

This is just for you.

Today is dahlia digging day and if it weren't for the 61 degree temperature, along with abundant sunshine, I wouldn't like them too much today!

Yes I dug my dahlias today also... And the elephant ears... Washed and have them drying now... It was ...Such a lovely day.. Brought plants into the cool. Room... as they are easier to care for in there.. And they like the 60% humidity in there .. Better than the 30% inside the house... And always plenty of moisture..and not really enough light. To get too excited about to start growing ...right away.. But sooner or later even the little light will have built up strength to have them start some...

Just beautiful Pirl.

Good job, Gordon. It was so beautiful here and I really enjoyed being in the garden after that cold and windy spell we had.

I dug most of the dahlias in "The Park" but still have 13 in various spots to lift. It gets very hard on the back! A few of those stalks were the width of a Gold's horseradish bottle! So glad I didn't feed them. Now it's a sad farewell until 2014.

When do you wake up your dahlias, Gordon? May?

Thanks, Susan! That one was delightful plant this year.

Wow, you have a beautiful park, lots of goodies in there. How many do you have to dig and how do you wash and dry them.

Oh Arlene... they were lovely... and no foodI don't know if I should to bring charges.. I'll just have to congratulate you... they are wonderful... your soil out there in one of the historic farming areas.. is much better than the petrolium base of my ground...so I feed quite heavily...I wake them up early.. I start mine in pots ...inside sometime maybe March or so... when it gets to be 60* in the soil I put them out... with everything in raised planters...or sitting right on the hot roof... this can be earlier than ....in their back yard.. or front yard..around here.... The area of Brooklyn where I am is Carroll Gardens.. named after a revoluitionary war figure It's look is alot of front gardens to the houses... very unusual.. I'm earlier then they are.. they are able to overwinter things I can't though... every part of everything I have is likely able to freeze solid

Thanks, Susan and Gordon!

Susan, I rinse them with a jet from the hose and dry them outside, upside down for two or three days, then store them in shredded straw for the winter. Each dahlia has its own labeled bag so if one rots they all won't rot.

For 20 years The Park was my husband's vegetable garden until the four heat waves in 2013, and the repeated (endless) attacks by the crows on the tomatoes. Then Jack gave it over to me so I redesigned the path, had it lifted and the head mason did a grand job. My intention is to mulch it well when I'm done with dahlia digging and some plant moving. Then, come spring, I can just watch as everything comes to life again. Planting the dahlias is so much easier than digging them in fall!

Yes, Gordon, this all was prime cattle grazing land back in the 17th and 18th century. Jack added enormous amounts of compost each year so the soil is rich.

Do you measure the soil temperature with a compost thermometer or just make an educated guess by the end of May? Sitting on the hot roof must be heavenly for them! I think we all have positive and negative aspects to our gardening. As long as we can continue to enjoy it I refuse to dwell on the negative.

Very nice pirl. Do you pack them all in a box with the straw?

They each get their own labeled bag and the slightly dampened shredded straw. Then all bags go into a huge bag, which gets covered by a tarp. The huge bag sits on a piece of carpet about 10' from an outside wall and up against an interior wall.

The shredded straw feels exactly like the very old Ivory Flakes used to feel...if anyone else remembers that!

Do you mean Ivory soap? As a child it was all my mother used, I remember.

Forgive all the questions...What kind of bag, is it a paper bag? So basically you have a sheltered location and you keep them moderately dry?

You're just too young! Here's a link to the ad for Ivory Snow, which I always thought was Ivory Flakes: http://www.google.com/imgres?i...

It was soft and silky and kids thought of it as snow.

Here's a link to the classic Ivory Soap: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I...)

The bags are the typical plastic grocery bags and the medium you use for storage (the shredded straw, vermiculite, sawdust, or peat moss) can only be VERY lightly moistened or you risk losing the tubers to rot. You'd want to keep them between 40 and 50 degrees (I put a thermometer at the top of the inside of the bag to check on it). Tubers dry - medium just slightly damp. Do not seal or close the bags tightly so they can still get some air. If they get down to freezing you get to buy all new tubers!

Only a few more dahlias left to drain and bag. Then they can all be stored. We're due for 66 degrees today so I hope to get done.

See, that's why I always avoided dahlias in the past - just too complicated!
I'll keep the ones that survive overwintering in the basement in their clay pots they summer in on the deck.

I didn't like all the work involved, especially the digging part, when I was 52 and now, 20 years later it's even more difficult but the rewards are so worth all the work involved...for me.

Arlene, we have short summers with cool nights, do you think they would bloom under those conditions, and how well do they do in pots, how hardy are they.????

@Pirl , the links do not work too good. I was redirected by one and they were focused on the models. Using Ivory as an example of over purposed Models.
Ok, so it felt like snow but what did they use it for?

@crittergarden
Would you believe some people around here store bulbs under their house in the craw space. Others in the garage, my garage almost never goes below 40°. I just don't have time to dig stuff up while working full time. I just plant a few at a time when I get time. I am planting lilies and daffodils today.

Yes Virginiarose, having grown up in Tennessee, I would believe that.
Not so doable up here!

pirl, maybe some years from now when I have my garden thoroughly ammended so that it's softer to dig in, I'll plant things out that require me to "lift in Fall". Until then though, I'll pot 'em.

crittergarden said:Yes Virginiarose, having grown up in Tennessee, I would believe that.
Not so doable up here!

Do you all have basements up there. Hardly no basements here we are right at sea level.