I have had some tiny tubers grow into big ole plants.

Everything Mary says is right on.

Someone once told me - if it is thinner than a pencil, don't wast your time, and that seems about right to me, but little "robins egg" sized tubers can do just fine.

Thank you for the advice! I'll check and toss small ones in December.

Today I was tossing the bottom hangers as well as the pencil types and tiny ones. My judgement on what to keep came from what I've received and none were as small as those I tossed.

I thought I would share a picture that was taken this summer of me and my the 'accession' cart I put together at the botanical garden where I volunteer. Was gathering info on the yellow handheld device for upload to the main computer in the office. Note the Chicago Bears helmet. My husband thought it might keep my neck dry when I do it in the rain.

Love the helmet!

That is Damien's pride and joy. I felt so honored that he loaned it to me. lol

Great Pic - you are even prepared for hail!

I think our weather is the worst of any out there today. We have blizzard conditions, over a foot of snow already and temps down in the teens/low twenties. Why can't it be spring already?? Wait, that's our spring weather as well, yikes!

Funny Liz. It could be -10 there as it is here. Crystal glittering snow. Well, no new snow so not quite as pretty. It is slowly getting colder and colder - a few degrees each day. Sigh. Gotta love Alaska. Good time for reading, knitting, perusing catalogs (knitting as well as plants/flowers.) My car is snug in the garage so even when I go out it isn't too bad unless I have to leave it sitting for a while. Even then I have heated seats. lol

Yay for heated seats. The first time I got in a car that had heated seats, I swore I would never buy another car that didn't have them!

Yup. After all those years in Fairbanks, especially with cheap plastic seat covers that cracked in the winter and could pinch like a son of a gun, heated is the only way to go. Even if the car isn't entirely heated up, you feel more comfortable.

I felt the same way, Geof, and when we shopped for a new car my husband was anti heated seats. I won. He loves them!

Heated seats and remote start are first on my list. I can't remember the last time I scraped frost of my windows!

I park in the garage at home. My jeep is old enough to not have heated seats as an option and it's a manual that I leave in gear so no remote start for me. Several times a year when I leave work really late I really regret my choice of vehicle....I did at least get cloth seats instead of leather, those are even more cold....

I had a remote start on my blazer but I figured with parking in the garage I wouldn't need one on the Subaru. Hah. After letting it sit for three hours @ -15, I wouldn't mind a little heat up. I have become such a wuss. lol

pirl said:Thanks, Karen. I loved that one and yet it didn't survive the winter. I didn't get many flowers but part of that may have been because it didn't get the prime spot in the garden. I'll know better next year.

• Dahlia 'Tartan'
• Uploaded by pirl

Hello pirl, just going thru the thread my eye catched on your second pic. ( and also the third) Which dahlia is pictured ?. Somehow Tartan is following the similar color pattern as Duet which I have flowerin now ( here's summer) and I liked the combination.Thank
you very much. Arturo

@hampartsum Arturo - all photos are of Tartan. I had no idea the colors changed but they do. I checked the photos and it was mid-October when some went to the solid color (but not every one).

thank you, Arlene I wonder how many do these strange however quite attractive color changes. Unless you had explained it to me just from the pic I would have guessed a completely different cultivar!

Misty Changeling does it and probably others. Look for it in the third Tartan photo at the extreme left. Some are totally red while others are the more typical, like the one on the right here:

Its pretty common for bi-colored flowers to put out solids as well. Some will sport to solid and put out nothing else. I have a "sport" of White Rabbit, that is solid purple, instead of white with purple. I quite like it.