I did that one spring. I laid my tubers on their sides in a shallow pan with maybe 2" of moist soil. They were on the dining room table so also got sun though I guess they didn't need that. Might have been better to just leave them in the dark in the garage and just check them every day or so for sprouts. As a couple produced sprouts I nipped them, put them in rooting stuff and then into tiny little greenhouses I made from clear plastic cups, one bottom and one for the top. They had holes in the bottoms for drainage (I really soaked the soil) and the top kept the plant very humid. I got several really nice dahlias from them and they bloomed that summer. But like you Geof, I simply don't have the room for all the tubers, plants, plus other stuff I am growing in spring like vegies. It would be great to have the room to have say 3-5 of each type in a cluster, then swaths of them around the garden. Sigh. Ain't going to happen in this lifetime.

Only got a couple of dahlias added to my list. Got distracted by pictures I had taken in 2014 and 15. So nice to see green plants and flowers where all I can see now is ice and frozen ground.

Shoot. The whole point of logging in was to ask Arlene and all you north eastern people how you are doing with the snow. For all the headlines I keep seeing I don't hear a lot here at ATP about snow storms and disaster.

Snow, swirling and howling winds up to 50 MPH, screens so covered with snow that we can't see out of any of the north/northeast windows. Some people reporting 3" an hour. We're fine at home and Smitty is now out "enjoying" the snow. Flooding in many places expected...not around our area.

I am so happy to hear from you. I just finished reading an update on the east coast and down south and was REALLY starting to worry. I thought maybe you were without power or worse. I know you live not that far from the water and heard there was flooding from water coming in from the ocean. I guess technically you live on a 'sound' but still.....

We're not on the ocean. That's 14 miles away. We're across the street from Jockey Creek (yes, they raced horses around it years ago), which is 500' from Southold Bay. You can spot the piers from here.

Never lost cable or power today!

UGH! Rain, rain rain today. Yesterday was warm and sunny so I sprayed weed killer where I am extending my dahlia bed. It's all pasture. I went and got another load of sand(I have heavy clay soil). And Hubby is building a subsoiler to pull behind the tracter to break up the ground. I found out my sister still has my dad's big rotto-tiller that hooks up to a tracter so I'm about ready to start on my dahlia bed as soon as we get a dry stretch of weather.
We've had a really wet winter so far here in the northwest and earlier in the winter it monsooned and I got some water in the basement. Not deep but put a lot of moisture in the air and my dahlias got to sweating. Lost a few. Changed their packing out from shreaded paper to cedar shavings and they seem to like that better. I had a dehumidifier that I have running non stop down there now. Whew. I've been haunting dahlia sites and ordered another 5 from K Cornell Dahlias. I HAVE TO STOP! I can't wait for spring.

I think it might be harder to wait for spring in your climate than mine - tillable soil would be a tease. With a solid snow cover and the temps rarely getting above freezing - spring is very obviously not here yet. Occasionally we get a glimpse of it mid March, but I don't expect it to be Spring-y until April.

It is time to inventory my seeds, and get my grow room set up to start some of the annuals and perennials that I'll grow from seed starting mid February. I'll wait until mid March to start any vegetables, and to think about waking up my Dahlias.

April 8th is the day I generally wake up the tubers. No specific reason for it but that's the date on most of my photos showing them going under lights in the basement. It works for me.

I saw a couple robins yesterday. Aren't the first ones of the year supposed to be a good weather sign? I'm not a bird watcher but it's the first ones I've noticed this year.

I ordered from BJ's Dahlias last weekend. I've never ordered from there before. I am hoping to cut back on the number of places I order from this year to save on all the shipping charges. Their free shipping on orders over $30 caught my eye and I couldn't resist.

I ordered from K Connell last spring, first time from there. If I remember correctly, they sent two of everything I ordered plus a couple other freebees. I don't know if they normally do that. Maybe because it was later in the year and they were just getting rid of the surplus. They were great looking tubers that did very well.

That's good to know Dan because this is my first time ordering from K Connell. I've already wintersown 35 or so milk jugs worth of seeds. Those that need stratifying. Sometime next month I'll start planting seed in the green house and in March I'll bring my geraniums up out of the basement and pot them up in the green house. They will be lush and in bloom by the time of the last frost.

I swear we are having an early spring here. It is 35F daytime and around 27F at night. Rained yesterday. Makes the roads and walkways interesting at times during the day. I have put my begonias (augured them into the soil) to dirt as they seemed to want to grow. You don't get much in the way of blooms here unless you start them around now. I have Meconopsis in wet paper towels in the fridge for another go at trying to germinate them. Won't see the dahlias til around the end of March (I hope). I will simply ignore those trying to grow now. Not hard to do with them in the crawl space where I can't see them.

I heard we could reach 50 tomorrow! Looks like winter is returning by the end of next week though. My plants are going to be so confused by May!

Went to a favorite garden store today. Came home with a couple orchids and about $30 worth seeds. One of the packets is unwin dahlia seeds. Going to try them for the first time.

I've grown the Unwins and enjoyed them.

Pirl, if you thought I was pushing the envelope with planting early last year (May 2nd), this year the dahls might get planted late April. Reason being is that we are due to have our first child May 11th. I want to make sure all gardening is complete by that time and I have to plan in case the little girl comes early. If they don't get in the ground before she comes, they might not get planted this season. So I'll have to roll the dice on a freeze.

Congratulations on your new family member, Lititz! You must be incredibly excited! Hope you manage to get your dahlias planted in time with no late freezes!

Jeff - you could also dig the holes in advance, add any amendments and a stake (if needed), along with a label so you'd be ready to plant while the baby sleeps.

Have any of you ordered dahlias from Longfield Gardens before? I must've looked at some bulbs on their site because they spam me now--one of their last emails caught my attention, though. I ended up ordering a few tubers from them and then wondered after if I should've. They had a few that I thought were beautiful and their prices for the ones I ordered were lower than any on the dahlia addicts big list. I ended up ordering another 3 varieties, 9 tubers since their minimum order is 3/variety. They also have free shipping for over $50 ordered and a code for 20% off the entire order right now. I got Karma Chocolate, Alauna Clair-Obscur and Nadia Ruth. Also ordered a peony (I know a lot of people don't like planting peonies in the spring but I've had no loss doing it this way) and some lily bulbs to take advantage of both the 20% off and free shipping.

Jeff, first of all, congrats on the new addition! That little "blossom" will bring you more joy than a million dahlias.

Secondly, if you plant tubers in late April, there's a good chance they won't break ground until possibly mid May. By then there will be less chance of frost. After that, if you don't have too many, you could always cover them with tarps. I always felt safer planting tubers two weeks or so earlier than actual plants. Too much rain at that time of year was always my biggest worry with tubers.

"Too much rain at that time of year was always my biggest worry with tubers."

That would be my concern about planting them out to early, cold and wet promotes rot, so unless you have really good drainage, those spring rains might do them in.

I pre-start everything inside in 4"pots, so they have a decent root system (and 6-10" of growth) when they go into the ground, however that is going to take more time and attention than you are likely to have - the worst thing that will happen is you will lose some, but You will know pretty early - so you could easily ask everyone here for any extras they have.

I've ordered from Longfield several times. I'd say the clumps I've received were above average compared to other packaged dahlias. I used to think Easy to Grow Bulbs had the best packaged tubers. But after seeing the ones I've received the past couple years, I've changed my opinion. At least their customer service department is quick to respond.