Last year I knew I had too many to fit into the protected garden. I am not happy when the deer get the blooms. I managed to squeeze them in but too many didn't prosper being so squeezed in so this year I'll try to do better.

I'm up to around 50 ordered plus those I'm getting from Geof! Looking forward to a new plant, not sure how I'll be with lifting them in the fall. I only had a couple of roots of a bagged Walmart dahlia to store for this year but they're not looking good....I haven't had any success reaching out to the local Dahlia Society here in CO so far, hopefully that will change and I can get some area/zone specific advice.

The Seattle Dahlia society is great. I get their newsletters and belong to the group. Of course, I am never able to make their meetings but that is okay. There isn't a dahlia society here so I want to support one where ever I can. I also belong to the PNW Peony Society. Same deal but the newsletters and quarterlies are very interesting.

Happy New Year !!


I admit that some of my plants got shaded out last year from squeezing in more than I should- but mostly because something turned out to be shorter or taller than I guessed. I mostly took better notes about height this year - though with the new ones it is always a bit of a guess.

I haven't yet joined the Minnesota Dahlia Society - the meetings are about an hour and a half from where I live in WI - so it would be possible, but really unlikely that I would make the meetings. I didn't even make it to the shows last year, though I did go to their late show in 2014.

Liz - It will be fun to see what new dahlias you got - I hope you post pics here as they bloom next year. I would think dry CO weather would be perfect for storing tubers. From everything I have read, humidity is the biggest issue with storing, warm and humid is the absolute worst.

Eek! I had read 40 to 55 degrees and medium high humidity! Mine are at 55 with about 73% humidity so I may end up buying a lot more than I thought. See the last paragraph:

Heaven knows what I will end up with. Never went down to check. Just too busy and then too tired. So I guess we are officially in 2016. Big year for me. I guess....

Humidity range will effect how you need to store them. It does make sense that if you are storing them with just newspaper that a higher degree of humidity would help keep them from drying out. And I think that storing in whole clumps makes a difference there too.

Because I divide in the fall, and winters here are usually quite dry, I wrap all of mine individually in saran wrap. The saran wrap method works great IF you have dry winters, and you make sure not to wrap them when they are still wet. After I divided mine this year, I sorted the different types into paper lunch bags, and let them sit in those for a couple of weeks before wrapping them. It the bags allowed them to dry a bit, while holding the humidity enough to keep them from shriveling at all.

There are so many combinations of storage mediums, temperature and humidity that everyone really has to figure it out for them selves as to what will work best in their environment - you don't always have control over humidity, and many people don't have a 40-50 degree area to keep them.

If you find yours are drying out - then a damper environment is going to help, if they are getting moldy, then the opposite.

I have also read that some types of dahlias are super easy to store and will be fine practically no mater what you do, while others are almost impossible and prone to rot. - there is a genetic factor. Swan Island really specializes in easy to store tubers. They deal in such bulk they don't have the time to mess with anything that needs special care, so they don't grow them.

Good point on Swan Island Geof.

I wonder if they only breed new dahlia introductions exclusively from their own stock to maintain that trait?

Hi. Hope you don't mind another DG refugee invading your cyber space. With all the recent changes, I had to abandon that sinking ship. The administrators of that site want no input from the subscribers. I'm happy to see friends here, Arlene and Mary, from the DG dahlia forum. I hope I might possibly be able to contribute something positive to the forum.

I'm looking forward to a better year than last year for my dahlias. Last year was so-so with some really weird weather. The unusually mild weather up until a few days ago has allowed me to store my dahlia tubers in an unheated tool shed. The low temps have been pretty consistent in the high 30 to mid 40 range since mid-November. I put them in the attic a couple days ago and the temp there is 55-60. They look great so far but it's a long time till spring. Fingers are crossed.

Welcome to my good dahlia buddy, Dan. It's so good to have you here!

Storage is either our greatest accomplishment or the worst possible scenario. I'll check mine one of these days.

hi psudan!

I'm a DG refugee myself!

I'm fairly new to dahlias so I've been reading the threads here to learn more about them. I bought a few tubers from mandolls last spring which turned out great.

If anyone didn't buy Ferncliff Copper from Mandolls, try it! That one was so spectacular for me in 2015.

Welcome!- we are a pretty small group of Dahlia fiends here at ATP, so additions get an enthusiastic welcome.

ATP is a great site, I have only been here through two growing seasons, but am really impressed wight he way it is run.

Arlene, your Ferncliff Copper looks much pinker than I remembered, then I looked at pics on my laptop and ............sometimes they do get that much pink in them. It is a nice one.

Pirl, that's a gorgeous one! I had no idea what to expect from the tubers I got this year and was pleasantly surprised at how well they did.

Many days the dahlia was loaded with blooms showing all the colors presented above.

DAN!!!! So very glad to 'see' you here. Have missed you greatly. And there is no doubt about the quality of your contributions.... Winter storage is always a topic of conversation - frustration -..... March will tell.

Thanks for the welcomes! And thanks, Jennifer for the thumbs up! I'm grateful.

Hi Mary! Did you think you could hide from me? lol I was shocked when I went on the DG site one morning and found you were no longer a subscriber. It appears that anyone who ever posted on DG is still a member. You can never leave! lol I hope you are doing well and I'm glad you and Arlene are here. This is a very nice group of people at ATP.

I think you might recognize the blooms in the photos. I've never seen one with as much white as the second one. Thanks again for the original stock.

Hello Everybody! Glad I caught up with you all again. I see a few DGers here. Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and A Happy New Years Day!