Hello; So glad to find this thread and know that there's a dahlia forum; thanks for starting this 2020 one, Sulli. I'm on cubits on their dahlia growing forum. Lots of good info there too - many professional growers... but I'm a hobbyist with a dahlia addiction for something like 25 years, so I just enjoy reading and talking about dahlias. I grow for the pollenators and for bouquets for home and to give.
I'm in what they say is zone 8A - hahaha. It's a zone 7a in a bad winter or a late freeze. Summers have almost no rain for 4 months many years - and lots and lots of drying wind much of the year. It's cool enough most of the time - but the wind does a lot of damage, as does the sun. I'm a Phila transplant from many years ago and still love the summers back there - here, not so much.
The weather back east has been crazy - so glad you all have had the wisdom to wait on planting outdoors!
I planted out my tubers several weeks ago; i start any new single tubers or ones that don't provide good tubers in the basement of the landowner where I have my garden plot. Some are up. Some show no signs of sprouting. Some have been decimated by slugs and snails - I'd say that's our worst problem here in the Pac NW. The new ones often only have one sprout, so some may be lost for good, thanks to the slugs/snails.
I used to grow over 100 dahlia varieties - a lot of those that I loved are no longer grown, so I can't get replacements. I now am back down to 40 ish varieties this year (up from last year's 25!); I'm getting too old to do all this work. :D
Tubers rot here so easily! My soil is WET clay. I have to dig in early Oct. so the tubers don't get "hardened off." I divide in the fall - no choice - have to cut out most or all of the growing stems or they rot. Sometimes I leave a clump intact but it's so much harder to divide them in the spring. I dig every year; the two years I didn't were unusually wet and or cold and I had major losses.
So I guess this is an intro and a dahlia history too. Thanks for letting me ramble. Here's one I can't find anywhere anymore... so sad! Tatatahi Ruby - bred in 1997. It glows in a way that is hard to capture in a photo.
