Storing Dahlias Over Winter

Caring For Dahlias How to store Dahlias over winter you ask? The Dahlias bloom beautifully for months and then one day Old Man Winter blows in. (It is snowing out as I write this.) He plans to stay months with you. Eeek! No surprise really he comes every year regularly. I just don’t want his…

Floret’s Dahlia Book

I first found Erin Benzakein of Floret, on the internet moons ago. She and her husband, Chris, were mixing up fresh fish bones into their compost pile with a tractor scoop. Perks of living in Washington state. My first thought was they know how to garden. I could imagine the odor and also the healthy…

Dahlia Flower Books

I remember the tv ads that said “When J.P. Morgan talks, everyone listens.” When a four generation family of Dahlia growers speaks ah, we listen. Enter one of the latest Dahlia books, “The Joy of Dahlias,” authored by three women, Katja Staring, Linda Van Der Slot and Marlies Weijers. Linda grew up on a flower…

Help with Dahlia Cuttings-Propagation

More Peaches N Cream Dahlias, please. Now is the time for us in the Northern Hemisphere, December through February, to take Dahlia cuttings to increase our prized, Dahlia plants. More plants equals more flowers and bouquets. Nothing can get us working faster on that than looking at all the Dahlias blooming now in the Southern…

Dahlia Tubers For Sale

If you are looking for Dahlia tubers to plant this Spring check out the Dahlia growers here in the states or from local Dahlia societies who walk, talk and breath Dahlias. The reason I like purchasing from smaller growers is that the Dahlias tubers you order are the Dahlias you receive. Novel; isn’t it? There…

Dahlia Breeding Book Review

Such a fascinating world out there in the plant hybridizing world. Some breeders keep their hard-learned secrets hidden, but Kristine Albrecht believes in sharing the process of Dahlia hybridizing in her new book, “Dahlia Breeding For The Farmer-Florist and The Home Gardener.” Kristine not only grows and breeds Dahlias she’s also the President of the…

Dahlia Season Notes: 2020

The freshness of Spring weather, the greening of the grass and the Dahlia tubers showing their knobby eyes are the days we are bursting with ambition and hope. We can’t seem to get things accomplished fast enough. March and April also brought news of Covid 19 and staying home most of the time. The good…

Dahlia Cuttings to Tubers in the Summer

Dahlia farming is always about more tubers and more flowers. Healthy tubers and big, strong stemmed flowers. More is more. The saying less is more was not written by a flower farmer. It is August third and I am taking more cuttings for yes, more Dahlias. There is a storm barreling up the East Coast…

How to Plant Sprouting Dahlia Tubers

If you received tubers that started growing long stems looking for light in your mailing package, do not fret. You can get two or three extra plants from your tuber by planting the stems separately, plus plant the healthy tuber. A tuber sprouting with growth is always good news. Recently I found a box of…

Saving a Dahlia Tuber with Rot

Maybe, just maybe, you ordered Dahlia tubers and left them in the plastic bag in the box they came in. Months pass and you discover this “buried treasure.” Horrors. Some are mushy. Wailing. What to do? First get them out of the bags as fast as you can and check each tuber. Air. These tubers…