Dahlias - A Labor of Love

When I was a kid I thought it would be cool to be an archaeologist. I imagined myself crouched over dinosaur bones and priceless artifacts, brushing away dirt and sand to slowly reveal clues from the past....what was I thinking? That sounds awful!

Sure, it might be fun for a few minutes but after that your back starts hurting you just want to get a shovel and get things moving. I say that because you have to be part archaeologist to successfully grow dahlias.

The greatest thing about dahlias, other than their beauty, is that they multiply every year. Maybe they don't produce a lovely scent like some pretty flowers but at least they're not lazy! I know that daylillies, daffodils and other flowers multiply but they don't have anything on dahlias.

These are all from my garden this and last year. I am obsessed with growing dahlias. SADLY- I made mistakes last year by thinking we were in a warm enough area that the tubers could overwinter in the ground. MISTAKE. They all turned to mush and I had to buy new in the spring. Waste of money and gorgeous flowers. 

When you order dahlia tubers you pick by staring at hundreds of amazing flowers and then you get this in the mail-


These are dahlia tubers packed in sphagnum moss.

To plant the tuber you dig a 6in deep 1 foot diameter hole and place the tuber at the bottom. If it's a tall plant it'll need to be staked or provided with support of some kind. Then you fill the hole with good light dirt and wait for them to grow. My garden's natural dirt is nothing but heavy clay which is why I dig deeper and wider and fill in the difference with good light dirt.

At the end of the season, as soon as the first frost hits the dahlia plants will go from this-

To this overnight-

Then it's time to dig up and separate the tubers, a daunting job! Today I paid my dues and excavated all of mine. You may start with one horizontal tuber but they multiply like Mogwai and bloom into a bushel of tubers shooting in all directions. It's really amazing. 

This is about 10minutes in when I had to start working with my hands to avoid nicking the delicate tubers. 

I thought I'd dug a wide enough hole but the new tubers grew into the thick clay making the excavation even harder. This next photo is after another 10-15minutes of brushing away dirt-

If I had perfect dirt I could do what other people do and pry the entire thing out with a pitchfork but alas, the thick clay is like cement so no dice. Here's the final product after a total of 30 or so minutes and one or two broken tubers that didn't make it. 

The final step in the process is to divide them up and store them for winter. I need to do that tomorrow so for tonight they're still intact in their winter homes of sphagnum moss filled paper bags. I made the mistake of trying to store one survivor from last year in a plastic bag filled with sphagnum moss and it turned to mush. They need air and regulated moisture. They're very finicky so I guess they are a lot like having a Mogwai! 

I've already gotten my tubers mixed up during the process, shocking I know, so it'll be a surprise to see what blooms where after I plant them in the spring!