Receiving and caring for dahlias

Receiving and caring for dahlias

• Upon receiving you dahlia tubers, please immediately open and inspect them. 
• If you do not plan to plant them right away, keep them in a cool dark area. (basement or non freezing garage)
• If a bud breaks off it should resprout. It often sends up multiples nearby. Sprouts can vary in shape and color.
• Depending on your zone, and experience plant your tubers once the threat of frost/last frost date has passed. Leaves cannot tolerate frost (but the tuber can resprout - just delaying bloom time) and tubers cannot tolerate frozen ground -will die.
• Plant your tubers 4-6 inches deep. we prefer 6 inches as it can help with strength once there is a plant to support. 
• Avoid watering/or do so minimally until leaves are emerging a good few inches. This can lessen the chance of tuber rot.
• See our "How We Grow section" for more info on what we do for our dahlias. Growing, fertilizing, and results vary greatly by experience, trial and error, opinion and growing zones/weather, etc. 
• With the exception of quite short dahlias, most dahlias need some sort of staking. we have used orange/green driveway markers. We currently use netting held by poles at the end of each row. Twine is often used also. For smaller quantities tomato cages can also work quite well.