week 10: mother of dahlias
this week on the little dream farm
It happened slowly…and then all at once.
The obsession with dahlias, that is.
When I spent time with David in the gardens just after we’d closed on the farm, he introduced me to several varieties of dahlias he grew.
Before then, I knew of dahlias, but I’d never even seen them in person. I had no idea what it took to grow them, and had no clue what a tuber even was.
That first fall, a new local friend stopped by to look over the gardens with me to help identify some plants before I began pruning and cleaning things up to get ready for our first winter on the farm.
“When do you plan on digging your dahlias?” she asked me casually while we were walking through the big garden.
“What do you mean, dig my dahlias?” I replied with total curiosity and no earthly idea what she meant.
For many, dahlias are a love-hate kind of thing. Love the flowers. Hate the work involved to grow them.
But for me, they’re the first thing in the garden I had to take care of and tend to. And that first fall, I was under a time crunch to learn on the fly in order to save the tubers David grew and cared for for years.
After the killing frost in colder zones, dahlias have to be cut down, the tubers dug up, and then stored well for winter. Too warm or moist an environment and the tubers will rot. Too dry or cold and they’ll either decay or freeze.
And then there’s the separating.
One tuber planted in the ground for a season produces a clump of tubers. A small clump can be replanted as is, but the longer they’re grown that way, the bigger the clumps they form, which then needs separating in order to make them easier to handle and more convenient for storing each winter.
So sure, dahlias come with special requirements, extra work…a labor of love.
I’m here to say, at least for me, they’re beyond worth it. And as a brand new grower that first fall, if I can grow them and store them successfully on the first go around, then surely there’s nothing too hard about growing dahlias.
In the past few weeks some of the flower farmers and growers I’ve come to admire have held their annual dahlia tuber sales. You can find tubers just about anywhere these days—even in big box stores, but I’d always rather support small business owners and small farmers—you can never beat the quality you get from small-scale organic farms.
The world of dahlia tuber sales, I’ve come to learn, is a whole to-do.
People set alarms. They have buying strategies to get the most coveted tubers. You have to have a plan of attack if you plan to get the varieties you really want or like. Most of them sell out within minutes.
Generally flower farmers spend January and February separating their dahlia tubers and getting a sense for their inventory, listing them all to their sites in February and March, hosting the sale, and then shipping to customers in March and April. The varieties I ordered will all get delivered in April and planted out into the cut flower garden in May.
I was fortunate to happen upon three different flower farmers—two here in New York and one in Washington—who had recent sales where I was able to get some really incredible dahlia varieties.
I actually did have to have Chris sit down with a second computer to help me scoop up a few that I knew would be hard to snag. We missed out on several but overall I’m really happy with the varieties we managed to get!
This year we’re growing a total of 30 varieties of dahlias here on the farm…perhaps a few more with one more upcoming tuber sale.
While I’m over here dreaming of flowers, we’re expecting 12-18 inches of snow beginning tomorrow afternoon!
This feels like the perfect time to introduce you to all my new dahlia tuber babies that are on their way to the Little Dream Farm.
Truly, I’m beginning to feel like the Mother of Dahlias and I simply can’t wait to see these growing in one big pretty row in the cut flower patch this season!
As you scroll through them, I’d love to hear which varieties are your favorites and as always I’m happy to take any questions…about dahlias…the cut flower patch…the garden…anything you’ve got!
Here’s a look at the newest additions to our Little Dream Garden dahlia family:
The (soon to be) Little Dream Garden Dahlias
Photos via: Gray Girl Farms, Coseytown Flowers, Fleur Flower Farm, Flowerwell NY, Google
How on earth could you pick? I started out thinking I like the ones with the pointy petals. Then I started staring at the rounded petals and those were the prettiest. THEN I saw all the spiky ones, and the ones that looks like balls... so yea, I like them all!
Can’t wait to see your garden.