It’s inevitable – we are bound to buy more dahlias. Yay! Mike will grow 200 plants from our 30 tubers and plant 75 in our yard. You would think that would be enough. But no, I was on the internet today buying more tubers. I used Dahlia Addict to find sellers of Belle of Barmera, and we are buying from Valley Ridge Farm for the first time. And of course, once you get to a seller, there is so much eye candy. I couldn’t help myself. I bought four more.
Our own tubers come out of storage and get planted in the basement in mid-March. They grow sprouts, Mike cuts the sprouts off, roots them, and in about 3 weeks we have a new plant. So for us, one tuber typically makes 3-6 new plants. No guarantee as each tuber does what God designed it to do. The tuber (below left) would have come from our inventory, not a seller’s. Its too big to be brand new, plus the ones from sellers won’t come till May. They typically go right in the ground outside.
We do a lot of plants, but if you are just doing a few, do like Frank did below. Make yourself a mini-greenhouse from a Styrofoam or plastic cup filled with potting mix and cover it with a plastic cup. A plastic cup on the bottom is nice since you can see when the roots are growing. It will need really bright lights. Fluorescent works just fine, a window does not. Watch for roots, put it in a larger pot as needed, and plant it outside after the last frost.
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