2023 Dahlia Story
While this wasn’t my first year growing dahlias, it was my first time growing them in newly tilled garden soil. I was also about 6 months along in my pregnancy when we began preparing the new section of garden beds in April of 2023. My version of maternal nesting manifested in a determination to get as many tubers in the ground as possible for this first growing season. My very supportive husband and I began by marking and measuring where the beds were to be and with help from a family member we removed the top layer of sod, added newly composted cow manure, added fertilizer, layed down drip irrigation, burned holes in our weed cloth, and then stapled it all down. In hindsight, if I had planned this better, I would have most definitely utilized the “No Dig” method. Luckily we had access to a tractor. Seven months along now in May, and bending over has become my least favorite maneuver to plant tubers. I resorted to scooting around to dig holes in the heavy layer of clay soil beneath the fresh manure and managed to get about 50 dahlia tubers in the ground and all labeled. About 6 weeks later, we had tiny vulnerable sprouting dahlias! Then the pests came, and the challenge of keeping these brand new (expensive) tubers alive, began.
After some research and reaching out to some amazingly knowledgable facebook farmer groups, it was determined that I had a caterpillar “problem”. Now, I didn’t want to kill an entire population of hungry caterpillars and destroy an ecosystem I recently entered, so I decided to try to deter them as much as possible by making a concoction of garlic and peppermint spray. (spray bottle + minced garlic + water + peppermint extract) Smells gross, works great. Well it worked well enough when the rain didn’t wash it off the leaves. But it did rain. Every. Single. Day. It rained ALOT of 2023 and many flower farmers I’m sure can commiserate when I say that we really lacked sun this past growing season.
Okay, so my dahlias were behind, their growth stunted because of newly tilled heavy clay soil, a little too fresh compost manure (with a lot of grass seed and weed pressure), and lack of sun. This was a problem because I had my very first big wedding coming up in September and these dahlias were a main focal flower in the design. I was feeling the pressure and needed a Plan B. So I decided to try out grow bags! I ordered way too many from Amazon, purchased cheap dahlia tubers from Walmart and some XL bags of miracle grow potting soil. Then I bagged up about 30 tubers in early June.
I babied these bagged dahlias on my very sunny hot deck for about 9 weeks. Oh and I had an actual baby born on July 12th. AND THEY GREW! I also discovered a few more Army worms and applied the garlic mint spray religiously on these precious plants. It still amazes me that these caterpillars found their way up a flight of stairs and onto a hot deck and into the grow bags to munch on the dahlia leaves and petals. (Is that how it works? or are the eggs in the soil to begin with?) Anyway, the grow bags required watering at least twice per week unless we had rain. We had rain. But low and behold, I had beautiful blooms just in time for the wedding!
September through November we had the most gorgeous enormous dahlias. The newly planted field dahlias also began to catch up, and I could finally see some of the much anticipated specialty varieties bloom. I had marked these new field varieties with thin flimsy 6” wooden stakes, written in a garden pen ink. Through the season of rain and my feeble attempts at weeding, the wooden stakes all snapped off and landed in a mixed up pile in the middle of the rows. Lesson learned, and I’ve accepted the fact that next season will be a surprise of mixed up dahlia varieties until I can identify what had survived.
Fast forward to our first few frosts in November. We cut down the rotten dry stalks off of the field dahlias, removed the weed cloth staples, rolled up the weed cloth and then rolled up the drip irrigation, and finally dug up the tubers. The tubers were hosed off of dirt and grass clumps and left to dry for a few days in our unheated basement. Then the large tuber clumps were cut and separated to be placed into vermiculite filled plastic containers. For the dahlias in the grow bags, I chopped down the dead stalks, and stored the bags in the unheated basement. Much easier. These bagged dahlias are the experiments, and from the many sources I’ve read, growers have had great luck with this method as their dahlias have come back MUCH earlier and healthier than ever when they are left to over winter in a protected area in their bags or pots. Better luck next year… that’s what farmers say right?
In this 2023 dahlia season, I’ve learned to just go with your gut and go with the flow and make it work. You don’t have to do EVERYTHING Erin at Floret suggests. Though she DID say do what works for you… If you made it to the end of this, you might also be a plant nerd, and I will keep you updated come next growing season on which method worked better for me.
