(Updated Jan.14 2012)

The following varieties are  SOLD OUT for the 2012 growing season:

Baarn Bounty

Gitts Perfection

Islander

Kelvin Floodlight

Maarn

Peach Brandy

Seduction

Silverado

Valley Porcupine

Vassio Meggos

These varieties that are not listed in our catalogue are available for 2012:

Baron Katie              (4″ orangey pink)

Clyde’s Choice        (10″ orange dinnerplate) 

Elsie Huston            (9″ bright pink dinnerplate)

Ferncliff Cameo      (5″ soft pink shades)

Gladiator                   (11″ orange & yellow dinnerplate)

Hy Patti                     (6″ orange)

Who Dun It              (6″ white with purple tips)

STARTING TUBERS AHEAD OF PLANTING: If you pot up the tubers about 6 weeks ahead of the frost free date in your area, you will have nice sized plants to plant out when that time comes. This will advance the first blooming date by about five weeks, which is a great thing to do! Dahlias will keep blooming until frost so lengthening the season up front will give you lots more blooms. I suggest you use pots about 6″ or more in size, and line each with two sheets of newspaper, leaving the paper above the pot’s edge. Keep the soil just slightly moist, but not wet. When you plant them out, remove the newspaper keeping the soil ball in tact, causing the least disruption to the root system possible. Plant it, paper and all, so that you have three or so inches of soil above the tuber when in the ground. It need not be that deep in the starter pot, especially if it is a large tuber.
STAKING: I am ‘real estate’ challenged here, so I want my plants to grow tall rather than wide. I always stake my plants, and even prune a little to encourage height. If you have several sprouts from one tuber, it will naturally take a bushier shape. If you reduce it to one strong sprout, it will tend to grow taller. Some of the dinnerplates can get a stalk the size of your wrist, if reduced to one stem. I usually remove the bottom few leaves once the plant gets to be 18″ or so high, so that it continues to grow taller. This makes it easier to apply fertilizer close to the base as well, but it does allow the soil to dry faster close to the plant. The need to stake also depends on how sheltered from the wind your location is, and how vigilant you are with fertilizer and picking. Extra potassium rich fertilizer will strengthen stems to some degree, but I haven’t found it to work as well as staking. Those big blooms are so heavy. I lose some to wind or rain even when I am constantly tying and wiring. My location is wide open to the wind. You are best to put in a stake when you plant (one or two rebar work well), so that you don’t risk piercing the tuber when doing it later. Olly at CHG

These varieties that are not listed in our catalogue are available for 2011.

Ben Huston              (10″ light orange dinnerplate)

Bride to Be             ( 4″ white waterlily)

Chimicum Katie     (4″ bright pink ball)

Clyde’s Choice        (10″ orange dinnerplate) 

Elsie Huston            (9″ bright pink dinnerplate)

Ferncliff Cameo      (5″ soft pink shades)

Gladiator                   (11″ orange & yellow dinnerplate)

Hy Patti                     (6″ orange)

Intrigue                    (4″ coral)

Marry Me                 (6″ soft pink & white)

Oretti Ella                 (5″ mauve pink with yellow tinge)

Who Dun It              (6″ white with purple tips)

Neem Oil is sold in concentrate form at Rona. It is located with the fertilizers, not with the insect management products. 500 ml costs $29 and 250 ml is priced at $17.  This product works well to control insects of all kinds on garden plants, and can be sprayed as often as needed. It is organic, and sold as a leaf shine or foliar spray. Don’t use it on vegetables as it will leave a terrible taste.

Frost will end the blooming season for dahlias. This is usually the first week of October in Ottawa. The first killing frost this fall was Sunday October 11. Plants become droopy and dark, and the blooms ruined when frost hits – a sad day indeed.

- within a week, cut off the foliage and compost it, leaving 4” or 6” of the stalks above ground.

- the same day, or it could be a few days later, dig with a deep shovel about 14” away, all the way around the stalks. Dig deeply, as the tubers may have grown downward, and you don’t want to break them or cut through them. If you dig your tubers after a week or more  from when the frost hit, there may be new sprout nodes visible on the tubers! They are usually pink or whitish. These bumps disappear back into the tuber after the tubers are dug, and aren’t visible again until spring.

- when the stalks with the tubers attached are free from the soil, tip them out of their hole, laying them backward onto the stalks. They may be very heavy depending on how big the plant was, how many tubers have developed, and what your soil is like.

- if the soil falls away easily, and you can lift the system intact, then don’t wash them. The thin film of soil is a good protection through the winter. If you have clay like I do, you will need to take the garden hose and wash away the soil, without breaking the tubers from the clump. After washing, take the clump to your garage or somewhere cool but not freezing, where it can dry well for a day or two.

- if your clump had several stalks, you can separate it somewhat after it is dry to the touch. Take hold of one stalk in each hand and pull to separate them from each other. They will naturally break apart in the best place. Do this for each stalk. It is really important that you don’t break the tubers off the stalk they are connected to, so be gentle.

- you likely planted one tuber, or maybe a small clump in the spring. Find this original ‘mother tuber’,  remove it from the clump and discard (compost) it. It will be a slightly darker colour than the rest, or will have a different root system than the other tubers. It may have a different skin texture, or be soft, or even have started to rot away. By removing it now, you will increase the chance of your tubers surviving winter, as most rot starts in this old tuber during storage. The mother tuber will never grow good blooms again, although it may grow roots and a sprout. Just get rid of it.

- cut the stalks back to a couple inches above the tubers. Don’t cut them too short, as this is where the new sprouts are likely to develop. If the clump is still huge, you may want to further divide it to get it compact enough to store easily. Do this by splitting down into the stalk with your pruners, and keeping a portion of the stalk attached to a section of the tubers. They are something like a clump of bananas, all attached together, but each with a portion of the flesh where they grew on the tree.

- get a box, or bin, or plastic bag that is just a little larger than the clumps of tuber you have now. Buy some vermiculite from a garden supply store, and completely cover your clumps leaving  no air pockets. Leave the box or bin or bag open for air circulation, label the variety, and put it into a root cellar or cold storage or unheated bedroom – anywhere just above freezing. I prefer storing in bags, as I can massage the vermiculite around the tubers, ensuring no air pockets. The vermiculite can be reused the following year, unless mould was found in it. The bag has to be bigger than the tubers, not stretched to cover them. The vermiculite needs to surround the tubers. Because I have so many tubers to harvest and wash, I usually get the clumps small enough that about four original clumps of one variety will fit into a banana box. I leave out the vermiculite for now. I work hard to get the boxes labeled and into storage before the freezing day time temperatures set in, hopefully I’m done by the end of October. In November, December, or January when I can work indoors, I further divide them, and get the vermiculite around them. I lose some to rot by doing this, but with so many plants, it is hard to get them all out of the ground before freeze up. Some varieties (such as Cornell) I have learned, need to have the vermiculite immediately around them or they shrivel too much and aren’t viable.

- in March or early April bring them into room temperature and they will start to sprout in a week or two. Keep the vermiculite around them during this time, but you can check them daily for sprouts. If you take the vermiculite away, they will likely wither, shrivel, and dry out.

- when the sprouts come, they will be along the original stem where they join each other. Take pruning shears or a box cutter and separate the tuber with its sprout, from the clump. Or you can leave a few small tubers joined as a small clump to be planted together. If it is hard to cut through, a good trick is to put one blade of your sheers into the old hollow stem, and cut down through the stem keeping the sprout attached to the tuber. If a sprout breaks off when you are dividing them, don’t worry too much. Chances are good it will grow a new sprout in the same place, in a week or two. Put the newly divided individual tubers back into vermiculite to store until planting time, preferably somewhere cool so they won’t grow too much until you pot them up or get them into the ground where you want them planted after frost danger has passed. You can divide your tubers before they begin to sprout if you recognize the ‘eye’ or node where the sprout will develop.

*You may have half a dozen or more tubers to share or plant yourself, from the one original mother tuber you planted. About three quarters of the tubers you store will be viable and produce sprouts in the spring. Don’t expect them all to grow. A tuber with two sprouts will have two stems on the plant, and be bushier. A mistake many people make in trying to keep their tubers over winter is breaking their necks! Without that connection to the old stalk or stem that joins them together, they won’t sprout, although they will grow roots.

*The prime size for a tuber  is the size of your thumb up to your wrist. This size will have enough food and moisture to feed a sprout, but not so much that the tuber is slow to send out roots. I don’t bother with sulpher powder any more, as I don’t have much problem with mould, and I don’t think the sulpher helped anyway.  Some people use peat moss or wood shavings instead of vermiculite, but my preference is vermiculite.  

*Tubers will freeze in an Ottawa garage, and a heated basement is not cool enough to store tubers. They need 40 to 45 degrees Fahrenheit all winter long. If you go with a cool basement, put something between any cement floor and the tubers, as concrete draws the moisture and they will shrivel. A few inches of newspaper or cardboard, or a board would suffice. 

*Check on the tubers ocassionally through the winter. Throw out any that are moulding. If some are shrivelling, sprinkle a teaspoon of water into the bag, or partially close the plastic bag.

*Someone suggested their attic crawl space works for them to store tubers. Once people get addicted to dahlias, they will try anything to keep them! I own a remote thermometer that will tell the temperature up to 50 meters away – might be a good idea if you are trying out your attic!

*It is amazing when you consider the beauty of a dahlia plant all tucked into a tuber. Such potential in a perfect package – well worth the effort of trying to overwinter your favourites. And there is nothing like the feeling of seeing your old friends starting to bloom again the next summer, having made it through a Canadian winter to celebrate summer the next year!