From Tuber to Bloom: Part 1

Today continues our brand new grower series:

So your dahlia tuber or cutting has arrived!! Now what? There are a few things you want to check. I’ve written up a really good blog on this before so I’m going to point you there instead of re-writing (b/c that really wouldn’t make sense). Hop over there real quick and take a read.

Planting:
Now if you did you homework last week, you will have made your decision on where to plant. Planting is very easy- people try to make it complicated but let’s simplify. For tubers, dig a hole. If you have well draining soil, then you can dig 6” or so deep. If you have heavy clay, go 3-4” deep. If you have done your soil test and amended according to the directions in it, you don’t need to add anything extra to your hole. Place the tuber in the hole with the crown facing up. If you don’t know where the crown is (it’s where the sprouts come out), lay the tuber horizontally. The good thing is that even if you put it upside down, it’s still going to work. That sprout will find it’s way up!
A rooted cutting is planted very similar. Dig a hole about 2” deeper than the depth of your pot. Strip off the bottom pair of leaves from your cutting and make sure the node (where the leaves join the stem) is underground. This will help your cutting grow more tubers. Water it in well.
For more planting info: Go here and here.

Support:
Dahlias need support- most varieties grow a minimum of 3’ tall and around 4’ on average, occasionally 6’. So you definitely want to give it a little help. There are several ways to do this. On a small scale for a few plants, place a stake (3-4’ tall) next to your tuber/cutting when you plant it. (Don’t stake tuber planted dahlias later b/c you’ll pierce your tuber clump). Tomato cages also work well for single plants. Horizontal netting with 6” squares works well for full beds of dahlias. Sometimes 2 layers can be required. Twine woven through the plants and wrapped around stakes can work as well. Put your support in before you think you need it (b/c they’ll grow faster than you think!)

Weeds:
They are inevitable in any kind of gardening. The best strategy is to not let them get out of control but this is easier said than done. Don’t worry, we’ve all had the day that made us want to quit growing things because of the weeds. Using some stray or chip mulch from the beginning will help. Tuber grown plants will push through either type of mulch so you really can put it down from day 1. Some people use landscape fabric with holes burned into it. We found this to be too hot for our climate but in cooler climates it may work successfully.
For more weed control tips: The Mulching Chronicles

Watering:
We talked of securing access to water in the first blog so now it’s time to use it! Hand watering works just fine if you have the time and can be quite therapeutic at the end of a long day or to start your day. Automated drip irrigation systems are great too! They ensure your dahlias get watered evenly and on a schedule. Do whatever fits your daily life. But most importantly, don’t forget to water. If planting tubers, don’t water until they sprout unless your soil is very dry and it’s really hot! But generally speaking you want the tuber to sprout before you start watering but green on top, means roots on the bottom to use that water. Once you see buds on your plants, you’ll want to increase your watering. They will flower more profusely with more water. Most really hot climates will need water each day.

Fertilizing:
Your soil test should give you the first clues as to how to fertilize. You’ll need to amend according to what the test says. Do this before planting. We then add a fertilizer higher in nitrogen than potassium and phosphorus when planting as this aids green growth. After about 2 months, we switch to a fertilizer with higher potassium and phosphorus as this aids flowering. You can apply these as granular or liquid sprayed on the leaves or watered in. Either works!
Don’t get too hung up on brands either. Look for the nutrients you need. Different brands are popular in different places but they usually have the same nutrient combos. We apply fertilizer every 2 weeks during the flowering season. During green growth, we apply at planting and about a month later.

“Homework” for the week:
1. Decide on your support method and acquire supplies
2 Develop a schedule/plan for watering your plants
3. Source your fertilizer and a method to apply it.

This post has just skimmed the surface of how to be a successful dahlia grower. If you’d like to hear me teach live about getting your dahlia garden started right- I’m hosting a “Dahlia Bootcamp” on March 12 inside The Petal Society. It will be a live workshop - we’ll have dahlia giveaways, plenty of Q&A time, and everything you need to know to get started successfully with your dahlia garden this Spring!

So You Wanna Grow A Dahlia?

You’re browsing around the internet… you are stopped dead in your tracks at these beautiful bodacious blooms! And you must have some! Before you know it, your clicking the order button and now you have some dahlias on the way to your door this Spring!

You live in the post retail therapy bliss for a few days and then the reality sets in (b/c most likely by that point, you’ve hit “buy” a few times.) You suddenly realize you have no idea what you are doing, where you are going to grow these or even what kind of care they need.

Sound familiar? Don’t panic— over the next few weeks, we are going to walk through how to get started in your dahlia journey. How to move from “I’ve got 50 dahlias coming and I don’t know what to do” to being confident that you can have a beautiful harvest of bright bold blooms this Fall.

Let’s begin. Dahlias are sold usually in the winter/early Spring months so chances are you have a bit of time on your hands before they arrive. (even if not, these steps can be accomplished quickly) The interim time between purchase and arrival can be used wisely so let me walk you through what to focus on right now.

First, let’s figure out where to plant your dahlia. Plants need light. Light is usually one of the harder things to alter in your landscape so it’s worthwhile to consider it first. Dahlias need full sun as their light requirement. Full sun is defined by 6 hours or more of direct unfiltered sunlight. So next time you have a bright sunny day, go look through your outside space for any area that has this requirement. You’re going to want to look at multiple times on the same day as light changes throughout the day. In extreme heat climates- zone 8b and above it can be helpful to have that full sun be in the earlier part of the day so by the time it gets really hot, your dahlias are getting a bit of shade or filtered sunlight.

Next, let’s look at access to water. Do you have a hose, irrigation system, sprinkler? How far do you have to go to get water? Having easy access to water is important because if you can water your plants easily you are more likely to do it. No access or limited access to water is a recipe for stressed plants.

After this, let’s consider our soil. Start by taking a soil test. DON’T skip this part. So many people do. A soil test will tell you so much about your natural soil and give you the information you need to make sound decisions about soil improvement and fertilization going forward. You can send your soil test to your local extension service or an agricultural testing laboratory.
Dahlias prefer soil with good drainage. You may be lucky enough to live somewhere where good drainage occurs naturally but that’s rare. Most of us are dealing with harder clay soils or poor soils. So in the time before your dahlia arrives, it’s worth the effort to improve your drainage. This can be done in a few ways: Raise your growing area- mound your soil up (even a few inches helps) or create a raised bed with permanent sides. You can also mix in compost - adding organic matter always improves drainage in soil- it creates natural air pockets and pathways for water to move. Both of these put together is an ideal situation. The last part of soil consideration is to remember that building good soil is a multi-year process. Honestly it never stops. However, I tell you this so you don’t stress over getting it “perfect” from year 1- there is no such thing as perfect soil. Just take some steps to make your soil better each year.

So your “homework” is to do 3 things:
1. Figure out where you have full sun
2. Determine your access to water
3. Take a soil test

I’ll be back in our next post to talk about what to do with your tubers and cuttings when they arrive and also how to plant your dahlias.

This post has just skimmed the surface of how to be a successful dahlia grower. If you’d like to hear me teach live about getting your dahlia garden started right- I’m hosting a “Dahlia Bootcamp” on March 12 inside The Petal Society. It will be a live workshop - we’ll have dahlia giveaways, plenty of Q&A time, and everything you need to know to get started successfully with your dahlia garden this Spring!

2026 Dahlia Goals

It is definitely time- Time to get my plans in place for a successful dahlia season. I’ve been tweaking my planting plan for weeks now and I think I’ve about got it. But I’ve also been thinking of some goals for this season. It doesn’t matter where I plant them if I don’t have good goals in place. So here goes:

Goal Number 1: Lower the labor
Growing at a large scale means that every task takes longer. So each year I try to find ways to make it more efficient. Last year we grew more dahlias than we ever had and will do that again this year. So it means it’s really time to inspect every process. Sometimes this means we don’t do things you would do when growing on a small scale. For example, I’m often asked if we strip bottom leaves and well— we used to when it was 1000 plants but with over 5000 now, it’s just not possible. The return on the time spent would not be profitable. It’s a great practice if you can do it, but as we scale certain things aren’t possible anymore.
We left a significant number of plants in the ground this year. So our Spring planting labor should be lower. However, growing a spring dahlia crop means a summer cut back. So the question becomes: Is the labor of cutting back dahlias in mid summer less than planting more from scratch in the Spring? We will have to track our time carefully this summer.
Lowering the labor means we may be able to expand our numbers in the future but first we have to find more efficient processes.

Goal Number 2: Better Pest Control
I think everybody probably has this goal. And it goes in conjunction with number 1- pest control is one of the most time consuming aspects of growing dahlias. A secondary goal is to try methods that are more sustainable and environmentally friendly. One major aspect of implementing this goal will be using the experience we have from previous years on pest attack timing. One advantage of growing in the same climate year after year is that pests become predictable. So anticipating and using pest prevention becomes easier over time. After 10 years of growing on this property, I can tell you when certain pest are going to appear. However, a lot of them come during our planting season- which is 5-6 weeks long. So I’m hopeful with less planting to do this year, that I’ll be able to spend some of that “extra” time on pest prevention instead of reaction.

Goal Number 3: Add in more fancy dahlias!
I gotta’ have at least one fun goal right?? In the 2024 season, we had awful deer pressure and lost a lot of our “fancy” dahlias- the big fluffy ones that we mostly grew for fun or for tuber sales. We grow large quantities of ball types and a lot of formal decoratives because these work well for cut flower production. But I really love fancy dahlias! So I am planning space for about 15 varieties- some new to the farm and some old favorites. So look for some new varieties next fall during our tuber sale!!

What are your goals? Drop us a line via our contact form or send us an email! I’d love to hear about them!

January 2026 Ice Storm

Sunday evening after scraping ice off the tunnels for the second time. Just gotta stop and appreciate the beauty even if it’s inconveinent.

Last Saturday night into Sunday brought on of the worst ice storms the upstate of South Carolina has seen in a long time. As I write this 5 days later, we are still covered in 2” of ice in places on the farm. Drifts of 8-10” in some places like in-between hoop houses.

Our new mini hoops on the left there held up really well. They are gothic style which is worth the extra money if you get even one snow a year. The snow sheds off them so much faster and easier.

We had to make tee-pee tents for some of our sweet peas- they were already climbing 3’ high. They did take a bit of damage in the 8 degrees of Monday night. But we’ll just prune back a little and they’ll regrow before we know it.

You know- my gut told me this was going to be a doozy of a winter. We have another several inches of snow coming tomorrow evening. Some rain next week to melt all this off would be very much appreciated! Time to get ready for round 2!

Dahlias are a Process

You’ve heard the saying “Do it for the process” - that definitely applies to dahlias. Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of email communication with many of you from growing zones all over the country. This experience has opened my eyes to so many different growing methods. But the one thing I have noticed that shows up every time I read a success story- Growers who focus on the process are always successful.

There are multiple processes involved in growing a dahlia and you have to attend to them to be successful: watering, feeding, soil preparation, pest control, support, etc. But where I see the most success is with those who honor the intrinsic nature of their growing environment.

So what does this mean exactly? The intrinsic nature of an object or a person is the essential nature- what is there naturally, comes from within, makes the object/person what it is.

When it comes to dahlias, what does that mean exactly? I see it as several things. I think it means that observation is one of our main skills we should be honing. Observing that a small change in environment from one garden to the next is going to make a big change in how your plant grows. Noticing that your soil may be freer draining in one area- thus creating a spot where you can grow great tubers while the heavier spots produce tubers with lenticles because the soil holds too much water there.
Or noticing the way the sun moves around your yard. If you place your plant in one area, it gets full day sun or another area it might be shaded in the hot afternoon areas. — then realizing that this could be good or bad depending on where you live.

Acceptance is another one. It took me a while to accept that my dahlias were never going to look like those grown in the Pacific Northwest but the alternate is true! I can do things they can’t! High heat climates can grow dahlias earlier and in a longer season. Adjusting your expectations to what is intrinsically possible in your climate is important. We too often set our bar for success based off what we see others doing rather than what is truly capable within our climate.

I recently saw a post on in a Facebook Dahlia forum asking about how do you know the accurate color of a bloom? They spoke of looking online on various sites and seeing multiple colors for the same variety. This is a prime example of accepting the limitation of your climate. Temperature and light are going to play a role. And I’ll admit it’s really fun to play around with altering your climate but when it comes down to it (especially if you grow on a large scale), you’re going to have to accept the limitations.

Acceptance of what you have the time/ability to care for. I see growers taking on too much sometimes or too early in their dahlia growing experience. It’s so easy to get starry eyed when it comes to dahlias! I get it- I did it for a long time. But finally realized I can’t spend all my waking hours in the dahlias (I know, I know- we wish we could!) But reality finally sets in and you have to acceptance that success means acknowledging what you realistically have time/ability to care for.

Curiosity plays a big role in successful dahlia growers. Those who ask “What happens if…..” are the ones who find out what the limits of their plants/climate are capable of. They learn new tricks and ways of doing things. One of the reasons that I love dahlias is that I’m still learning new tricks after so many years! No other flower has held my attention this long and so raptly.

Curiosity leads to taking risks. Some people just want things to work like clockwork each year- and I get it. You want your dahlias to perform so you get the payoff of bountiful blooms that we all desire. However, taking a risk can lead to even better harvests. I see people scared to try something. I feel like they have some of their personal worth tied up in whether that plant lives or dies. And I’m hear to say that if you want bountiful harvests- you’re going to have to kill some plants!!

It doesn’t make you a bad dahlia grower to kill plants- the best growers out there can all tell you stories of killing loads of plants. I think it’s time we acknowledge that following the “rules” verbatim doesn’t bring success. Dahlias and individual climates are just too varied for that approach.

I hope you are still with me and you may be wondering - where did this come from? Well, January is the time of year where I hear two things: I’m so excited to start planning my dahlia garden or my garden didn’t do so well last year, I’m thinking of giving up.

So this post is to remind you that growing dahlias is more than just planting “correctly” (whatever that means- there are multiple ways), watering enough (what is enough?), feeding at the right times and right fertilizer (I could write pages on this), and controlling every pest that visits your garden (as if that was even possible).

Look inside your gut and begin to observe all the intrinsic factors that affect you growing environment. Chances are- the answers you need are already beginning to form there. Observe, Accept, Be Curious, Take Some Risks.