Rooted Cutting Sale List 2025
It’s finally time for our first ever Rooted Cutting Sale! The Sale will be January 10 at 11 AM for newsletter subscribers. The sale will open at 12 PM without a password needed.
Here’s the list of what varieties we will be offering:
— It is possible that this list will change- we will probably add some to it and potentially remove 1 or 2. We will be checking all our stock in storage before the sale begins and adjusting the list accordingly.
20th Ave Gwen
20TH Ave Memory
Beaucon White
Blizzard
Copper Boy
Cornel Bronze
Hamilton Lillian
Hapet Champagne
Hilltop Lost Treasure
HollyHill Black Beauty
Irish D Porter
Last Dance
Linda's Baby
Miss Amara
Peaches N Cream
Robann Butterscotch
Roque Starburst
Skipley moonglow
Sweet Fabienne
Sweet Nathalie
Sweet Sanne
Tahoma Curve
Totally Tangerine
Valley Rustbucket
Wine Eyed Jill
Pictures of each variety will be available soon in the shop. There will be multiple ship dates beginning late March. You can have your tuber order shipped at the same time. If you already have a tuber order with us, there will be a small up-charge if you want your cuttings order to ship at the same time but you won’t have to pay another shipping fee. More details to come!
Pantone Color of the Year 2025- Mocha Mousse
Honestly this color makes me hungry more than anything else. But since I can’t eat it- let’s discuss. Every year Pantone picks a color said to inspire design trends for the upcoming year. I’ve only occasionally felt like my life was affected by the colors they pick- sometimes I see them showing up in flower trends. Usually it takes a few years.
The 2025 Pantone color of the year is Mocha Mousse- capturing a global mood of comfort, connection and harmony. Personally I think they are living in another world— but maybe they are trying to inspire the forementioned moods. I was hoping for something bright and energetic. However, I do find it kind of fun to see what dahlias are in the yearly shade or which ones go with it. Since there aren’t any brown dahlias yet, we will have to go with coordinating colors.
Rock Run Ashley
Rock Run Ashley- I wouldn’t be sad about any trend that encourages me to grow more of this one. I’ve always loved it- forever in my top 10 personal favorites!
Cafe Au Lait
Cafe Au Lait- Of course I have to include this one because mocha and cream not only taste good together but they look good too!
Miss Amara and Yvonne- These two bring warmth to the palette without totally stealing the show.
Sweet Nathalie
Sweet Nathalie - In her cool tones with a tinge of icy blush would provide a cool colored contrast to the warm beigey brown of Mocha Mousse.
Cornel Bronze
Cornel Bronze- Probably about as close as we get to brown. But I think Cornel Bronze pairs beautifully with the Mocha Mousse color- that’s a Thanksgiving table color palette!
So what do you think? Are you a fan of the 2025 Color of the Year? Let me know- shoot me an email!
It was all Yellow….
I don’t think I’ve ever written a post about yellow dahlias…. but I’ve been searching for the elusive perfect yellow dahlia for years now. Yellow is really hard in a southern climate. Yellows tend to be very neon looking down here. And neon is not in vogue with my florist customers. They want warm yellow (gold) or soft yellow (buttercream)- but no neon.
I’ve tried a lot- I see a pretty yellow dahlia, I buy it and 90% of the time - I’m disappointed. Here’s a sample of the ones I’ve tried:
Creamy (puny and doesn’t grow well in high heat), Jo (great form but neon)
Polyventon Supreme (excellent plant and tuber maker but neon)
Winholme Diane (beautiful but no matter how many suppliers I try- the tubers always rot before the end of the season)
Blyton Softer Gleam (too late of a bloomer and stingy bloomer)
Citron Du Cap (neon)
Sunkissed (beautiful form but neon)
Tapioca (not quite yellow enough)
Golden Scepter (always blew it’s center)
Mary Jo (weak stem, great color though)
Honeydew (bright yellow)
That’s just a sampling. I’ve forgotten more varieties than I can remember. (Click the photo and mouse over it to see the variety name)
But this year- Finally!!! I hit upon one that I love. 20th Ave Gwen. And it was a total surprise. I bought 20th Ave Gwen, Softer Peach and Memory all at the same time. I began growing them out last year and for some reason I never saw the bloom on Gwen- either I missed it or it never bloomed. But I decided to take a risk and propagated it anyways. So glad I did— because this year it bloomed beautifully! Gwen has a softer yellow color with a bit of peach undertone as it matures. This really helps the tone down the neon. Now- I will say, pretty much any yellow will be bright and neon like if you let it bloom in high summer in extreme heat. There’s just no way around it. But I’m mostly looking for what a dahlia’s coloring does during September/October since that’s my prime bloom season.
20th Ave Gwen
I also rely on another variety for a bit of yellow when needed: Miss Amara. She can be a bit of a color changer- sometimes she’s more yellow with hints of pink (high heat) and sometimes she’s more peachy/yellow (cooler weather). But both colorways work for me!
I’m glad to have Miss Amara back on the farm in higher quantities this year. We had her built up as a major production variety 3 years ago and a ground hog came in and ate every plant and we completely lost her so I had to rebuild from scratch!
Tahoma Curve gets to be an honorary yellow because it’s always more yellow at the beginning of the season- it has the golden yellow factor down really well. (Left picture is early season, middle is mid- season, right is end of season)
I’m happy to be able to say that all 3 will be available in our Tuber Sale this year! 20th Ave Gwen will be limited (but most likely she’ll be available as rooted cuttings when those sales begin).
Your Storage Methods
Here it is: the results of crowd sourcing from the Dahlia Lovers Newsletter. I asked you how you store your tubers and you all really let me know!
I’ve divided this by climate as much as I could: Warm Climate and Cold Climate. Although there were some where I didn’t know the growing climate.
Cold Climate Storage Methods:
Martin P- West Virginia—
I am gardening in West Virginia, on the Ohio river. I process small numbers of tubers and store them lightly covered in vermiculite in side plastic grocery bags. The bags are placed inside cardboard boxes, around 10 bags per box with the tops left open for breathing the moisture. The boxes are stored inside a larger box that had a piece of furniture delivered in it. The smaller boxes are the size of Hello Fresh grocery deliveries. The larger box holds three or four boxes of dahlias. So I am estimating around 40 tubers or small clumps of tubers.
The larger box sits on an old large dog bed, I guess old carpet could also keep the box off the concrete floor of the garage. It is attached to the house so does not quite freeze inside. The lid of the large box is closed but not sealed. When it gets to below 15F I cover the box with a couple of blankets.
So far this has worked for 5 years. I check the state of the tubers one or twice to make sure they are not too dry.
This method has worked for 5 years so far.
I do also leave a few in the ground, provided it is well drained they have usually come back. The clumps get very large though and performance reduces as a result. This year I reduced a couple of clumps and replanted, let’s see if that is successful.
As a side note I have taken to drying a few dahlias this year. Black Jack looks stunning dried turning even darker!
Christa- Bridlewood Blooms, NY—
We do lift the tubers with a sub soiler bar on our tractor and then go behind and lift each by hand onto a trailer. Every plant has already been previously labeled in the field with a hand written flagging tape around each stem and that label stays with each clump. We use metal mesh trailers so the clumps are immediately washed on a trailer (actually, we only wash what we can divide in a day so the rest just go into their bins unwashed, protected by dirt until we are ready for the next batch) and then they go into labeled crates on a second trailer. Dividing starts immediately, sanitizing tools between clumps, and the cut tubers are left in 1020 trays to dry for up to 24 hours, depending on their needs. We hand label each tuber with an indelible marker with a name acronym and a number, pack them in vermiculite in shallow clear plastic bins (varying sizes depending on tuber quantity) and store them in our walk in cooler on rolling racks with multiple shelves so all bins are accessible at anytime. Our Coolers are kept at 40 degrees, and once temps fall below freezing in our area, we use an electric heater on a thermostatically controlled Ink Bird Smart Meter, set to come on at 38 and turn off at 42, and a Govee to send that info to my phone 24/7. For the first couple days I monitor the bins twice a day and crack open the lids on any bins if I see any condensation in their clear walls, but once all the tubers are acclimated, they are closed tight and checked on twice a month. Humidity is kept between 85-90. The key for me is the consistent cold temperature I can achieve in an insulated space like this. We store over 5500 tubers with amazing success.
A. R. —-
I’m a novice home gardener - no cooler, an unheated garage - and last winter I wrapped a few tubers in plastic wrap and stored in a cardboard box in an unheated room in the basement. I expected all of them to shrivel and instead they all made it!
(They didn’t all have eyes… but none of them shriveled up. I found one that I didn’t plant in a corner of the yard in July... I thought it had no eyes but it was pushing two tiny shoots, even above ground. I buried it and got a full size plant. Dahlias are awesome.)
I’m doing the same thing again. Expecting 100% success seems unreasonable, but who knows?
Lisa, Massachusetts—
I grow dahlias in zone 6 (Massachusetts). I lift them on a dry day, shake off most of the soil, drop them into brown paper grocery bags, and write the cultivar on the bag with a Sharpie. Then I close the bags loosely (crease the tops and fold over) and put them in my basement until spring. I usually lose a few tubers to drying out, but the ones that can handle it keep multiplying. It's survival of the fittest.
Amy W- New England—
I live in New England so have to dig ‘em up every fall. We wash them, dry them well, then take them to the basement where they are placed in wood shavings in crates. Our basement runs between 50 and 60 degrees all winter. We’ll divide them in the spring unless we get ambitious (doubtful) over the winter.
Carolyn T- Massachusetts—
I grow about 12 different types of dahlias in my Massachusetts home garden. In September I make sure each dahlia plant is labeled with the color, height, and name of the dahlia. Then in October after a hard frost I cut the dahlia stalks down to about 5 inches and lift up my dahlia tubers with a pitch fork. I shake off the excess soil and rinse the tubers with a strong stream of water. After they dry for a day, I look for budding eyes and separate the clumps, making sure to label them either with a Sharpie, flagging tape, or a piece of a window blind. I store the tubers in plastic labeled shoe boxes filled with vermiculite. I keep the boxes in my unheated, attached garage where the temperature stays around 40 degrees. It’s warmer in November, but the tubers seem to do well. I check the tubers about every 3 weeks to see if the tubers are drying out or if they are developing any mold.
Brad S.—
Like others, it seems every year is a struggle finding the right method for storing my dahlia "clumps" so they don't mold or get bacteria melt. God the cleaning off the soil, a place to dry out....
I do it differently now. On a day when the soil isn't wet, I wheelbarrow a bale of peat over to the dahlia garden. I dig up the first clump. Brush off any large dirt clogs is enough - leave the rest of it in place. I only cut the stem. I toss the clump on top of a layer of peat on the bottom of the wheelbarrow. Throw a light layer of peat on the clump. On to the next, and next and...each placed closely with its neighbor, even overlapping each other's tubers. Then add a thicker layer of peat to covers those clumps. Next I lay in another group of clumps. Repeat the covering, and so on. When near the top of the wheelbarrow I cover everything with a thick layer of peat. I want the top to look like a wheelbarrow of peat. I will have 60 to 80 clumps of varying sizes and usually can fit them all in my very large double wheel wheelbarrow - depending on how large they are. This quick and easy wheelbarrow is put into my garage for the winter. The peat draws excess moisture evenly supplying the whole group. Check each month. Look a little dry? I pour about a qt of water or less on the surface with a sprinkler watering can. My garage temp can be 50⁰ to 30⁰.
Spring arrives. My dahlias look exactly like they did when packed away, only fresher because they are getting as psyched about spring as I am. How convenient! Just wheel them back to the dahlia garden with last year's holes ready to receive my dahlias. Maybe I will by lots of new tubers...and another wheelbarrow.
Warm Climate Storage Methods:
Djana V—
So my storage method is just cutting down my dahlias and covering with lots of pine needles and then laying a black trash bag over the pine needles and then covering with more pine needles. I grow everything in a plastic 12inch pots from Lowes also in a warmer area so I don't have to worry about frost.
Ellie- Zone 8, SC—
I am very fortunate to live in zone 8 and do not have to store my dahlias. I will mulch well and divide in spring.
Shirley, Zone 8, SC—
Here’s my dahlia storage plan courtesy of Helene: The bed where my dahlias are planted had a large oak in it. Helene took out the tree with the surrounding root bed attached with all the bulbs, tubers and other plants in it. I was only able to find one tuber out of 6, several spider lily bulbs and some iris rhizomes afterwards. The remaining 5 dahlias are still in the ground - somewhere. It’ll be interesting to see if they come back up next spring and where they’re now located. All the plant markers were blown away so those that do sprout will be a mystery until they bloom.
Audra V—
I cover my beds with very thick layer of fallen leaves. :) I didn’t even know I should have been pulling the bulbs until this year.
Janet L. Upstate SC—
I typically dig my dahlia tubers up, rinse them off, layer them in a bin with peat moss and store in our basement. In spring, I divide and plant.
This year, however, I left the dahlias in and mulched with grass and leaves that I bagged with my riding mower. The reason being that this fall I needed to divide my lotus tubers, which I normally do in spring; they took the peat moss.
Hoping both species fare well. To be determined.
Cindy B- TN—
I am in Knoxville, TN zone 7b. I dig and divide in the Fall. I wrap my tubers in plastic wrap and store them in my crawlspace in lidded plastic storage bins. I monitor temp & humidity with a Govee device.
Courtney, Beija-Flor Blooms, São Pedro de Alcântara, SC, Brasil—
Here in Brazil, we leave them in the ground. We have cold-ish weather but not hard freezes, and we lack the nifty resources you have to store tubers—and the things we do have, like bins, are ridiculously expensive. But leaving them in the ground risks rot from the water that doesn’t drain well from our clay soils.
Thanks for all the info you publish. Dahlias aren’t widely grown in Brazil, and resources for growing here are almost nonexistent. It’s actually so rare that varieties are referred to by color, as in “the red dahlia”, because there’s only one red dahlia available to buy (and rarely at that). Anyway, you have saved me many tears as I try to master this and in turn help others.
Happy digging and dividing!
Randi P- CA—
I only grow dahlias in large pots since my gardening space is small and I like to use it mostly for food crops ( although this season I grew one in the ground where I will leave it to overwinter with a few inches of mulch on top). Once the tops have died, I move all the pots into the unheated hoop house where the soil eventually dries by sometime in March? Once I see growth emerging, I pull out the tubers, divide and re-pot. This method has worked really well for many years.
Unfortunately, it was extremely hot here this summer and many died, (in gallon and larger pots), even those under shade cloth. I will either need to get them in the ground this spring or figure out how to shade the pots themselves (as I believe that the soil got too hot).
Tuck them in tight: Dahlia Storage
Well it’s definitely that time of year- If you are digging your dahlias, it’s time to get them into storage. I realized I’ve never really written a lot about this subject so I thought I’d take the chance to tell you about our storage process.
Each year in November, we spend most of the month digging dahlia clumps out of our field. Everything is hand dug, our field is not set up for mechanized digging. So it’s all shovels over here! This year I have an amazing crew and it’s going much faster than normal. Once the tubers come out of the ground they go into labeled bulb crates. Each crate get three labels— one on each handle and one inside the crate. No mixing up crates on this farm! It happened once many years ago and I vowed never again!
Then the tubers are allowed to dry for several hours. We grow in heavy clay soil and sometimes the soil is damp while digging. I love when we have dry weather during digging but that’s never a guarantee. Once the dirt had dried some, the clumps either go straight to the flower cooler. Sometimes we will wash immediately and then allow the clumps to dry. The flower cooler keeps them at the right temperature and humidity until we can get to dividing.
Few washing tips:
1. Use a nozzle with a variable flow. This is important because sometimes you need a little more water pressure to bust the clay out of the center of the clump.
2. Wear water proof gear. This year I bought a vinyl butchers apron. It has been a great addition to our set up- anybody can wear it b/c it’s one size fits all and it’s long enough to cover the majority of your body and thick enough the water doesn’t come through.
3. Angle your table forward. I lift the back legs of my table up by about an inch or two so that the water rolls forward away from me.
After drying and a few days of cooler storage, we divide the clumps. We do all our division in the fall because we don’t have time in Spring and we also need to know final tuber counts for our sales. After division the tubers go back into the cooler or if we are really on top of it, they get stored right away. Each tuber is stamped with a 4 letter abbreviation of their name. I keep an excel spreadsheet with the key to these names. This also helps with ensuring varieties don’t get mixed up in storage.
We are switching to vermiculite this year as our storage medium. We’ve been using peat moss for 10+ years but I finally got tired of all the mess and dust. I already like it better and we’ve only stored about a 1/4 of our tubers so far. No huge clouds of brown dust erupting every time we store a crate of tubers. We store in clear plastic bins- I prefer a shallow bin- one that’s about 10-12” tall. Deep bins are hard to check your tubers and it’s too easy for tubers to get moldy and then you don’t notice until spring. Your storage environment should be between 40-50 degrees and 85-90% humidity. I use a Govee device to monitor my storage conditions as it connects to my phone.
Once the tubers are in storage, then the checking process begins. I set a reminder on my phone to check every 2 weeks. I just go into the flower cooler and rummage around each bin a little bit. I’m checking to make sure they aren’t drying out or getting moldy. This process can save your tubers if you have a problem. If you store and forget about them until Spring, you’ll be one of the people emailing me with tails of woe- how all their tubers got moldy or shriveled! It only takes 5 minutes- so go set that reminder now!!
