Getting Dahlias Started For 2020

Last year I’d started something like 130 plants and it was a bit much to deal with, so at the end of 2019 I only dug up a couple dozen of my best producers to save for 2020. I left the rest in the ground to freeze and die over the Winter. The ones I dug up were “temporarily” placed in plastic containers, but I procrastinated about properly dividing and storing them.

By early 2020 the ones I’d planned on saving were getting moldy and rotten and were basically a lost cause, and the ones in the ground were dead or dying in the cold, so I assumed I had a blank slate. I ordered 40 new tubers, figuring that would be plenty for the year.

Then in mid-April I look at the flower beds and see some surprise stalks emerging:

Meanwhile I still had 40 new ones started in the basement, which needed to be planted:

I put the last batch out today, and the current count is 87. Not as many as last year, but still over double what I’d expected. Some of the returning ones seem to have stalled their growth and perhaps are having issues with nutrients or root formation, but others are getting quite thick already. The little blue flags indicate the unexpected returnees:

As to the ones that were dug up from last year and not stored properly? Some were a rotten mess, but surprisingly many of them also started producing roots and stalks even without any sort of soil or potting mix. I found a couple that looked really good and put them in planters where they are now thriving. The rest were tossed in the woods. Then my mom mentioned that the ones she’d stored from last year weren’t doing well, so I managed to recover a few more from the pile which she says are now growing nicely.

So I guess I’m well on my way to have a lot of flowers. Several are already forming buds, for example: