2023 Tuber Trades

I'm interested in trade or purchase of some loved and lost varieties. How do we initiate private conversations - can that be done on this forum?

ISO Fern Ridge Pride again. Gosh, it hurt my heart to lose that one! If not this year, then next year maybe more people will grow it again.

Also been looking for Suffolk Punch, Meadow Lea or Marmalade, Scott's Jeanette B, Hollyhill Jeanette, Taratahi Ruby, Alena Rose (pretty sure that one's extinct), Who Dun It.

I probably don't have anything that unusual to trade, but will post my short list when I see what survives the winter after my heavy losses in the Dec. freeze.

Dahlia53 - I have a lead on FR Pride. The grower told me to check in with her at the end of March. With luck, I'll be able to get a tuber from her and take loads of cuttings - get it back into your hands.

Portland Dahlia Society Tuber sales:

PDS Tuber Sale Dates:
April 11th In-person tuber sale: This year our club will have an in-person tuber sale. The sale will be at the April monthly meeting at Oaks Park Dance Pavilion. The sale will be MEMBERS only sale and start at 6:00 pm on April 11th.The sale will end at 8:30 pm. You must be a current member. Membership will be checked at the door.
April 21st - April 22nd: On-line Member’s only tuber sale: The club website portlanddahlia.com store will have an on-line tuber sale to MEMBERs only on April 21st that starts at 9:00 am Pacific time. You must be a member to participate. A password will be sent to all paid up members announcing the sale. There will no heavy percentage discounts this year on the club sale. All tubers will be priced at a discount. It makes it a lot easier to manage the sale. Prices will be competitive. Make sure and have your dues paid and up to date to receive the password.
April 30th: General Online sale: This will open to the general public at 9:00 am Pacific time.

Note that the club members were upset that the old fashioned "tubers on the tables" sale was pre-empted by an on line sale where the prices were high and it was nearly impossible to buy due to the sales volume. Now the emphasis is back to mostly sales to club members who have to be present for the sales and the on line sales are set up to sell the rest of the inventory. Many people outside of the Portland area joined the club last year to take advantage of discounts. If they come to Portland, they can buy at the sales. I bet it swings a bit the other way next year but we will see how this new system works.

Teddahlia Thank you for these details. I support the decision to shift the emphasis back to prioritizing local club members who are presumably the folks who are active in the society, the meetings and the community. That makes sense to me. I imagine having the main sale in-person will be really enjoyable, perhaps even celebratory, after the years of Covid disruption.

I understand next year PDS will have their first tuber sale be an online sale exclusively for California PDS members. Maybe they will include the Alaskan PDS members.

The $10 annual PDS membership is an excellent bargain, even if it does not include the in-person tuber sales. It is a very active club and well worth supporting.

I plan to donate my extra tubers to the Portland Dahlia Club sale. Instead of one stop shopping I can do one stop disposition of my extras without the anxiety attacks....and then do a one stop pickup of what is available...Win win!

The downside of the Portland private sale is that the club promotes dahlias and we used to sell to the general public at our table sales and many new members came from those sales.

AKWindWatcher Ah, I hadn’t thought of the very active "distance" members; perhaps some kind, local member would be willing to shop for you too!

Are clubs, PDS for example, planning to continue online meetings? My club is great, but not very active. We have one or two meetings a year. I would love to listen to the educational offerings of other clubs.

KitCMC Are clubs, PDS for example, planning to continue online meetings? My club is great, but not very active. We have one or two meetings a year. I would love to listen to the educational offerings of other clubs.

I expect PDS will continue to have an online component to meetings, even though we are now able to have the in-person component again. Even some local people have been participating this way, like Noni when the weather was too icky, or for those who don't want to drive after dark, or instance. We certainly aren't pros with the technology, and I suppose some presentations will come across the ether better than others, but we're learning.

PNWGal Thanks, that great to know!

PNWGal PNWGal, you always come through on the vidieo as the professional well organized speaker. Some of the others though.....LOL! They need to get the tech stuff worked out before the meeting starts and be sure everyone speaks into the mic. I have seen quite a few zoomed meetings that were much better organized (then the last one). If I were there I would have spent some of that down time chatting with others ..that is the part we really miss when we have to stay home. I love getting to know the other club members....but oh well, we do what we can. Now the days are getting longer and by next time around hopefully no more snow threat!

I emjoyed watching Dahlia Talk tonight. It was fun to see a few of this group joining in. I felt like being incognito tonight but I thought it was well done. Good to see my old friend Steve Cox joining from Australia. He came out and spent a summer with Ken and Marilyn Walton of Narrows Dahlias. He'd come along and help with maintainance on the Test Garden at Pt Defiance Park and I was volunteering there too.

Dick Parshall on the 15 year seeds sprouting very interesting. I have done freezer seeds for tomatoes / pepper but never dahlia seeds, I just keep those in the fridge crisper drawer. I might test this out next year.