I start our tubers for cuttings in late February.
General Dahlia Chat - 2025
I will try to hold off until the 2nd tuber check next month. I am just starting the first one. If I see something I need to start in order to save I could start it..otherwise, no need. The only thing I have started is a jug of Delphinium seed planted and set outside to freeze and thaw a few times to wake them up. I am not sure that will work if we don't get a few freezes! I think we have only had about 3 frosty nights last month. "Willie Makeit", my seedling dahlia that popped up in the porch boxes in late fall, has been growing in the greenhouse but the leaves are starting to mildrew so I guess its time to cut the stem off and let it dry up. I don't want mildew running wild in there! Hopefully it will survive as a pot root between now and March or April.
magucci I donât grow very many. I had about 20 plants last season and ordered about 15 more for this season. I just wanted to increase a few of my plants so I could have more flowers available for cutting or maybe even try some dahlia showing. Yeah the timing of how long for them to wake up/sprout I realized isnât at all universal! Some had eyes but grew nothing for weeks. Maybe I will wait another month, itâs a fine line from âwish I woulda started soonerâ to âoh no this needs to be outside asapâ 
! Are you overwintering these cuttings in a greenhouse or some other setup?
calico20hill I love âwinter sowingâ I started borderline too late last year so I actually just put some jugs together tonight. Sweet alyssum, Icelandic poppies, delphinium, sweet peas, & snapdragons. The hardest part is finding the milk jugs, it seems like no one buys milk by the gallon anymore. And this has been the most bizzare mild December. I had a branching sunflower still blooming around December 10th!
I love winter sowing. Itâs provided me 85% of my perennials. I lost my milk jug source this year sadly. They got a water system so donât use water jugs anymore. It was suggested to me to get them from Starbucks. Apparently some of them will save them for you if youâre good about going back to pick them up. Iâm trying today.
- Edited
"...how long for them to wake up/sprout I realized isnât at all universal!"
First sprout time is a genetic trait. Once you know what varieties are slow starters, you plan on doing the old trick of placing some tubers into a plastic bag of damp potting soil and placing the bag in an area of your house where it is always a bit warm. My tiny half bath has a heat vent and it is nearly 80 in there at all times. They will sprout in less than a week and and then put them into your cutting room.
Kenora Clyde is a giant dahlia and is the slowest one to wake up. Generally giants and large dahlias are slower to sprout . By the way, it is not just that they are slower to sprout, the second sprout is much slower to appear also. The time between cuttings may be twice as long or longer. Another difficult issue with giants is the tendency to have hollow sprouts. The hollow ones are very difficult to root.
Jessica is an all time favorite that we have not grown in 20 years or more. Tubers are long and small and break necks and also rot. Flowers are amazing.
When I learned how to put a date on top of my homework paper in the second grade in 1954, I never imagined that I would be writing 2025 on documents.
So, what do we have to write about on dahlias in 2025? I am still dividing clumps. 
Justafewdahlias I use distilled water jugs. If you know anyone who uses a CPAP for sleep, the machines take distilled water. We have 3 of us on CPAPS so we end up with lots of jugs over a year! It is nice to get some extra use out of them!
Iâm regretting overwintering cuttings, yet stubbornly refusing to quit.
Teddahlia So, what do we have to write about on dahlias in 2025? I am still dividing clumps.
I am digging and forcing mother tubers to use for cuttings. I have taken about 1000 cuttings and will do a few thousand more before I am finished. I don't use bottom heat or a heated greenhouse to start/force the mother tubers so I am always surprised how many mother tubers it takes to make 1000 cuttings. They grow very slow most winters but, so far, this has been an exceptionally warm winter so growth has been good.
I'm still dividing and getting ready to start waking up tubers for cuttings. Also debating whether or not to divide out my first year seedlings that I saved, or just plant them as clumps.. especially considering I'm sure I'll throw out a good handful of them on their second year. Do you have a specific practice @Teddahlia ?
- Edited
",,,,,,,,whether or not to divide out my first year seedlings that I saved, or just plant them as clumps.. ,,"
The first thing we do at digging time is to dig and divide the first year seedlings. We are dahlia breeders first and the most important thing to us is the first year seedlings and there is only one of each when they are clumps. The best of the second year seedlings almost all have multiple plants. They are dug after first year seedlings. So we dig and divide the first year plants and I always divide even a very small clump into two parts so that if one dies the other still exists. Yes, second year seedlings are heavily culled but the best of the second year seedlings have multiple plants and that gives you a year head start on multiplying stock. We always take some cuttings of the best of the first year clumps(confusing as they are second year now). Our best first year seedling made several tubers this year and we will probably grow about 15 plants of it next year. The "run of the mill" first year seedlings often turn out to be the best ones (you cannot be sure when evaluating first year plants) and they end up being almost a year behind in tuber production. Many of our best introductions were not identified as "best" the first year.
2006 seedling
- Edited
In what might be called "Random", I came across this fascinating info, after going down a rabbit hole looking for something totally unrelated....
Research from the Oregon Health and Science University and the University of Portland has found a compound in dahlia blooms that may develop into a treatment for neurodegenerative diseases like MS.
The chemical found in yellow and orange dahlias is called Sulfuretin. It is an anti-inflammatory flavonoid that has also been identified to have possible therapeutic properties in treating rheumatoid arthritis.
Credit for the quote above is from Instagram.
University of Portland? That is my alma mater. This news was published in the Oregonian newspaper and we all knew dahlias were good for something .
Eating yellow dahlias will be the 2025 rage! This year I am only going to plant yellow dahlias.
magucci I took a workshop with her & there was a link to the database tool but I could never figure out how to access it & just gave up. (I should probably have contacted her) I have been making a picture of the tubers when they arrive & notes about the seller like great packaging, healthy all sprouted, extra bonus tuber included... or.... no neck, no eye, shriveled etc. because there are sellers i would like to avoid now because of blind tubers, no response, snotty attitudes etc . I would like to have a page in a database where I could put those notes. I wonder if I could add that to Idylwides or this etsy sellers spreadsheet? & is google sheets easy to use? my husband thinks it's a clunky program. Everything now is just handwritten notes on paper & I have no idea where it is 