I have quite a few extra dahlia tubers that I am offering for sale or trade. I grew almost 150 dahlias this year and have extras from 30 or so to choose from. I have detailed the list on my ATP plant list.

http://garden.org/lists/view/m...

If buying, the tubers are 2.50 each with a minimum order of 6. I ship Priority Mail, so about $6 for a small box (6-8 tubers) and about $12.50 for a medium box (10-20 tubers?). Tubers really range in size, so it depends on the dahlia.

I am also interested in trading for other dahlias, or Lilies or Iris (which could be shipped in fall 2016). Trades I have done in the past have been 1/1 for Lilies and Iris.

I can't absolutely guarantee that I will have the tubers - I always lose a few to rot in winter storage. If you are interested, send me a wish list of tubers that you would like me to ship, and I'll reserve them for you, then I will check back in the spring with what I actually have. (I don't usually lose many). We will work out payment and shipping then.

Thanks - Geof - PS - I have taken all of the orders that I can this season, Thank you !

Maybe we could do a trade. I have lots of iris. I don't have them named so what I could do is take pictures this spring and label them and if you are interested I would trade you 2 for 1 as I need to cut back on the massive number of iris I have. I don't have a lot of different colors just a few heirlooms, I have a wonderful large two tone purple, dark purple, lavender, white, yellow, brown, and peach. I'm not picky about the dahlia colors , I only have one Dahlia, it's a large pink dinnerplate one so any new ones would be wonderful. Let me know and I'll make to sure to take pics and label them.

@DomehomeDee - I'll treemail you, I am sure we can work something out.

I'll order some Geof but am a bit busy now...left a note on my desk to get back to you.

Geof
One of my hang ups is wanting to know how tall plants are, and none of the dahlias in the database have plant height listed. Is it because they vary year to year based on conditions?

It does - it also varies depending on how much sun you have. Dahlias are usually taller than usual for me due to only 6-7 hrs of full sun in my yard.

If you look at dahlia info on the various dealer's sites, you will notice some don't mention height, and some do, but not always the same on the various sites. I tend to assume a dahlia will be 4-5 foot - but this year I had a couple over 8ft. and a couple under 3 ft. Not much help I know.

Let us know when it's time to get them out of storage! I'd love a box of 6 different ones, preferably in pink or purple. I love all the flower forms except ball. If you could pick from the following for me, I'd be delighted: River's Novelty, Mingus Toni, Kelgai Ann, Gaylen Rose, Eccentric, Colorado Classic, Brindisi, Bradley Aaron.

Hi Jill,

I'll send you a tree mail.

Pulling tubers out of storage................it depends on your zone, but also depends on how much babying you want to do before planting.

I pull mine out mid March, and check the health, and look for sprouts that have already emerged. Any that are showing no signs of eying up yet, I move to covered trays with an inch or so of moist peat moss or potting mix and put them on top of the fluorescents that I use for grow lights to warm them up.

Once there is signs of life, I pot them up and grow them under lights until I plant them out towards the end of May. My plants are usually 12-18" tall when they go into the ground, which gives me blooms 2-3 weeks earlier than if I just plant tubers in the ground. For many people its not worth it to pre-start them like this, but I am always looking for as long a bloom season as I can get here in WI.

I just cleared off some upstairs (warmer) light shelves, and the upper one has 12+ inches of head space, so I do have a place to put them... How big a pot would they need? 4"? If they have started sprouting, do they need to be planted or will they "hold" for a few weeks?

My current "method" would make you wince. I got some dollar store plastic baskets, the kind with lots of holes in the sides, and I drilled a few 1" holes in the bottom. I put the dahlia tubers into the baskets with potting mix and time-release fertilizer, then planted the basket so the roots would be below ground level. It does make them easy to find and lift in fall! I've just been letting the baskets go dry and storing them in the garage (cool but not freezing) over the winter. I started with 8 two years ago, and I had 6 last summer... we'll see how they are doing this spring. I might have to step up my game!

I have heard of stranger methods - 4" pots are fine, I actually start mine in quart sized zip locks, with the edges rolled down, I can fit a lot more in a tray than pots, and they will hold bigger tubers.

Hmm, going by that depth, I have 2 concrete mixing pans that will work well for dahlias as well as caladiums... I filled them with potting mix this winter and put them on a heat mat to get some amaryllises going.. thx!

Hi Geof,

Did you get the order I tree-mailed you last week (Mar 3)? My life is crazy right now, and if your's is anything like mine, I can see how you didn't get a chance to answer yet.

To recap:

I would love to have one each of your dahlias:
Bradley Aaron
Colorado Classic
Cornel
Excentric
Galen Rose
Hotshot
Kelgai Ann
Mingus Toni
Mooney
Raz-Ma-Taz
Red Hat
These were all chosen from your list with roots for sale or trade. If you are parting with any of the others, I would love to give a home to these as well:
Sharkey
Who Dun It
Deep Space
NTAC Princess
Spartacus
Vassio Meggos
White Rabbit

Thanks for your consideration (and your extra plants you so carefully grew for us!). Let me know the damages.
Barb

Hi Barb - I tree-mailed you back the same day (I thought)

But I just checked my tree-mail and there is no record of it - sorry, don't know what happened.

I did mark each of the tubers you listed with your name, so they are reserved. And I changed the numbers on my plant list, but somehow I forgot to contact you.

The others you are interested in are in very short supply, pretty much down to what I will plant myself. Its possible I won't have room for everything, and will be able to send some your way, but I won't know that until mid May or so.

I see you are in FL - so you probably want them as soon as possible - I'll be going through all of my tubers next week (I'm on spring break), and will contact you after that with possible shipping times.

Geof

Hi Geof,

That sounds great!

Barb

Are you trading for the spring 2017 dahlia season? [email protected]
Cathy

I plan on it - but I dont have everything organized and tubers counted - life has been crazy and I am way behind. I'll repost an add when I have my act together.