By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer
You can plant dahlia tubers now or wait until summer and buy flowering plants.
That sounds like an easy choice. Tubers require faith and patience. You plant something that looks like a withered spud or a ginger root left too long in the frig, and nothing happens for weeks. And it's months before you get flowers.
So why put yourself through the trouble? Because, if you want dahlias like the ones shown below — dahlias with stems long enough to make good cut flowers and forms striking enough to be the centerpiece of any bouquet — you'll need to start them as tubers, not plants.
The dahlias you'll find in nurseries as potted plants this summer will have shorter stems and simpler flower shapes because those qualities make them easier to transport from growing grounds to nursery. But those same qualities make them poor cut flowers.
I'll get into how to grow dahlias and the rest later, but let's go straight to the pictures first because they're going to be more persuasive than anything I tell you.
Zachary Robert, image from Swan Island Dahlias
Peaches and Dreams, image from Swan Island
Cheyenne, image from Swan Island
Beach Bum, image from Swan Island
Brian Ray, image from Swan Island
I could show more pictures and we could scroll on forever — this is just a tiny sampling of the range of colors and forms available. But perhaps it will be enough to tempt you to tuck a few dahlias tubers in the ground this spring.
Shop now, while tubers are readily available, but hold off planting until the soil warms up because dahlias are subtropical in origin and don't like cold, wet conditions.
Dahlias like full sun, rich soil, good drainage, a steady supply of water, and regular feeding. Yes, it's a little work but dahlias really deliver. They'll add color to your garden and zest to your bouquets all summer and well into fall. (In Southern California, they'll still be around to add to your Thanksgiving arrangements.)
If the winters in your area don't fall below 20 degrees Farenheit, you can leave the tubers in the ground to come back another year. If your winters are colder, lift the tubers and replant next spring or start over.
When your flowers are up and ready to cut, see our dahlia cutting tips.
If there's not much selection at your local nursery, here are some good mail order sources:
