Will I Lose All My Dahlia Tubers? 

Ummm... you created a Baby - a human being! And then managed to store tubers! You get a standing ovation from me! I love how real and honest you are about growing - flowers and as a mother - because I'm in the same boat and was wondering if it's all even going to be possible to do as a first year flower farmer. And you've proved that it is! Thank you

Hooray for surviving a difficult pregnancy and whatever else has happened. Babies and life are genuinely of more value than tubers. Praying that your propagation is highly successful!

Again and again, I am astonished that you find time and spare a thought for anything except for the family and preserving your sanity ( had twins at 39 and found it so much difficult to cope with everything than at 25 when I had my first one). Brava!!!

You've already got a leg up on me because I won't even try dahlias. Too much work for me! ;)

I lost all my dahlias to moles. Yes, moles. All of them. It was horrific. Sometimes you have to just take it easy and cut your losses. It’s gonna be ok ❤

Chin up Kristen. Better days ahead! 🥰

Hello, i have never been able to save even one Dahlia tubers from one year to next. When in storage they all died, dried out or rotted. This year I'm going to give it one last go becuse i love them so much. I will transfer all my tubers to large pots with some loose potting soil after the first frost. And put them in a cold area to go to sleep. You did way better than me !

I think that your tubers need airflow. I don’t think moist tubers should be closed up in air tight ziplock bags (hence the mold). Try packing them in crates with slats for airflow in vermiculite and cover them with something like burlap to keep them out of daylight.

I love and appreciate how very real and honest you are in your channel. (Which is why you’re one of my favourite RU-vid channels) I feel your pain. In 2021, I thought I stored 75 tubers properly and after being busy with family and life in general (and forgetting all about them) I ended up with 4. In the Spring of 2022, I was able to pick up some new varieties and give it all another go for planting/storing. I’m definitely still learning, but I love all the hope and surprises gardening brings. Thanks for sharing your experiences with us! ❤️🙂

I wish I could jump through the screen and hug you! I know exactly what you mean when things get to be too much and it makes even simple tasks feel so overwhelming and impossible. 2022 was also hard for me and I'm just happy to hear you're doing better now and you and your baby are healthy and safe ♥️ It's not quite spring but I feel like I'm emotionally in spring. That dark heavy winter when life felt hard feels over and I'm so relieved 🙏🏻 Thanks for always keeping it real with us! 😘

Thanks for sharing! I can so relate wished kiddos was my excuse but I blame it on being 48 and so tired at the end of garden season. I had so many plants and amending soil with heavy bags of compost to get into the landscape during fall, I was just physically drained and soo tired. Last year was my first year investing in a dahlia collection, honestly they got put on the back burner with our drought and extreme heat. I dug them out and just threw the poor guys into boxes out in a semi heated garage and hoped for the best. After some good relaxing downtime I was pretty bummed I didn’t go through the extra work to store them better. I did go back to salvage some but lost those hard to get ones like daisy Duke and a couple other’s. Then after seeing how costly it is to replenish while trying to grab those high demand ones. I definitely need to keep this in mind next fall to store these guys better. They really are worth it seeing their beauty. I’m amazed at all your doing while just having a new baby with little ones. That’s a true accomplishment. 😊

Kudos for your frankness...sometimes life happens and we just want to toss our hands up and even the simplest things fall by the wayside. I'm glad that you didn't lose all of your tubers. Hopefully 2023 will be an easier year for you ❤

Oh my… I definitely know where you’re coming from! Don’t be hard on yourself, you’re doing awesome! I think it’s also ok to be sad about your dahlia losses, even as a hobby grower, it’s hard to lose a favourite variety (which I’ve definitely done!) and that’s without the added pressure of it also being a part of my business. I think that single tuber survived because it had more space and room to breath, the bags with more in them that molded had too much moisture I think. Leaving the bags open a bit for the first month or so may help moderate the moisture next year… good luck for the coming season, you got this!

I'm so sorry!!! It will be ok, though.

Started trays of plants and never planted them. Poor things died in their trays because I felt overwhelmed. Sometimes you need to change your viewpoint. The dahlias were a total loss but out of the loss you were able to revive a few. Many people lost their whole large collections this year because of wild weather fluctuations. It happens. Reorder varieties that produced and bloomed well for you and take cuttings. You will rebuild your stock in no time 🙂

Thank you for being real! Its awesome that you just said," I don't think I want to deal with it". Because that's life, we r human, and nobody's perfect. It's ok to say, I don't want to, sometimes. Take it easy on urself. I know I'm my own worst critic, on myself. Tomorrow is another day, and everyday is a fresh start! U got this! I have a ?. R u familiar with "Chinese house" flowers? I have a beautiful one blooming, my first one! A branches have fallen off, twice. I'm so sad. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I have given it support to stand up straight. I'm thinking because it gets top heavy? Do u have any suggestions? If u can't answer, no worries, I understand. I'm a mother also. Thank u!

Congratulations on your new baby! You have blessed so many people with your lovely printables/classes/videos.

I love following your journey 😄👍

I love this video so much and can relate in so many ways you are definitely not alone. I decided to go back to school this year and trying to maintain everything has been so hard!!! Including leaving 2 huge boxes of dahlias in the house to shrivel.. It just makes me so sad... I am glad i am not alone as well. I am so amazed by you I still dont know how you do it all.

Would love to see a video of putting them under the lights and getting starts off of them. Thanks for keeping it real!

Aw Kristen I love this video. Thank you! Congrats on what you survived and achieved through 2022, especially congrats on your new child. I have yet to look at my dahlias Kristen. I'm afraid to, haha. Last year was my first venture into growing dahlias and I spent so much on ordering tubers. I had trouble with thrips and other issues through the growing season, but I loved the flowers that produced well. So gorgeous. But in the fall, I kind of got overwhelmed. I managed to lift most of the ones I wanted to save (but not all 😔). But all I managed to do was throw clumps of tubers into labelled plastic store bags, no sawdust or other material added, and dump the bags on the floor in a basement room. I then closed the door so the pets wouldn't get at them, and I haven't looked at them since!

Last year I lost many tubers to drying out, so this year I followed your suggestion of the plastic bags with a small amount of vermiculite in the bottom. I made a very thorough check on them this morning and had to cut some rot off a few, but I didn’t lose any entirely (touch wood). I did leave the bags open a bit for air circulation. Thanks for your help.

Thanks for sharing so transparently. I’m a dahlia newb too and mine basically rotted right away. Either I left them in the ground too long, was too aggressive with cleaning them or didn’t cure them properly or they were already diseased by the end of season in the ground. It’s a bummer but every gardener/farmer fails at some point. No matter experience level. Every last one. I can only hope I remember my mistakes and fail less often 😅

Aww I really liked seeing this video of real life - thanks for sharing that things don’t always go smoothly but we just keep going with what we can manage! The past few years I’ve had great success in tuber storage but this past winter I didn’t realize my husband turned up the heat in the basement and many of my tubers rotted because they got too warm. It hurts my heart but I will be extra thankful for the ones that did survive! Thanks for sharing your saga too, it helps me not to feel so bad!! You had a new baby so that definitely takes precedence over tubers! But I understand being sad to lose them. ❤❤❤

Ah bless you, don't feel sad about it. What a journey you've been on. Already a momma, a wife, a flower farmer add a difficult pregnancy omg. you survived it. A lovely healthy baby with spring almost here. Look forward to the future, the dahlias you've saved will be beautiful and I'm sure a couple of new ones will make up for the ones that you lost. I can probably speak for many of us you're not alone I lost my dahlias too. very best wishes to you.

Hi Kristen, don't feel so bad, I can't store dahlias for the life of me, I just keep trying though. Plus your doing really well considering all you where going through.

Yes my 2022 growing year was a struggle. We started off with rodents devouring our vegetable garden. It was horrible. I restarted seeds 3 times. Then my mom got sick and we moved her and my dad closer to us to be more help. My mom passed away a week later. Our entire gardening season seemed impossible. Our dahlias were one thing that made the year bearable. May we all have a fabulous 2023.

I have mild depression. I love gardening. But, sometimes, I neglect the most needed times for sowing. Life gets in the way. I'm tired. Or just plain not feeling it. It's OK. I just do it when I can. And my garden has survived. It's even been beautiful. Be forgiving of yourself. Life happens.

Grace grace!

I feel for you. I lost all my dahlia tubers this winter. Due to excessive humidity and precipitation. I lost them all before I really got to store them. I didn’t look at wasting my seedlings… I looked at my dog! I know, like, what did he do?.. Anyway, he is still with me and I will be ordering an entire new set of tubers, or figuring out how to grow without them! Love your channel. Keep at it!!!

With the ones that are questionable, I'd still pot them up and put them aside. You'll be surprised how many that I've condemned that have then sprouted

I think you are amazing how you do everything you do, plus a difficult pregnancy & a new baby! About the dahlias, l'm pretty sure that most people in our fb dahlia group wouldn't recommend storing dahlias in plastic bags.....l think that's why they have gone mouldy & yucky. Most just store in boxes (with shavings or some other medium) so there is not too much moisture. I found that it was better to store in dry shavings because the year before last, l put some in shavings that was only very slightly damp and.......totally rotted! Anyway, l think you should definitely be proud of yourself with all you have achieved.

I’ve never had luck storing them until this year, I put them in a fridge. I’ve been checking them and so far so good. The store room had too much fluctuation in temperature. I think l’m more for the seed varieties. I’m trying a bunch of the them this year. Good luck with yours!

I've never grown dahlias but we grow pumpkins every year and have our own for Halloween. We just save the seeds from the previous year and plant them in the summer. Last year we saved the seeds and they all ended up getting moldy. Not a huge loss like dahlias but it was a bummer. You're amazing though! Rest when you need to rest. Thank you for you videos. 💗

This year was such a bust with dahlias for me too. I had allot that shriveled and my season was cut short with grasshopper apoxolipse. I don't know.

One thing most dahlia growers do - including myself - is eliminate all the mother tubers before storing. Mother tubers are spent and often unhealthy after a growing season and therefore very prone to mold which can then be passed on to the new tubers. Also, when drying the tubers for the first 24hrs, have them tipped upside down so that any moisture in the stem drains out. I also spray mine with a 4 part water, 1 part food grade hydrogen peroxide solution before storing to kill any mold spores that might be on the tubers. One top dahlia grower here on Vancouver Island swears by storing hers in vermiculite inside solide plastic containers to keep our high humidity climate away from the tubers. I don't and won't, I store mine in wood chips inside paper bags. One year I hadn't had time to amend the dahlias beds naturally so I bought $100 worth of grass fed steer manure. The manure ended up being completely infested with cut worms and wire worms. I lost about 40 dahlia plants and many others where set back. That was the only time and the last time I bought compost.

I understand things not going right. I'm suffering from major depression because my 19 year old son committed suicide Nov 29, 2021. I dug my dahlias, canna lilies, calla lilies, tuberose, and begonias then left them in the shed to dry. I couldn't get myself back out there to simply pack them up and bring in the house and they all froze. I lost a lot of them but my dahlias faired the best. I store mine in boxes with newspaper or in paper sacks. This year I added vermiculite. The plastic bags are your biggest problem...no airflow. Next year try a container that will allow for airflow. For reference, I live in South Dakota.

Castle Drive and Toscano Rose are a TOUGH loss in Canada. So sorry! Those are already hard tubers to come by.

Thanks for sharing! I messed up my dahlia storage the first year I tried them as well. I didn't plant any last year but hope to give them another go this year. What is the substance you are storing them in?

Can definitely relate. Somehow those key steps seem to need to happen when you are already overwhelmed with other things. Last year I left my gladioli bulbs a week longer than I should have before I put them in the root cellar and they went mouldy. So, at least I knew I had ruined them before I put them in storage? The dahlias never even made it that far because I waited too long to dig them and we had a freezing rain storm and the ground still hasn’t unfrozen since!

Ohh I'm so sorry you have lost all yours, I have lost mine also... I didn't get around to lifting them before our -14 temps in the uk... I went out on Saturday afternoon to check them and they are all gone to mush and rot.. I'm gutted also.... but I only had 20 so I can replace them much easier than you losing all your stock... really sorry xxxx

Can I mail tubers from the U.S.? The one from the sink looks like a mother tuber for sure. You might get a cutting from it. Listen, if I can mail you tubers, please let me know! I’ll send you my list of what I have extra!

I’ve already thrown out soo many tubers this year 😢 I’ve never experienced rot like this. I was in tears

Interesting about the dahlia tubers... I think that unless your ground freezes into almost permafrost (which yours possibly does in Canada), they can take a lot more cold than we think, and digging them up really damages them. I lifted all of mine and stored them by the book - I have lost many completely and most of the others are like not as strong as they were the first year (it's summer here so I can see what's happened). I'm going to leave ALL mine in the ground, under a layer of compost. Look around your neighbourhood and see if any survive in peoples gardens! Good luck this season Kristin !

I can really relate to your situation. I’m a mom of 2 wow how much extra time it takes to have 2. I think my dahlias have dried up dead but I’m not sure. They made it indoors but I have stored them bare in our basement. I’m not sure if they have made it or not. ❤

Stop being so hard on yourself please! What you did all last summer during your pregnancy at the end of your pregnancy was nothing short of amazing! You also were sick a couple times that I remember...don't remember if COVID was one of the times. Some of my dahlias looked like what you pulled out of the bag and were rotted before they were even out of the ground! We had a very crazy, dry summer down here in Maine, U.S.A. You actually salvaged quite a few, and your mom has some, so all is not lost. It amazes me each and every time to watch you put together bouquets. You have so many talents. Big Hugs my friend.

You are doing great, being a mom and trying also to run a business its not easy peasy, i admire your courage👏. The tubers should have air flow circulation, better to store them in paper bags🙂. I stored mine in crates, i'll see how well they will do too😄, its my first time storring tubers of dahlia.

I really feel you, but you had other things preoccupying your thoughts at that time. I love gardening and planting. In Calgary growing starts so late and it feels like forever. 11 years ago I was pregnant for my twins a high risk bed rest pregnancy, so no gardening, okay. 4 years later I was able to get back. I had such highs and lows because while I was so happy to finally be a mom, I could not get out there and do what I love. But now its back almost to the former days where I can be out there for long periods and its great.

Can you tell me how I should store them in fall? My first dahlia year

Hi, the box and vermiculite is good but not the plastic bags.. just layer them in the box 📦 you have, write on the tubers the name and that’s it. Good to hear you are doing better but can I just say, it’s was remarkable to watch you in your last season, all that work and being pregnant as well!! But you did so well!! Take care of you, you are needed for many years to come, your children, husband and other familie 🙏🏽

I've never seen tubers stored in plastic bags before...usually a similar medium but stored in burlap or milk crates or cardboard boxes so they breathe.

I wonder if storing them in paper bags wouldn't be better for more air flow and less chance of condensation. But you'd still need them in a cool dry place, and hopeful you don't have any rascally rodent problems😬. But, I would definitely do your best to monitor them more closely, even if you need to ask for help doing. They are such an expense to lose out on. So sorry. I would be sad too.

When do you normally “wake up” your dahlias? We have a similar climate here and I was to maximize my summer harvest.

You put too much pressure on yourself. You have the rest of your life to grow this business so you don’t need to beat yourself up when you’ve just had a baby. My only real observation that might help is I definitely wouldn’t store them plastic bags. I store mine in old plant pots (plastic yes but with holes in bottom and top they have air flow) with a sprinkling of either soil or wood shavings and i mean just a sprinkling. Then i just leave them somewhere frost free until they start sprouting again next spring.

Oh, Kristen, sorry you lost a lot of your dahlia tubers. You accomplished a great deal last year while being pregnant and taking care of 3 children….two of them toddlers. Seriously, you are amazing. Now….stop beating yourself up. I don’t believe there is anyone on the planet who has not neglected doing something when they needed to and had regrets later. We also don’t ask for help when we should all too often. We feel we have to do it ourselves and push on. Not the best thing for us….or the ones we love because they ultimately have to put up with our depression or bad temperament because we are so annoyed and disappointed in ourselves. Don’t sweat the small stuff, Kristen. You have a heathy wonderful family. That’s priceless. On a positive note…..less to plant and care for. Yes, less flowers, but will you need as many this year? May I suggest you don’t take a lot of flower work this year. The baby will need a lot of attention and time…as will the other children. You need to draw a line somewhere. Take care of yourself and family first and do a smaller amount of flower work. Keep your irons in the fire, as they say, but don’t take on so much that you’re stressed out. Be kind to yourself. Everything is going to be okay. Love and blessings to you and your family. 😊💖🦋🕊

Before you store cut off all those rat tails, (long roots and anything skinnier than a pencil) .. that always rots first. I think that was your problem. Store them in plastic bins with holes drilled in the sides. They are growing and then rotting in the bag because they are too warm and too humid. You will learn what storage works for you over time. Pm your address I’ll send you another castle drive in May. @foxflowersonfetters ps You are not alone . . I want to quit on a regular basis. It’s called burnout!

Don’t be too hard on yourself. Pregnant brain is real! 😂

i threw 25 tubers in the garbage by mistake :-(

I bet somebody will have pity on you and send you some