May Monthly Newsletter

Dahlia Diaries: Trials, Triumphs, and Blossoms

Experiment: an act or operation for the purpose of discovering something unknown.

We will admit that much of what transpires here at Powhatan Posies is based on known results,

good and bad. Lots and lots of experimentation, or “trials” as they say in the horticulture world.

Sometimes things grow and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes flowers look beautiful and

sometimes they don’t. Well maybe there is no such thing as an ugly flower, but there are some

strange looking ones!

For those of you following along, overwintering dahlia tubers in the ground in planting zone 7b,

could definitely be defined as an experiment for us. Every autumn for three years now, we have

pulled our dahlia tubers and have stored them in a humidity and temperature controlled

environment. Not this year… You will probably remember we shared that due to a family

emergency we felt we missed our window for lifting tubers. Welllll…there is mostly good news to

report from Powhatan Posies! Thinking the ground had warmed some (albeit not to the desired

60 degrees), and there were probably (hopefully) sprouts under the tarp, we peeked. Yes there

were! The sprouts were white, resembled edible bean sprouts and needed sun and water for

sure so off came the tarps!

Now for the fun and potentially sad part – peeling back the layers of straw we used for insulation

and seeing what was there. Were all the tubers sprouting or had rain seeped in, frozen the

tubers and totted them all? Did they all come back? In a word: NO. Did most come back? YES!

Estimating a 90% success rate so far. See the pics of what we discovered below. There were

definitely signs of rodents, a couple of nests, some holes were there were dahlias and missing

tubers. Our unpaid and usually unhelpful employees, dogs Minnie and Mickey, are sniffing away

and this time it’s a good thing!

We have some new replacement tubers since some loss was expected and you will see these

gorgeous blooms this season too. Check out “Senior’s Hope”, “Rockstar” and the others below.

This experiment was a game changer for us this year and the dahlia rows will be awash with

color come late summer and fall – come visit!